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Head Coach Mike Macdonald: "What A Special Night To Be A Seahawk" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: What a game.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Pretty cool first win for the Coastal family, so.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Gave them a game ball.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: And it was really cool to have them there after
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the game, and we're excited for them. And another great shot.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, what an electric atmosphere. Just the emotion of
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the banner. Is it banner dropping or banner? Banner revealed.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Banner unveiling. There you go.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: But just a really special night to be a Seahawk, man. And...
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: just really really incredibly proud of our team thankful for
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the 12s um just the amount of resilience i mean
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: you think about all the things going on i think
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: the fourth play we lost sam you know first time
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: play caller i thought flurry did a great job of
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: adjusting on the flyer off to staff uh drew locked
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: there's a gigantic shout out for playing you know clean
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: football and and uh you know we'll improve our operation
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: truly everybody on board but um we have we have
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: a We can get so much better very quickly. And
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: with Sam, we got some great news back. It's to
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: say it's good news right now. So I know still
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: our thoughts and prayers with Sam.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: We love him.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: And the guys really pulled through for him.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: And then defensively, I thought the guys really fought.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: These first games were tricky in terms of who's got
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: answers for what and all that. So I thought we
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: played incredibly hard, stuck together. Our staff did a great
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: job of finding answers as the game went on. And
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Nehemiah Pritchett played a dynamite game. And then, you know,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: I'm just really happy for Josh. Just, you know, playing
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: all the way to the very last play, man. It
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: was really, really remarkable. So proud to get the win,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: but also understand it's the first game. And we have
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: a really great opportunity here to take our game to
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: the next level. But we talked about the 26 Seahawks
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: and understanding our identity and who we are. I think
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: that definitely revealed the type of team that we have,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: a resilient, tough bunch that sticks together. So I'm really
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: proud of the effort and just really proud to be
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: a Seahawk today.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: With Sam, I'm sure you're waiting more answers, but have
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: you been able to rule out a fracture?
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: At this point, we were able to rule out a fracture.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: So there's some more tests to be done. And so
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying when it's positive. But I know
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: we're still working through all that. But right now I
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: think fracture's out, which is great news. The fact you
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: have 10 days until the next game, does that give
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: you a.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Hope you should play? I really don't know. I don't know.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: I don't know what the extent is.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: It sounds like yours and the team's concern is a fracture,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: and that's been a big deal. As of now, yeah.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, who knows, you know. I'm not there, so
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: I'm just going by what they tell me.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: You always turn to your veteran leaders when you have
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: games like that where it.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Seems like maybe things are slipping away a little bit.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Julian loved that hit that he had on.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Hunter Henry at the beginning of the second half.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: It seemed like that really got everybody going. Just the
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: overall game.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: That he had.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Julian played a dynamite game.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: I think Rodney Thomas deserves a shout-out coming in and
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: playing really sound football, but there's a lot of reps
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: that Ty and Julian have had to build that chemistry
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: about how we want to operate and getting.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: On the same page.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: So Julian really took a big-time role for our team, one,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: making the plays, but also making sure that we're in
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: the right stuff and we're all on the same page.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Shout out to Julian as well. What did that hit
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: do on the side? I think the first play of
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: the second half, they got the complete.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I actually think I want to give our team
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: a lot of credit because, you know, things weren't really
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: going our way going into the half, but we didn't panic. Uh,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: we still liked our plan. Um, you know, we didn't
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: need to change what we were doing or anything like that.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: We just, we wanted to stick to what we were doing.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: And I think like, I think the guys were, were
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: just about, you know, they were really excited to go
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: back out there and play, which was, uh, you know,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: really a tribute to our, to our leadership, our coaches. Um,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: our communication as a staff. So I was, I was
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: pleased with that process.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: What does it say?
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Uh, the Josh Joe that he has the DPI, uh,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: and then comes back and makes that play to end
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: the game. Yeah, it seemed, uh, and we had some
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: penalties that we had to overcome today. Um, but I, yeah,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: that's like a, it's a play by play mindset, you know, and, uh,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: our guys were, you know, we're tired at the end,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: you know, they're playing really hard and, um, to find
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: out the energy to go get one more play. And, uh,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, they're really good at extended plays,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: you know, and for him to play kind of through
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: the echo of the whistle or like a second half
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: of that play is just tremendous, you know. And he
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: also realizes, I mean, he just gave me inches, but
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: that's a hell of a play.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Mike, you were saying.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Like the, you know, first-time play caller, you get your
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: backup quarterback in, you get the fourth down, but you
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: get the touchdown on a pass as well as a
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: pass play.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: How did that all kind of come together? Because obviously
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of things there that wasn't necessarily planned. Yeah, well,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: that was part of our– Critical call plan.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: We knew that particular down distance was going to be
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: a go, so Brian was ready.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: We got everybody out there and we rolled. Probably not.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Probably not. He wasn't on the tape when I saw it.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Mike, how important is it for your defense when your
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: D-line is hunting and you're obviously going after the quarterback,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: the effect it has on his decision-making?
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: On their quarterbacks? Yeah, when you're D-line. I thought our
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: guys played really hard. Our rush, it was a.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Different type of game than it was X amount of
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: months ago. So you've got to be able to adjust,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: and I think... Again, our player leadership and our coaches
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: are finding solutions of how to adjust our rush plan
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: in real time based off of the things that we're
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: seeing and how we want to adjust our coverages in
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: real time.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Is some high-powered stuff. That's our staff.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Those are our players doing those things because they're coming
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: up with those solutions while we're on offense and we're
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: managing the game on offense when we're on offense. I
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: thought our staff did a tremendous job. You guys have
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: always expressed your confidence in Drew Locke, but obviously when
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: the season starts, his opportunities are rare.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: How happy are you guys for him when he gets
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: that chance? Oh, incredible, yeah. I should have gave him
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: a game ball.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: He'll get one tomorrow. I'll get something of my own,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: maybe a belt. But, yeah, we love him.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: We love him. We love Drew. Guys love him.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: He's just a Seahawk through and through, man. And we're
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: all incredibly excited. Okay, Drew's in the game. Your heart
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: goes out to Sam. We're praying that it's minor, obviously.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: He's had such a great offseason.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: But Drew has too. You know, Drew's played really well.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: And so when he goes in there, I think any
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: time somebody's getting an opportunity, unfortunately it's, you know, because
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: somebody else isn't able to go. But you also want
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: to feel excited for that player. So we had a
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: lot of confidence in Drew coming in and playing at
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: a high level.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: With Jackson, like, he was so consistently good last year.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, we still don't ask you about him enough. But, like,
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: to turn that 45-yard, the way he did that, like,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: how special does a guy have to be to do
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: something like that?
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: When you catch it, like, normally– the way I saw it,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: there were some angles where you would expect the player
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: to get tackled, you know, but he's able to accelerate
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: and kind of those subtle, like, accelerations and cuts that
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: he's able to make.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: It was just, it's just, it's.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Just, that's the type of stuff that not a lot
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: of people can do, but Jacks can, so that was
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: a tremendous play.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Impressed, Mike.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: It looks like you got what you did.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Fits and spurts of opportunities.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Was that by design, or is that the other way around? Carries-wise,
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: six carries the first 30-some plays.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: We've got to talk about how we're using all of
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: our backs, but it seemed like that was the plan
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: that we were sticking to, the plan.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: That we had going into the game.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: We didn't get much of a rhythm on offensively. They
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: played a really good game on defense.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: They did a good job.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: We were able to hit a couple runs early, but
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: we'll look at it and see where we need to improve.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: J.D. 's going to get a lot of carries. He's
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: going to be... he's going to be one of our
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: top backs for sure.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: You mentioned you were happy with the way that Brian
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: made adjustments, especially after Drew had to come in, but
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: what did you, what did you like most about, it
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: seemed like he was getting in more easy completions in
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: the second half.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. That's Brian. That's our staff. That's how we communicate.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: I thought, I thought like when I'd say the whole team, but,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: In this circumstance, really our whole offensive operation is staying poised,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: and when things are going awry, we try to just,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: like we say, the way we roll, we try to
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: find solutions. Find a play, and then let's go find
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: another one and just keep rolling. Now, I wasn't part
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: of those conversations. I was coming in kind of late
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: after we play on defense, but it seemed like.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: It was poised, and it was streamlined communication, so I
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: was pleased with that.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: How close or not close was Nicky Manwari to playing for?
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: We'll see. We'll see how this week shakes out. Thank you.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Anything else? Great.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Thank you.