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Mike Macdonald: "Our Mentality Is Where It Needs To Be" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, go ahead.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of guys on offense who just said
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: we need to look at the change and see what
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: happened when you reviewed what stood out.
• 0:06
  Speaker 3: In that entire of the goal. Well, I think it
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: stands for for all three phases. This is what we
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: said last night. Just we didn't do the things we
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: need to do to win games. So we didn't control
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: the clock, we didn't move the ball forward enough as
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: frequently as you need to. We need to finish drives
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: better in positive territory, and then we gave it the
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: ball away twice, one in the red zone, and then
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: wanted to come back attempt.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: So pretty self explanatory on what needs to happen.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: Some good stuff on tape, some things that we did well,
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: but just not nearly enough, not good enough to to
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: go win a game of.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: That nature against that type of team.
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: You've been really clear about committing to the run is
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: how you're going to get a run game going. Yeah,
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: three players and thirteen all passes. A lot of third
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: and shorts passes happened against the Jets as well. Yeah,
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: that's something that like you and coach Grab, you know,
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: I need to work three or is it just something
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: where that's how the game plan came out.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Well, we definitely we wanted to run it more going
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: into the game for sure, and didn't get as many
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: runs in as we thought, partially because of circumstance. But
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: there are some opportunities in the game that we both
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: felt like, you know, runs could have been better utilized,
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: and you got to learn from those things. And but
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: we're on the same page on how we're calling games
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: and all that. But absolutely we need to we need
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: we need to get our run game going.
• 1:30
  Speaker 5: Building up to that with the play action game. As
• 1:33
  Speaker 5: a defensive coach, where do you see the correlation between
• 1:37
  Speaker 5: running the football, the success running the football, and the
• 1:39
  Speaker 5: play action game, Because there's some data out there suggests
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: that you don't necessarily have to be running the ball
• 1:43
  Speaker 5: well to be able to do that.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: Where do you stand on that and how you're getting running.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: On both sides of the argument. Uh, yeah, I mean
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: just I think it's more like base off.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: The sets and the protections and the situations that dictate
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: what defense is gonna do and some of those situations.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: And yeah, we we have a good play action pass game.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: Probably should see more of it, frankly, but I don't. Yeah,
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: I think to a certain extent, the effectiveness of your
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: run game effects play action game especially you've got a
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: really going but uh those are good plays.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, So you know, we're fortunate.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: So a lot of positive signs are positive, like optimistic
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: signs come out of the tests. So, uh, Gino's a
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: beast man. He's in here working out in the morning,
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: working through it. I mean, I know he's still feeling it,
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: but this guy's tough as nails, and hopefully we'll see
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: him practice, you know, throughout the week with optimistic and
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: being be ready for the games.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: The designation of the injury, he hit a spring something
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: different to me, give you like the exact thing.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: I think structurally it's all it's all there, we're rolling,
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: but yeah, it's it's a knee right now.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Play.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Would you anticipate him getting most of the snaps with
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: the ones this week?
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: I'd say I'm optimistic that he'll get most of the snaps.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: What do you see from Sundal Film in the center?
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: Instiday generally did a nice job, did a nice job,
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: you operated well. A couple of couple of plays that
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: maybe took it took a minute to get his feet wet,
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: get ready to go in his first meaningful action at
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: the center, but hit some really.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Good plays as well. So I did a nice job.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: What do you know about Olu in his situation a
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: little more unclear right now. I'd call it day to
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: day with Olu.
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, still control your own destiny to the division title,
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: and that might change if you don't win that game
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: this weekend. Is that something you talk about with the
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: team or you treat it like any other week.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: We're we're aware of that of our situation, but nothing
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: matters unless we win this one. So our focus is
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: one thousand percent on this Sunday at this point. So
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: we're at this point of Monday where we've turned the
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: page and on where we go.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: It was much energy in the building last night before
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: the game. What surprised you about the start of the defense?
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, our guys were really excited to play,
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: came out with the right and tent. We were just
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: we just weren't as sharp as we need to be
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: to start the game. So, uh, disappointing that you have
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: the two touchdown drives to start the game. Definitely expect
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: us to play better in those scenarios, but our guys did,
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: They did respond, they did adjust, they did play incredibly
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: hard at the last snap. I mean, our guys are
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: competing their tails off running to the ball, playing the
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: right way. So there's a lot to build off of,
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: but we definitely want to start faster.
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: Julian and Ernest yesterday were saying the pre snap motion
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: was different than what they were expecting to see. Was
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: that somebody that jumped out when you guys were watching
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: the tape or be it as far as things that
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: maybe you weren't prepared for.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: They contributed to that.
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  Speaker 3: I just think, you know, the first time we've gone
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: against that offense in their operation, they do a good
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: job getting in out of the huddle and some of
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: their no huddle stuff that we just haven't we haven't seen.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: We've prep for it and just be ready for that speed,
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: but guys acquainted to it after the first couple of drives.
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: Given the disparity between your home and road records, and
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: queued up any thoughts for you about changing policies leading
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: up to home games in terms of of how they
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: could preach that.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: We changed it going into the Arizona game.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: Ken Walker, I positive quote full he'll be back this
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: week practicing or what.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Do you think Ken?
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean again, we're gonna we'll see on Wednesday.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: He had a good workout this morning, feels good, so
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: hopefully we'll see him out there on Wednesday. And the
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: update on a t same thing as day to day.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Right now, that change the shifted we were looked at
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: the table. Would you worry able to get that second
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: half that leven first?
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: I think we just we just settled down and played
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: our style ball. So sometimes it's more simple than one
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: may think.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: I think that was it that that's really that simple.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: A couple of things structurally that we that we that
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: we tweaked h but no major changes.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: We just we just played better.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: When you talk about not finishing drives, we've asked about
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: that over the course of the year, but at this
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: point of the year, with what these games mean, do
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: you think that there's a little bit of overtrying or
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: maybe overthinking in those situations as compared to earlier in
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: the year.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think so. I don't think so.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's just about staying focused, staying locked into
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: the mission of finishing. We talked about eleven guys finishing
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: into the end zone and uh, and we're falling short
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: right now. So there's things we're doing that we're gonna
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: tweak on on how we're operating. I'm a you know me,
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: I'm a tinker. We're gonna we're gonna fix stuff and
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: look at solutions and try to figure out what's the
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: best plan of attack. And we're definitely not gonna stay
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: the same I can promise you that. So, but everybody's
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: on board. Everybody knows what we need to do and
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: and we'll go make it happen. Just some our schedule
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: stuff later in the week.
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: How do you get yourself back to center and the
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: team back to center after a frustrating loss.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: We we just do what we do, Brian, just for
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: just uh we go back we you know, going to
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: the meeting. The mentality of kind of dissecting you know
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: why why we're having this conversation where we're at, Let's
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: be honest about what's going on about how we see
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: it and go go attack the guy, our guys mentality
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  Speaker 3: or where it needs to be. They know what we
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: need to do, they know what.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: That they want it to look like.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: Right now. You know, I felt like we were on it.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: We're on a good you know, like a good growth stage,
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: you know, to our team and hit a little bit
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: of a hit, a hit, a speed bump, and now
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: we're going to go regroup and move forward. But our
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: guys know what to do, and that's what we're gonna do.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Last night, the defense's feet weren't set in the ground.
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: I don't know if you heard them say that.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the words that I use, I figured.
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: Is that a fine line for you when you want
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: to change and be diverse on defense, yet not to
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: the point where it's got to be like that.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: Look, there's there's uh, there's trade offs to everything, right,
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: and so those are things you're just always going to
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: weigh in your mind of what's best for the team
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: and how you want to operate, what's going to help
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: you guys being the best position to win that particular situation.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: And so and it's not just it's not just what
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: comes out of my mouth on how we game plan, and.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: It's how we communicate it.
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: It's how we work together when when it's loud and
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: when things are rolling.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: So I think it's a learning experience for us so
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: we can move forward.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: Is going more quickly than normal.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Or no normal normal operation.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: But they they're efficient and how they how they operate,
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: so they you know, they get they deserve credit as well.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: Exactly about I don't, I wish I did not people like.
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: The exact terms A neyed to be better if we
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: lose out for some period of time. Christian Janes would
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: he be a backup option at center.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: We're working through that right now, but Christian would be
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: a possibility. Yeah, alright, Like I said, did you did
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: a good job a couple of plays to get get.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Going early, But I thought I thought he did a
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: nice job. Frankly, what I.
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: Think you played tackle mostly at Ona Zakota State.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what what made you.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Move the center?
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Well, he kind of he kind of plays all five spots,
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: so that that's part of his value is he's the
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: guy that he's gotten a lot of reps to tackle
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: throughout camp and throughout the season. And then I think
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: just like his athleticism and body type allows him to
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: play the interior and he's really sharp, so being able
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: to play center and make all the calls and be
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: on point with that stuff, it's helpful as well. Do
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: you think we've played and the to the PPI and
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: he got wants to go as well. It wasn't Reak's
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: best game, but he's a guy that we're going to
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: continue to lean on and trust to make plays for
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: us and lock down his.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Area of the field.
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: I think Reek's tackling well, he's doing some a lot
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: of good things. When the ball doesn't come his way,
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: there's a reason where they're not throwing his direction.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: But there's just a.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: Couple of plays right now per game where we just
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: you know, want want more from him, and he knows that.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: He's the first one to tell you on the DPIs
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: we're looking for some clarity on that, on some of
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: the coaching points of how we want those guys to
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: play those plays, because the underthrown deep ball is a
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: tough play to make. Man Like, those guys are moving
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: really fast and they're trying to make the smart decision
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: make plays on the ball, and there's a timing mechanism
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: to it and when the ball gets there, so it's
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: it's tricky play. So understand why they threw the flag,
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: but probably want some more clarity on it.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: What did you think of how Sam played?
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, just like I said last night, I mean, so
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: you know we played better, Frankly, I mean, just get
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: us back in the game and move the ball a
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: little bit more. But he was putting a tough spot
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: where you know, they know that we're throwing, and we
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: know what we're throwing. So they're they're rocking and roll
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: and doing their stuff. But talking to Sam, he's he's
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: he's mentally tough as nails.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I know, he's physically tough as nails.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: So if he gets the opportunity again, he's going to
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: go do what he does and be Sam How be
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: the guy we love.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: I had trouble creating pressure most of the year. What
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: did you see that allowed them to be most so
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: effective yesterday?
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: Without giving you, like all the details of of it,
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: I mean, they just they married their Russian coverage really
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: well in passing situations, and we can do a better
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: job on offense at getting the ball out quicker and
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: picking up some of the stunts that they're running and
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: then trying to you know, probably open some of those
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: throw lanes.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: But they did a good job of marrying it up.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: And there wasn't a lot of places to go with
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: the ball. You guys didn't have any sacks. Was there
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: something to the ball faster. It's just the opposite.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: We just didn't create enough passing situations, and then when
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: we did, we didn't marry it up. So look at
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: the sack and it's gonna be the same answer all
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: the time.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: It's just it's the way it goes.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: You know, you deny the ball, the quarterback holds it,
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: your rush wins, you get sacks. You don't do that,
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: he's gonna throw it or he's gonna scramble and and
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: create extended plays. It's just that's what happens. GINO status
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: not being in guarantee, Does that change how Sam or
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: how you want Sam to prepare this week?
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: No, he comes out and they're not, you know, starting
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: out as fast as you want.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: Just what's the process that you're take into practice, not.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Every single moment. But you didn't look at practice and
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: then try to Yeah, of course, yeah.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: I mean as a coach, you have all these things
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: that you can do to try to alter how your
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: team performs, and so everything's on the table all the time.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: You know, methods man not principles. Right, the principle is
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: playing the right way and coming out with intent and
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: playing together. But the methods of how we get it done.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: Those will adjust from week to week, so we're not
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: afraid to make changes or move and shake or tinker
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: here and there.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: But all those things are.
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: At play for the players to know that, I mean
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: in an empowering way, to know that the coach I hope.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: I mean this is we've been saying this from when
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: we walked in the door about how we're going to operate,
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: and I think we've done that. So, I mean, you've
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: asked similar questions in the past, but how you build
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: trust and I think it's a it's a consistency element
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: to it and backing up what you say and how
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: you're going to operate. So that's what we're trying to do.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: I think the guys see.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: That everything else genus with practice. Myself optimistic for Wednesday.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: That's the vote.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Thank you everybody, Okay, all right,