Latest / Seahawks Press Pass / Head Coach Mike Macdonald Previews The Week 7 Matchup vs. Texans
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Coach, whether it's yards per play, points per drive, whatever measure,
- 0:04Speaker 1: you guys have been more effective on offense with Kenneth Walker.
- 0:06Speaker 2: Out in the field.
- 0:07Speaker 1: Curious if he's earning a higher percentage of reps as
- 0:10Speaker 1: a result.
- 0:14Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we're gonna we take into we take
- 0:17Speaker 2: stats into account on how effective we are who's out there.
- 0:20Speaker 2: But we have a plan on how we want to
- 0:23Speaker 2: use our guys, and both guys are playing high level
- 0:25Speaker 2: football for us. Both guys have things we want to
- 0:27Speaker 2: work on. I love both guys, both guys. I'd keep
- 0:33Speaker 2: playing for us.
- 0:34Speaker 3: I think you said after the Pittsburgh game that the
- 0:36Speaker 3: opportunities were there more for Ken than I think we're
- 0:39Speaker 3: Zach in terms of the blocking. Yeah, have you found
- 0:41Speaker 3: that to be the case since then as well?
- 0:47Speaker 2: I haven't thought about it in those terms much since
- 0:50Speaker 2: the Pittsburgh game, but I think that might be a
- 0:52Speaker 2: fair statement. Yeah, they might be a fair statement. It's
- 0:55Speaker 2: actually had a lot of our our short yards carries,
- 0:57Speaker 2: like like low red zone carries too.
- 0:59Speaker 4: There's no a lot of room when you take a
- 1:02Speaker 4: look at game planning this week or we do the
- 1:03Speaker 4: point in the season where it's easier because of the
- 1:05Speaker 4: sample size and maybe with the Texans just the crossover opponents,
- 1:09Speaker 4: they give some familiarity.
- 1:11Speaker 2: Well, it's never easy to game planning. It's uh. I
- 1:16Speaker 2: think it's more we're we're learning who we are and
- 1:19Speaker 2: so that's streamlining a lot of our decisions in all
- 1:23Speaker 2: three phases. So and that's the way you want it.
- 1:25Speaker 2: You know, you don't want to be reinventing the wheel
- 1:27Speaker 2: every week you're doing that, you're probably searching for answers.
- 1:29Speaker 2: So that's a positive thing.
- 1:32Speaker 1: Their defense is putting up some pretty good numbers. What
- 1:34Speaker 1: do you see on that.
- 1:35Speaker 2: Side of the ball. Yeah, it's a hallmark of a
- 1:39Speaker 2: Demico Ryans defense. We've seen him a few times when
- 1:41Speaker 2: the last couple of years when I was in Baltimore
- 1:46Speaker 2: or his first year. I guess, excuse me, but they
- 1:48Speaker 2: play hard, they play they attacked the ball. I think
- 1:52Speaker 2: they like their pressure. Their pressure system is impressive in
- 1:57Speaker 2: all three downs. And they got great player and they
- 2:00Speaker 2: play together and good sound attacking, diverse defense. So the
- 2:11Speaker 2: good defense.
- 2:12Speaker 1: There's been an emphasis on hiring offensive coaches around the
- 2:16Speaker 1: league for a while, and obviously you and Demko are
- 2:18Speaker 1: both defensive minded head coaches. What do you think defensive
- 2:21Speaker 1: coaches bring that that maybe people miss out from an
- 2:25Speaker 1: offensive effective.
- 2:29Speaker 2: To give you a good answer, I'd have to think
- 2:30Speaker 2: about it. I just my pitch was, look, you're hiring me, like,
- 2:37Speaker 2: you know this, this is the guy that you're gonna
- 2:39Speaker 2: have to go to work with for the next, you know,
- 2:41Speaker 2: hopefully a lot of years. And this is the vision
- 2:44Speaker 2: that of what we want to try to create. And
- 2:46Speaker 2: it felt like our visions were aligned and that's what
- 2:48Speaker 2: made it so exciting. So I think that happens in
- 2:50Speaker 2: all three phases you see, John Harbaugh, I mean special
- 2:53Speaker 2: teams a lot of times. I mean, frankly, like the
- 2:55Speaker 2: skill set of being a great coordinator doesn't always align
- 2:58Speaker 2: with being a great head coach. Uh, It's completely different jobs, honestly.
- 3:04Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm glad they glad they chose me.
- 3:08Speaker 5: Mike, both you and Houston are top top four and
- 3:13Speaker 5: pointing out on defense, what is the mindset that it
- 3:16Speaker 5: takes to, you know, not to let opponents score?
- 3:20Speaker 2: I mean that's right there. I mean there's a standard
- 3:22Speaker 2: people don't it hurts when teams score? Man Like, it's
- 3:27Speaker 2: a take a lot of pride in doing what you do.
- 3:30Speaker 2: And Number one thing that wins games is points. Uh,
- 3:35Speaker 2: but things don't always go your way. You get there's
- 3:37Speaker 2: a there's a there's a resiliency. You know, we use
- 3:40Speaker 2: the term relentlessness to it. There's a connection involved. You know,
- 3:44Speaker 2: you got to play all. You gotta play together. You know,
- 3:45Speaker 2: you can't have guys making independent, you know, decisions on
- 3:50Speaker 2: their own. It's got all. It's all gotta be within
- 3:52Speaker 2: the framework of the defense and the team. And Uh,
- 3:55Speaker 2: I don't want to speak for for Jamiico, but I
- 3:58Speaker 2: feel like I feel like they have that there and
- 3:59Speaker 2: I feel like I know, I know we have that here.
- 4:02Speaker 4: You look at Stanley, the passes defensed in the last
- 4:04Speaker 4: couple of years certainly jump off the page.
- 4:06Speaker 2: What is it about skill set or technique that you
- 4:09Speaker 2: could point to on that it was an aggressive players, opportunistic,
- 4:13Speaker 2: good ball skills, stay square, movement ability as good as
- 4:17Speaker 2: fast smart. Uh, it's a great all around corner does
- 4:22Speaker 2: a great job like bread can be a little hit
- 4:25Speaker 2: or miss.
- 4:25Speaker 6: I mean, you're talking about guys coming to new schemes,
- 4:28Speaker 6: new teams, new locker rooms, all that in one off
- 4:30Speaker 6: season to.
- 4:30Speaker 5: Be able to get Sam Cooper deal a lot like
- 4:33Speaker 5: what they've added to this team.
- 4:34Speaker 1: Just how maybe rare and helpful is that to get
- 4:37Speaker 1: those kind of guys in.
- 4:38Speaker 2: The one peration. Well, yeah, I'm I'm I'm very extremely
- 4:41Speaker 2: helpful that are excited that, uh that we have them,
- 4:44Speaker 2: and I'm thankful for the relationships that we had. I'm
- 4:48Speaker 2: thinking of a d with with DeMarcus, you know, Coop
- 4:51Speaker 2: with with Jake, Pete's Clint with you know, so Clint
- 4:56Speaker 2: with Sam So like those. I think those prior relationships
- 4:58Speaker 2: are important understanding, you know, who you're bringing in to
- 5:01Speaker 2: your organization. So and our personal side does a phenomenal
- 5:05Speaker 2: job of and I think as as we're going here,
- 5:08Speaker 2: you know, aligning about having a common shared understanding about
- 5:11Speaker 2: how we want to operate, who we want to be
- 5:13Speaker 2: in our team, all that type of stuff. I think
- 5:15Speaker 2: that's helped the whole process. Over the last year.
- 5:17Speaker 4: All three of those guys seem to take on pretty
- 5:19Speaker 4: big leadership roles.
- 5:20Speaker 1: Is that hard for a guy coming in normally after
- 5:23Speaker 1: years in another place?
- 5:24Speaker 2: I think it's kind of just reflective of who they are.
- 5:26Speaker 2: You know, I've been around great players that were free
- 5:31Speaker 2: agent acquisitions that weren't leaders because that was more of
- 5:34Speaker 2: their personality, but they were extremely helpful to the team
- 5:36Speaker 2: and been around guys that have come in, and you know,
- 5:41Speaker 2: I'm thinking of the guys we've required, thinking of the
- 5:43Speaker 2: guys like Roquan and Eric Weddle that they came right
- 5:46Speaker 2: in and you know, Ernest from even though it was
- 5:50Speaker 2: a t a trade, but it's really the same idea
- 5:53Speaker 2: running backs, Mike, what do you like about Starbons two
- 5:56Speaker 2: minute back? What do I like about charbon As?
- 5:59Speaker 5: What?
- 6:01Speaker 2: Yeah, He's just he's got great hands, great with the protections,
- 6:07Speaker 2: decisive and Ken can do Ken can do those things too.
- 6:13Speaker 2: We're not It's not like a either war type of thing,
- 6:16Speaker 2: but I think Zach's excellent at it.
- 6:20Speaker 1: The Texans have the highest explosive pass rate against zone
- 6:24Speaker 1: coverage and their next to last against man coverage. I'm curious,
- 6:27Speaker 1: like what makes it an offensive like explosive against zone
- 6:30Speaker 1: versus man.
- 6:32Speaker 2: I think that I think that, I think there's several answers.
- 6:34Speaker 2: A lot of teams like hunt Man, they hunt certain
- 6:38Speaker 2: type of zones, so you have to have a feeling
- 6:41Speaker 2: for like how they're operating and what you do well too.
- 6:45Speaker 2: I mean, if teams are great against the blitz or
- 6:48Speaker 2: great against four man rush. It's not like we're just
- 6:51Speaker 2: not going to fore man rush or if they're if
- 6:52Speaker 2: they're not good versus the blitz by the stats doesn't
- 6:55Speaker 2: mean that you get what I'm saying. So I think
- 6:59Speaker 2: like that's one. I mean sometimes it's just a simple
- 7:01Speaker 2: as like they got great receivers that can separate and
- 7:03Speaker 2: work down the field, which is I think the case
- 7:07Speaker 2: sometimes with the Texans, like they just they do a
- 7:09Speaker 2: good job and the quarterback thws accurate ball and they
- 7:11Speaker 2: protect him, similar to see when you see explosive plays
- 7:13Speaker 2: with our offense. Those are like common common threads on
- 7:16Speaker 2: what creates explosive plays. But zones too, I mean, like
- 7:20Speaker 2: by definition, zones have holes, you know, So it's about
- 7:24Speaker 2: finding those things and quarterback needs time. You gotta have
- 7:28Speaker 2: the right thing dialed up, that sort of thing.
- 7:30Speaker 1: Drake Thomas seemed to really kind of verge the last
- 7:32Speaker 1: couple of weeks and that the Saki had the other day,
- 7:34Speaker 1: just how you kind of seen that.
- 7:36Speaker 2: I guess him bro to he's not just basically an every.
- 7:39Speaker 1: Down player for you guys.
- 7:40Speaker 2: Yeah, I think Drake's story is really awesome. I Mean,
- 7:43Speaker 2: we showed up and our personnel. People had a really
- 7:46Speaker 2: high opinion of him. He was a player that I
- 7:48Speaker 2: wasn't familiar with before we got here, and uh, you
- 7:52Speaker 2: know he's injured at the beginning of last year. But
- 7:54Speaker 2: but he's a he's a he's an example of a
- 7:56Speaker 2: guy that came back early from his injury because how
- 7:59Speaker 2: hardy worked. We attack the process and he's the same
- 8:03Speaker 2: guy every day. He's one hundred percent. He's all in.
- 8:06Speaker 2: He's attention detailed, he like understands adjustments, understands game plans.
- 8:13Speaker 2: He's tough as nails. I think he's he's a good athlete,
- 8:18Speaker 2: does a lot of positive things, and he's made a
- 8:19Speaker 2: lot of plays on special teams. But this is the
- 8:22Speaker 2: this is the guy that we saw all off season two.
- 8:24Speaker 2: You know, you know when players tell you who they are, like,
- 8:27Speaker 2: you know, believe them.
- 8:29Speaker 6: He made on the tackle for the SAT get some
- 8:31Speaker 6: good reaction and showed it to the team.
- 8:33Speaker 2: Yeah we did. Yeah, the guys were The guys were
- 8:35Speaker 2: fired up about that one. That was cool.
- 8:38Speaker 4: Would you like how those staff counts are looking for
- 8:40Speaker 4: Drake and or would you like to get te Nighte
- 8:43Speaker 4: in there a little bit more? Do you like the consistency.
- 8:45Speaker 2: Yeah, these things, I mean, they're never setting stone. I
- 8:52Speaker 2: think we've I feel like we've proven that over the
- 8:53Speaker 2: last couple of years. We're always gonna it's always that
- 8:56Speaker 2: who we feel like is gonna give us the best
- 8:57Speaker 2: chance to win for that moment. But a great example
- 9:00Speaker 2: with Tyres as he went into the game after Drake,
- 9:02Speaker 2: I think he heard his finger and they ran a
- 9:04Speaker 2: They ran a trap pass right behind him and cover three.
- 9:07Speaker 2: It's a great reaction play underneath the trap pass. I
- 9:09Speaker 2: think we got we either got a sack or a
- 9:11Speaker 2: tackle on that play for no game And it's a
- 9:15Speaker 2: great example of being ready, staying ready, coming in, playing
- 9:18Speaker 2: to the standard when we go out there. So both
- 9:21Speaker 2: guys are deserving and playing time. But right now, you know,
- 9:23Speaker 2: Drake's playing great football.
- 9:25Speaker 3: Just what's the value in the locker room you seeing
- 9:27Speaker 3: a guy like that burn is playing.
- 9:29Speaker 2: Time that way. Well, we believe in development here, we
- 9:33Speaker 2: you know we said this multiple times, but like players
- 9:35Speaker 2: are allowed to get better and improve, and they can
- 9:38Speaker 2: come from anywhere, and if you're gonna put yourself in
- 9:41Speaker 2: a position to help us win, then we're gonna play it.
- 9:45Speaker 3: I'm sorry with emade Warre you said that he plays
- 9:48Speaker 3: I can't remember how you were it, but he plays
- 9:49Speaker 3: like your style of football. Are you talking about mentality wise?
- 9:53Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like it's hard to shake him. And uh,
- 9:56Speaker 2: he plays physically, I mean that that hops up on tape.
- 9:58Speaker 2: He's kind of naturally goes. You know, he's not a
- 10:02Speaker 2: timid player. He's an aggressive player. He's a decisive player,
- 10:05Speaker 2: and he wants to be really good, which is makes
- 10:07Speaker 2: him a fun player to have on your team and
- 10:10Speaker 2: a fun guy to work with every day.
- 10:11Speaker 3: In a few weeks that he's been out there, now,
- 10:13Speaker 3: have you seen growth in his ability to just like
- 10:15Speaker 3: kind of cut.
- 10:15Speaker 2: It loose and not Yeah, that that's an area that
- 10:19Speaker 2: that's gonna come with with more reps and experience and
- 10:21Speaker 2: more confidence and all that type of stuff. But I
- 10:24Speaker 2: get it. You know, like he's very conscientious. He wants
- 10:26Speaker 2: to he wants to be doing it right, which you
- 10:28Speaker 2: appreciate and and you'll learn he'll learn to, you know,
- 10:32Speaker 2: make some decisions a little faster in real time as
- 10:35Speaker 2: he goes. But it's not like the guy's just like
- 10:36Speaker 2: standing out there. I mean, the guy's playing really well
- 10:38Speaker 2: for us. It's just you know, we're chasing edges here.
- 10:40Speaker 2: We're trying to take it to the next level. Spoon
- 10:43Speaker 2: got a practice today, He'll be out there. Yeah, what
- 10:49Speaker 2: about Julia? Julian will be out there, how about Reolle?
- 10:54Speaker 2: Reek will be out there. It's a fun game.
- 10:58Speaker 1: What about Jared? An update on him?
- 11:02Speaker 2: It's my knowledge Jay Read's good.
- 11:06Speaker 1: People focus on offensive line for pass protection. Obviously, when
- 11:10Speaker 1: you want to target a running back or in a
- 11:13Speaker 1: position other than the offensive line in your pass rushes,
- 11:15Speaker 1: is that harder easier? How does that work?
- 11:18Speaker 2: Depends depends on how teams operate. You feel like if
- 11:22Speaker 2: there's an opportunity there, you feel like you got to
- 11:24Speaker 2: consider who's rushing on your end. Timing of the play
- 11:27Speaker 2: is important. You can put three guys through a gap,
- 11:31Speaker 2: but you're gonna have some holes in the defense and
- 11:35Speaker 2: you'll guarantee the backs block. But sometimes that's not the
- 11:38Speaker 2: best thing to do.
- 11:39Speaker 6: When you looked at your third down offense, maybe outside
- 11:42Speaker 6: of like the last two, I think I think one
- 11:44Speaker 6: for ten before that final drive, what did you make
- 11:46Speaker 6: of that? And I guess what have you made up
- 11:47Speaker 6: your third down numbers on offenses for the season.
- 11:50Speaker 2: I think I think it's a team emphasis on how
- 11:54Speaker 2: we want to improve. So we've had good plans. I
- 11:59Speaker 2: think if you asked our offensive coaches, I think we
- 12:01Speaker 2: could be we could have better plans. Uh, we've had
- 12:05Speaker 2: good execution. I think we have better execution. You know,
- 12:07Speaker 2: there's some plays where hey, you know, we got to
- 12:09Speaker 2: be able to run aroute, more decisive and be in
- 12:11Speaker 2: the right spot because that's the timing that's needed for
- 12:13Speaker 2: that play. Sometimes it's you know, maybe Sam used to
- 12:16Speaker 2: pull the trigger quick or quicker and needs to progress.
- 12:18Speaker 2: It's kind of it's like a detail here or there,
- 12:20Speaker 2: which tells me that it's a we got to keep
- 12:22Speaker 2: just staying the course. You know, when you're when you're
- 12:25Speaker 2: a detail out and it's kind of varied by each
- 12:27Speaker 2: position group and there's not like a common thread of
- 12:30Speaker 2: some thing that like screams change. Just stay the course,
- 12:36Speaker 2: you know, stick to the details, keep attacking it come
- 12:39Speaker 2: to life more. But we've done a lot of great
- 12:40Speaker 2: stuff on third down too. I felt we've we've predicted
- 12:42Speaker 2: Sam really well and he's playing he's playing decisively on
- 12:46Speaker 2: third down as well.
- 12:48Speaker 1: Big of a difference is it for a defense to
- 12:50Speaker 1: prepare for a predominants own rushing team versus a predominantly
- 12:53Speaker 1: gap uh rushing team.
- 12:56Speaker 2: I think a lot of it's based off what your
- 12:57Speaker 2: offense runs. You know, if you see wide zone all camp.
- 13:01Speaker 2: You know, like when we see wide zone, we have
- 13:03Speaker 2: a pretty good idea of what we're good at and
- 13:05Speaker 2: that sort of thing, and how to play it. How
- 13:06Speaker 2: many times when need to see it? Gap scheme, you know,
- 13:10Speaker 2: we've seen it a good amount our offense runs it,
- 13:12Speaker 2: but you know, it's a little different for us. So
- 13:15Speaker 2: I think the reverse is true to a certain extent.
- 13:17Speaker 2: But there's different fronts you want. I mean, like how
- 13:20Speaker 2: many guys you want to line of scrimmage, how many
- 13:22Speaker 2: guys you want off you know, is it good to move,
- 13:25Speaker 2: is it not good to move? Is it is it
- 13:27Speaker 2: good to plug guys? Or is it good to have
- 13:29Speaker 2: that guy in like the second level son he can overlap?
- 13:32Speaker 2: I mean, those are all the things that you're thinking about.
- 13:34Speaker 2: How it how does effect play at like the like
- 13:37Speaker 2: they're allowed to pass it to, you know, like how
- 13:38Speaker 2: do you how do you handle the play action pass
- 13:41Speaker 2: and the movements off of it.
- 13:43Speaker 1: The Texans run games being meaningfully different than the other.
- 13:46Speaker 2: Rushing taxi scene so far, I'd say, like it's a
- 13:52Speaker 2: same tree, different branch, you know, a little bit more
- 13:55Speaker 2: at little more gap than we've seen similar to Tampa.
- 13:57Speaker 2: The less pullers in Tampa. But I mean they're they're
- 14:03Speaker 2: running all the stuff that we that the NFL runs are.
- 14:07Speaker 2: Christia Haynes or Jonathan Hankins are the guys who can
- 14:09Speaker 2: come off for any Yeah, no updating those guys. Yeah.
- 14:15Speaker 2: How did the tackling improve in Jacksonville and how much?
- 14:18Speaker 2: I think it did significantly. I think it's a function
- 14:22Speaker 2: of the guys. One just decided to freaking tackle and
- 14:26Speaker 2: get after it. And two, I thought like our angles
- 14:29Speaker 2: were great. I thought the guys played extremely hard. We
- 14:31Speaker 2: just guys made a collective decision that they were gonna
- 14:34Speaker 2: play our style of ball and that showed up in
- 14:36Speaker 2: our tackling.
- 14:37Speaker 6: In your run game on offense, how much of when
- 14:39Speaker 6: it's not working from what you're seeing, how much of
- 14:41Speaker 6: that is just simply communication and guys know what to do,
- 14:43Speaker 6: who to block.
- 14:44Speaker 2: Stuff like that. I don't. I don't think it's a
- 14:48Speaker 2: communication issue. I think it's a matter of just getting
- 14:50Speaker 2: it done. Honestly, how we scheme it, you know, that's it.
- 14:54Speaker 2: That's under evaluation, you know, as as with everything. How
- 15:00Speaker 2: we schemed against Tampa Bay was under major evaluation from
- 15:04Speaker 2: you know, from me talking about on defense, So like
- 15:08Speaker 2: we're evaluating everything all the time. But it's not just
- 15:11Speaker 2: like hey, our communications, thanks, that's not the reason, so
- 15:14Speaker 2: more of like execution thing.
- 15:16Speaker 6: Yeah, and explaining why you guys have been so good
- 15:19Speaker 6: on the road. You mentioned like the team's connectedness, and
- 15:22Speaker 6: I think of their mentality as well. When you look
- 15:24Speaker 6: at the home performance, is the mentality different or.
- 15:29Speaker 2: I don't think so, Like when you start attributing success
- 15:32Speaker 2: to like, it's hard to it's hard to do that
- 15:35Speaker 2: because I think it's like the it's the whole thing, right,
- 15:38Speaker 2: It's it's kind of the synergy behind everything. If we
- 15:41Speaker 2: knew what exactly worked, we would do it every time
- 15:44Speaker 2: and we just hit the button and rinse, repeat. You know.
- 15:47Speaker 2: If we knew what was like exactly how we could
- 15:49Speaker 2: win games every time at home, trust me, we would
- 15:51Speaker 2: be we'd be mashing that button, you know, as many
- 15:55Speaker 2: times we possibly could. But what I can tell you
- 15:57Speaker 2: is we're we're chasing it, you know, we're determined to
- 16:00Speaker 2: do it, and our guys are determined to do it,
- 16:02Speaker 2: but I don't. I really don't believe you have to
- 16:05Speaker 2: like change course, take a detour. It's about if we
- 16:11Speaker 2: play our best football, we're gonna have we're gonna have
- 16:13Speaker 2: success at home, and we just got to play better
- 16:15Speaker 2: football and we're at home.
- 16:16Speaker 3: Were you serious when you said on the radio that
- 16:19Speaker 3: you thought about making the home games?
- 16:20Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, absolutely not.
- 16:23Speaker 6: In terms of the noise when you guys are on defense,
- 16:25Speaker 6: is that a factor of all?
- 16:27Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah it is. Yeah. Sometimes it's just can EJ
- 16:31Speaker 2: hear me or not? Like sometimes it's that simple.
- 16:35Speaker 6: Is this Is it the same for you guys trying
- 16:36Speaker 6: to hear him as.
- 16:37Speaker 3: Well as men?
- 16:39Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean you had you had noise to the
- 16:40Speaker 2: communication equation, it's going to be harder. Just all right,
- 16:47Speaker 2: thank you,