Latest / Seahawks Press Pass / Mike Macdonald: "The Leaders Are Driving Our Team Right Now"
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Hello everyone, Good morning, John Boyle, get us going.
- 0:09Speaker 2: Yeah, Mike, there's been a few late game situations this
- 0:12Speaker 2: year where you've brought pressure and big moments. What does
- 0:16Speaker 2: that say about the faith you have and the guys
- 0:17Speaker 2: on the back end? And there are a couple of
- 0:19Speaker 2: times they win it reek in different games just to
- 0:21Speaker 2: hold up because obviously if you bring that pressure, that
- 0:23Speaker 2: can leave them a tough spots.
- 0:26Speaker 3: Uh Yeah, just finished with Brockett sulk with a with
- 0:28Speaker 3: a similar similar question. It's uh it you have to
- 0:33Speaker 3: have Yeah, Yet we have faith in our guys in
- 0:35Speaker 3: those critical moments. You shoot, they're the ones really that
- 0:38Speaker 3: are asking for those aggressive type calls. So they're the
- 0:41Speaker 3: ones that make it come to life. And and we're
- 0:43Speaker 3: not married to that that you know, those types of
- 0:45Speaker 3: plays are just just so happened. We've had we brought
- 0:50Speaker 3: some pressure in some of those moments, but we're always
- 0:52Speaker 3: just thinking through the lens of what are what we
- 0:55Speaker 3: feel like are it's gonna give our guys the best
- 0:56Speaker 3: chance to uh to win that situation, help us go
- 0:59Speaker 3: win the game.
- 1:03Speaker 1: Mas veto.
- 1:05Speaker 4: Am I elegant simplicity? Could you elaborate a little bit
- 1:11Speaker 4: on that?
- 1:12Speaker 3: Yeah, In short, it's you know, we wanted to look
- 1:17Speaker 3: complex to our opponents and keep it simple for us.
- 1:21Speaker 3: And then there's a way that you know, you can
- 1:22Speaker 3: structure your systems and how you teach it and wording
- 1:25Speaker 3: that there's an art to it where we believe that
- 1:30Speaker 3: if you can do it better than others. So it's
- 1:33Speaker 3: about doing simple stuff better than your competition. And then
- 1:38Speaker 3: you can dress it up and that's how you create
- 1:42Speaker 3: great systems and great teams and great schemes and make
- 1:46Speaker 3: it come to life on Sunday.
- 1:48Speaker 4: And then one more, what did you see? You have
- 1:50Speaker 4: a lot of leaders and you've told us that what
- 1:52Speaker 4: what did you see for.
- 1:53Speaker 5: Your leaders this week?
- 1:55Speaker 4: Just to prepare and you know, quick turn around.
- 2:00Speaker 3: They've been like this. They're they're steadfast in our mission
- 2:04Speaker 3: and uh, they're driving our team right now. So really
- 2:09Speaker 3: please with uh with our leadership on our football team
- 2:11Speaker 3: and we'll be counting them again this week and moving forward. Greg,
- 2:19Speaker 3: good morning.
- 2:20Speaker 6: Like how alarming was last night's on offense?
- 2:25Speaker 3: I wouldn't call it alarming. I just wasn't. It wasn't
- 2:28Speaker 3: up to our standard on our production, how we want
- 2:31Speaker 3: to do, on how we want to operate. But we
- 2:33Speaker 3: did do the things we needed to do to win
- 2:35Speaker 3: the game. We took We played a little bit of
- 2:38Speaker 3: the field position game in the second half. We finally
- 2:40Speaker 3: flipped field position told just told again, just told Brocket Salt.
- 2:44Speaker 3: We the game kind of declared there in the second
- 2:47Speaker 3: half on how we had it to play, so slowed
- 2:50Speaker 3: it down a little bit and uh became a field
- 2:54Speaker 3: position game, which it It's been in our territory most
- 2:56Speaker 3: of the game. So I would have liked for us
- 2:58Speaker 3: to be able to get it out in some of
- 2:59Speaker 3: those situations. Uh, but when we did, and the latter
- 3:03Speaker 3: part of the game, going into the last drive, that
- 3:04Speaker 3: was big for us, you know, to make or to
- 3:06Speaker 3: make uh make Chicago have to go you know, thirty
- 3:10Speaker 3: or forty yards instead of just ten or ten or fifteen.
- 3:13Speaker 6: And how much is Kenny McIntosh earning a prominent more
- 3:17Speaker 6: prominent role? And I heard you mentioned a half hour
- 3:19Speaker 6: ago that you challenged him to stay ready. How did
- 3:23Speaker 6: you do that?
- 3:23Speaker 4: And why?
- 3:24Speaker 3: Uh? Yeah, he has I mean he's uh, he's earned,
- 3:27Speaker 3: he's earned a bigger role when we need him right now.
- 3:30Speaker 3: You know, That's that's where we stand with ken Walker situation.
- 3:34Speaker 3: And I didn't. I didn't mean want to make too
- 3:36Speaker 3: much of it with with Ken, but Kenny McIntosh. But
- 3:39Speaker 3: when you're not a when you're not a starter, and
- 3:42Speaker 3: you don't get that many reps, when you do get
- 3:44Speaker 3: reps that they're at a premium and you got to
- 3:46Speaker 3: keep showing that you're ready to go. And uh, there's
- 3:49Speaker 3: a couple of reps here and there throughout the season.
- 3:51Speaker 3: And he was great, he's he's been. He's a hard worker,
- 3:54Speaker 3: he's tough. But sometimes guys, you know, they just need
- 3:57Speaker 3: their little reminder, you know what they're battling for that
- 3:59Speaker 3: the co oppetition is still there even though you know
- 4:02Speaker 3: there's not we're not talking about actual snaps on Sunday.
- 4:05Speaker 3: And he's done a great job of of earning earning
- 4:09Speaker 3: a bigger role by week by week.
- 4:11Speaker 6: And when you say you challenge him, how do you
- 4:13Speaker 6: do that? You just come up to him and say, hey,
- 4:14Speaker 6: you got to buck up and earn this or no,
- 4:17Speaker 6: yeah or yeah.
- 4:19Speaker 3: You have your style of how you're going to talk
- 4:20Speaker 3: to you talk to your guys, and there's different ways
- 4:22Speaker 3: to there's different ways to do it. A lot of
- 4:25Speaker 3: times it's me having a conversation with him sometimes it's
- 4:29Speaker 3: other coaches, but yeah, it's just it's just having a
- 4:32Speaker 3: relationship of your guys and understand how they tick and
- 4:35Speaker 3: trying to figure out a way what's the best way
- 4:36Speaker 3: to connect with them.
- 4:37Speaker 1: Thank you, Tim, Mike.
- 4:42Speaker 5: I saw you gave a game ball to Jaron Reid
- 4:45Speaker 5: after the game last night. I'm just wondering, both him
- 4:47Speaker 5: and Leonard to be playing this well, maybe at this
- 4:51Speaker 5: stage for their careers or this far into their careers,
- 4:53Speaker 5: what what do you feel like has been on Walck
- 4:55Speaker 5: to allow them to kind of stand out the way
- 4:57Speaker 5: they have, not only you know last night, but but
- 5:01Speaker 5: most of the season.
- 5:05Speaker 3: The question is what allows them to play well later
- 5:08Speaker 3: in the year.
- 5:10Speaker 5: Just just it seems like both those guys have taken
- 5:12Speaker 5: their game to another level this season in some ways.
- 5:15Speaker 5: I just wondering what what do you feel like has
- 5:17Speaker 5: has allowed that to happen for them? And then and
- 5:21Speaker 5: then to have a performance like last night.
- 5:22Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, I got you. I think Uh. I mean,
- 5:26Speaker 3: it's funny you're talking guys that are in you know,
- 5:28Speaker 3: double digits in in years in the league, and they're
- 5:32Speaker 3: proving the whole philosophy of like sticking to the process
- 5:35Speaker 3: and doing the things day in and day out, and
- 5:37Speaker 3: you should experience growth as a player. It doesn't really
- 5:41Speaker 3: matter where you are in your in your career. And
- 5:45Speaker 3: I think both have really bought intouh, what we're trying
- 5:47Speaker 3: to achieve here competitively, day in, day out. And then
- 5:52Speaker 3: you know, being able to stack all these reps of
- 5:54Speaker 3: playing next to one another and understanding where they're going
- 5:56Speaker 3: to be, how we need to play together and uh,
- 5:59Speaker 3: and then you know Jay Red and Leo. I mean,
- 6:00Speaker 3: those those two guys are two of our biggest leaders
- 6:02Speaker 3: on our team, especially in the front. I mean, Jay
- 6:05Speaker 3: Read's the we don't call him the og of that room.
- 6:07Speaker 3: I mean he's just he understands what he wants it
- 6:09Speaker 3: to look like. Uh, the guys follow him, and you
- 6:12Speaker 3: know he's he kind of sets the tone for that
- 6:15Speaker 3: room right now. And and uh, we appreciate that f
- 6:18Speaker 3: for him. That's why we love him.
- 6:22Speaker 1: Michael Sean. You guys, MH, there we go, Michael Sean.
- 6:41Speaker 6: Can you hear me?
- 6:42Speaker 3: Mike? Yeah, I got you now? Okay, sorry about that.
- 6:46Speaker 7: When you when you look at the situation you guys
- 6:48Speaker 7: are in now needing Arizona to win or getting a
- 6:51Speaker 7: bunch of other wins. We look back, what is the
- 6:54Speaker 7: what do you say is the primary reason you guys
- 6:55Speaker 7: don't control your own fate right now?
- 7:00Speaker 3: I think I think it's fair criticisms say that our
- 7:04Speaker 3: record could be better right now. It isn't. You can't.
- 7:09Speaker 3: You can't like you know, cray or spilled milk. But
- 7:14Speaker 3: I mean, any any if you if you ask me
- 7:15Speaker 3: this at any point where hey, we can't control our destiny.
- 7:18Speaker 3: We didn't perform as well as we need to or
- 7:20Speaker 3: to our standard all the time to uh, otherwise we
- 7:23Speaker 3: be sitting here, we be you know, we'd beat sixteen
- 7:26Speaker 3: to o. So it's like, that's just but that's the NFL,
- 7:29Speaker 3: and you it's a it's a roller coaster. You gotta
- 7:31Speaker 3: you gotta learn from stuff. You gotta evolve, you gotta grow.
- 7:35Speaker 3: That's what our focus has been as a team. I
- 7:37Speaker 3: don't think we would be standing here having this conversation,
- 7:41Speaker 3: still having life if we didn't do those things throughout
- 7:43Speaker 3: the year. But yeah, there's some there's some moments throughout
- 7:46Speaker 3: the year where you felt like, man, that was an
- 7:48Speaker 3: opportunity for us to take advantage of it. We didn't
- 7:49Speaker 3: do it. Jen did they get they get all that?
- 7:58Speaker 3: Uh answer, you guys get all that? Did you get that?
- 8:04Speaker 3: Michael Sean?
- 8:07Speaker 6: No?
- 8:09Speaker 2: Can you can you hear him?
- 8:13Speaker 1: Can you guys hear us?
- 8:14Speaker 3: You guys got me now?
- 8:16Speaker 6: Now?
- 8:17Speaker 3: Yes, okay, what's the last thing that you heard? You
- 8:19Speaker 3: get that whole answer?
- 8:24Speaker 8: Maybe like a couple of words.
- 8:27Speaker 3: That's all you need.
- 8:28Speaker 4: Now.
- 8:28Speaker 3: I'm just let's make sure we're good and then I'll
- 8:35Speaker 3: re answer it.
- 8:40Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm just gonna log off.
- 8:42Speaker 3: Okay, we'll be uh, we'll be right back. We'll be
- 8:47Speaker 3: right back. Okay.
- 8:50Speaker 1: Can you guys hear us now?
- 8:52Speaker 8: Jen Litt, Yeah, you can go back and answer Michael
- 8:59Speaker 8: Shawn's again.
- 9:00Speaker 9: Yeah, and may see there you go. All right, Uh, Mike,
- 9:10Speaker 9: I'm gonna answer your question now.
- 9:11Speaker 3: You're good. Can you hear me? Okay, yep, I gotcha. Yeah,
- 9:16Speaker 3: I'm gonna try to I thought it was a pretty
- 9:18Speaker 3: good answer to I'm gonna try to recreate it here. First,
- 9:22Speaker 3: I would say, yeah, it's if if we if we didn't,
- 9:26Speaker 3: I mean, you're always gonna you're always gonna if you're
- 9:29Speaker 3: not charge your own destiny, You're always gonna think of
- 9:33Speaker 3: moments that you felt like you could to take advantage
- 9:35Speaker 3: of better to put yourself in a better position. But
- 9:38Speaker 3: you know, you know that's always gonna be the case.
- 9:40Speaker 3: Otherwise we'd be sitting here at uh, you know, it's
- 9:44Speaker 3: sixteen and oh, just thinking that we're the best things
- 9:46Speaker 3: in sliced bread. So that's kind of where we're at.
- 9:51Speaker 3: And and you know, it's not not an ideal situation,
- 9:54Speaker 3: but I do feel that, you know, we probably wouldn't
- 9:57Speaker 3: have won some games as well, and putting ourselves in
- 9:59Speaker 3: a situation if we didn't learn and evolve and grow
- 10:02Speaker 3: and stick together and kind of stick to the process
- 10:03Speaker 3: about how we want to be as a team and
- 10:06Speaker 3: being able to get through the like those ebbs and
- 10:08Speaker 3: flows of the season. So yeah, but absolutely, I mean
- 10:11Speaker 3: there's there's times that you think throughout the year we
- 10:13Speaker 3: felt like we could have taken advantage of to put
- 10:15Speaker 3: ourselves in a better position going to the last week.
- 10:18Speaker 7: Is there any of that stand out?
- 10:22Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean, like any any loss, any loss, you're
- 10:26Speaker 3: gonna think what what you could have done throughout the game.
- 10:29Speaker 3: So name a loss and I can tell you what
- 10:32Speaker 3: we could have done better and how we could have
- 10:34Speaker 3: taken advantage of it. So anytime we take the field.
- 10:39Speaker 3: We're gonna expect to win the game and we're gonna
- 10:41Speaker 3: try to do those things necessary to win. And when
- 10:45Speaker 3: we don't, that's when you have to learn from it.
- 10:47Speaker 3: But it's yeah, those there's some losses, all the losses
- 10:51Speaker 3: you're really thinking, Shoot, I mean those stings, you know,
- 10:56Speaker 3: they just that's that's the fact of the reality.
- 11:00Speaker 1: Thank you, Jen.
- 11:04Speaker 6: Coach.
- 11:04Speaker 8: With that win last night, you secure a winning season
- 11:07Speaker 8: in your first year. So how far does that go
- 11:10Speaker 8: in the process and in laying that foundation.
- 11:17Speaker 3: It's right now, it's told me we've won enough to
- 11:20Speaker 3: have the chance to win one more for the chance
- 11:22Speaker 3: to go win in the playoffs. That's really I mean,
- 11:25Speaker 3: it's as simple as it is. And to Mike, to
- 11:29Speaker 3: Michael's question, we wish we had one more. You know,
- 11:32Speaker 3: we want to win every every time we step on
- 11:33Speaker 3: the field. Uh, but you know, to be sitting here
- 11:37Speaker 3: with a week left and still have life, we've done
- 11:39Speaker 3: some things. I feel like we've grown falling short, you know,
- 11:45Speaker 3: several times, and uh, but we've gotten up and dust
- 11:47Speaker 3: ourselves on it off and kept moving forward.
- 11:51Speaker 8: And every game is you know, some of your just
- 11:54Speaker 8: banking experiences that you can draw on next time.
- 11:56Speaker 2: When you think.
- 11:57Speaker 8: About last night's game, what specifically can anybody who was
- 12:01Speaker 8: on the field last night draw from in future situations.
- 12:06Speaker 3: Well, the guys that are putting a tough spot, you're
- 12:08Speaker 3: not guaranteed, you know, you're not. You're not, you're not
- 12:11Speaker 3: you know, holding your own destiny. So what are you
- 12:14Speaker 3: gonna go play for? You know, how are you gonna
- 12:15Speaker 3: go on a short week, go across the country, go
- 12:18Speaker 3: play the right way, battle adversity throughout the game, stick together,
- 12:21Speaker 3: fight through it. How are you gonna do all that
- 12:24Speaker 3: when you know, like playoff implications aren't necessarily on the lines.
- 12:28Speaker 3: That tells me our guys are connected and they're tough,
- 12:31Speaker 3: and they're playing for one another.
- 12:33Speaker 1: And I think that's, uh, that's pretty awesome, John, Yeah.
- 12:41Speaker 2: Might we don't always maybe talk about the specialists of time,
- 12:44Speaker 2: but in a low scoring game like that, what kind
- 12:46Speaker 2: of role does you know? Jason making his kicks, flipping
- 12:49Speaker 2: the field?
- 12:49Speaker 3: Yeah, it was critical just rewatching Jason's both his kicks
- 12:53Speaker 3: this morning. I mean, the rams coming down a little
- 12:56Speaker 3: bit heavier than you. It felt like, you know, that's
- 12:58Speaker 3: a tough kick and there's some wind up there and
- 13:01Speaker 3: the operation needs to be right. Field core protection was good,
- 13:04Speaker 3: so that was critical. And then you know, we talked
- 13:05Speaker 3: about how the game was a field position game, and
- 13:10Speaker 3: you know, I thought, I thought Michael Dixon played a
- 13:13Speaker 3: tremendous game as well, like the hangtime given our opportunity
- 13:16Speaker 3: for our punt coverage unit to get down the field.
- 13:19Speaker 3: Drake Young's a guy that sticks out that played really
- 13:22Speaker 3: well at gunner. I know Julian made a big play
- 13:23Speaker 3: on Julian. Kenny Mack made a big time punt punt tackle.
- 13:29Speaker 3: So I mean those are those are really really critical
- 13:32Speaker 3: plays throughout a game you don't necessarily think of, so
- 13:35Speaker 3: appreciate the question. So that's that was big for us. Brady,
- 13:43Speaker 3: like you.
- 13:43Speaker 10: Told us recently that the coaching point with Reek Roland
- 13:46Speaker 10: was to be locked in on every play the last
- 13:49Speaker 10: couple of games, what have you thought of the way
- 13:50Speaker 10: he's played in general, but specifically with that coaching point
- 13:53Speaker 10: as well.
- 13:54Speaker 3: We'll speak to the last game. I thought Reek played
- 13:56Speaker 3: a really strong game. I try to play a really
- 13:59Speaker 3: strong game. I thought he was sound, he played poise,
- 14:03Speaker 3: played fast. Uh Simons just felt like he was honest stuff.
- 14:07Speaker 3: So I thought he had a really really good football game. Definitely, uh,
- 14:11Speaker 3: definitely winning football for us to help us win, and
- 14:14Speaker 3: and then top it off with with the interception at
- 14:16Speaker 3: the end. Was just that's kind of a sneaky, tough
- 14:19Speaker 3: play when the ball is in the air that long
- 14:21Speaker 3: and high pointing it and doing all those all those
- 14:23Speaker 3: things as well. I thought was was great to see
- 14:26Speaker 3: with ken Walker.
- 14:27Speaker 10: Obviously, he's gonna have to miss the four games, so
- 14:29Speaker 10: you guys would have to make a deep run for
- 14:31Speaker 10: him to be eligible to come back. But if that happens,
- 14:33Speaker 10: is that something he could come back from or is
- 14:35Speaker 10: that Akele injury is that gonna end his season?
- 14:39Speaker 6: Uh?
- 14:41Speaker 3: I would love to see him come back right to role.
- 14:43Speaker 3: Let's go, let's go get to let's go have that
- 14:45Speaker 3: problem come NFC Championship time. We got to get there first.
- 14:48Speaker 3: But I know I'm sure holding out hope to see
- 14:52Speaker 3: him again.
- 14:53Speaker 10: Okay, then one more sense, it looks like nobody's behind me.
- 14:56Speaker 10: What did this past Monday look like? It sounds like
- 14:58Speaker 10: you guys switched some things up, did a recovery day.
- 15:00Speaker 10: What did that look like compared to what you guys
- 15:02Speaker 10: have done on Mondays heading into Thursday game?
- 15:04Speaker 3: Yeah, normally we would start a little bit later on
- 15:06Speaker 3: a Monday and have some sort of structured meetings with
- 15:11Speaker 3: you know, walkthrough of some sort and then you know,
- 15:14Speaker 3: you're deciding whether you want to ratchet it up a
- 15:16Speaker 3: little bit on Tuesday and then your Wednesday. But some
- 15:19Speaker 3: guys came to me earlier in the earlier last week, Mcaporo,
- 15:23Speaker 3: Jake Pete, Sam ramsen Uh and just understood kind of
- 15:27Speaker 3: where we're at in the season and just this the
- 15:29Speaker 3: fact that we kind of can collaborate like that and
- 15:32Speaker 3: bring some good ideas to the table and we felt
- 15:34Speaker 3: the team needed. I thought, I felt like, I think
- 15:37Speaker 3: that was really cool that we cam up with a
- 15:40Speaker 3: good schedule for the guys and able to get some
- 15:42Speaker 3: structured recovery in and I think that was good for us.
- 15:45Speaker 3: I think that helped us beg you.
- 15:51Speaker 6: Greg, Mike, there's a scenario out there. I think that
- 15:56Speaker 6: the Detroit San Francisco game Monday night could have an
- 15:59Speaker 6: effect on your situation tiebreakers. When are you expecting the
- 16:03Speaker 6: league will tell you when you're playing Saturday or Sunday
- 16:06Speaker 6: against the Rams.
- 16:08Speaker 3: To my the way I understand it now, I'm anticipating
- 16:11Speaker 3: them letting us know on Sunday. That's all games.
- 16:16Speaker 6: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, end of games Sunday like Sunday night.
- 16:19Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, Okay, don't I mean, I
- 16:22Speaker 3: know this is on tape, but don't quote me on that.
- 16:25Speaker 3: That's that's my understanding, right That was.
- 16:27Speaker 6: The reason I ask, is is it? I guess? I mean,
- 16:30Speaker 6: it's possible. You'd have to do it if they made you,
- 16:32Speaker 6: but it would be suboptimal to not know by at
- 16:35Speaker 6: least the end of Sunday, if you had to play
- 16:37Speaker 6: six days later.
- 16:38Speaker 3: Right, Well, I think that's why they're probably on that
- 16:42Speaker 3: time schedule. Right now, we're operating under the assumption that
- 16:46Speaker 3: we're going to be playing on Saturday, because that might
- 16:48Speaker 3: that's the earliest we can play. So that's that's how
- 16:51Speaker 3: we have a we have a kind of a secondary
- 16:52Speaker 3: plan if it if we play Sunday. Right now, we're
- 16:55Speaker 3: operating as if we're going to play on on Saturday.
- 16:58Speaker 1: Okay, thank you, mas Veta.
- 17:03Speaker 4: Hey, Mike, how would you assess your overall play of
- 17:06Speaker 4: the offensive line? You get her in twenty two yards rushing?
- 17:09Speaker 4: Gino gets sacked three times, and I think you mentioned
- 17:11Speaker 4: last night you just couldn't finish the drives. Just your
- 17:14Speaker 4: overall assessment of the old line.
- 17:16Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I think you you got it surrounded there.
- 17:19Speaker 3: I mean, did a lot of good things to run
- 17:21Speaker 3: the ball and move some people when we needed to.
- 17:24Speaker 3: I felt like there's some some meat left on the
- 17:26Speaker 3: bone on the run game that we can tighten that
- 17:29Speaker 3: up and keep chasing. And then yeah, you're right, just
- 17:34Speaker 3: when we when we get the ball and plus territory
- 17:35Speaker 3: as a whole offense, let's keep it, let's get let's
- 17:37Speaker 3: finish that thing in the end zone.
- 17:41Speaker 1: Anything else. All right, Thank you everyone. We'll see you
- 17:45Speaker 1: here Monday.
- 17:47Speaker 3: All right, travel safe, guys. Thanks