Latest / Seahawks Press Pass / Head Coach Mike Macdonald Recaps Week 5, Looks Ahead To Week 6 vs. Broncos

Transcript

Head Coach Mike Macdonald Recaps Week 5, Looks Ahead To Week 6 vs. Broncos · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: I don't think we have any more injury updates from
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: this morning, but I'll try to enlighten you as best
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: I can if you have questions on guys.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: With Zach, just to reiterate, you don't expect.
• 0:17
  Speaker 4: Him to play?
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: I'll leave it at that. As of right now, answer
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: is no. Subject to change. Not to be boxed in there, Bob.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Wiggle room.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: You guys are seeing a little bit higher time to
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: throw this year than last year, but also seeing a
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: higher pressure rate. Are you seeing it as protections breaking down,
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: causing a longer time to throw, or maybe the decisiveness
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: isn't there and so more pressure's coming?
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think all those things. I would say it's not.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: We haven't really clicked yet in terms of the timing
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: of our pass game coinciding with the protections. Something we're
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: aware of, you know, something we're kind of falls on
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: everybody's front, you know, everybody's area responsibility.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: But I think that sounds about right.
• 1:13
  Speaker 5: With Zach, how much of your plan with him, your
• 1:15
  Speaker 5: plan as of now to not play him, is related to, like,
• 1:18
  Speaker 5: what this week looks like, a short week and the
• 1:20
  Speaker 5: mode that you guys are in and all that?
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: I don't want to– it's like– We have to have
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: consensus from all parties that.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: He's ready to go.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: He's the most confident and ready to go, that he's
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: had enough exposure to go play an NFL game. And
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: so those are the variables at play here. And can
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: one area of that equation, can that adjust as we go?
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: But we're trying to do right by the process right now,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: I guess is the best way to explain it.
• 2:00
  Speaker 6: You've talked about the opportunity for growth in the offense
• 2:03
  Speaker 6: and the team in general. How much of that is
• 2:06
  Speaker 6: to be expected when you have a new offensive coordinator
• 2:08
  Speaker 6: and it's just taking a little while to get into it?
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: We expect to grow in all three phases. There's a
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: sense of urgency to go. I think sometimes you grow
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: best by doubling down on your core competencies and the
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: things you believe in. I think I think that's something
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: we want to focus on is making sure that we're
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: all aligned in all the things from players to coaches
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: and how we want to play and how we want
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: to execute and what's expected of us. But, yeah, I mean,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: we're growing on defense. You know, we're growing on special teams.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: I think you saw our special teams take a jump yesterday.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: So offense is right there with them, but there's a
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: sense of urgency to get going.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: On that, what are the factors you need for a
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: team to play decisively on the list and shocking from
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: this morning?
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Decisiveness is mind, body, and spirit.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: It's clarity. It's a sense of connectedness. It's confidence.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: It's a feeling of I'm letting go of the result
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: because I'm very confident in the things I'm going to
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: do process-wise and the inputs.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: That's decisiveness. Shocking is the level of detail.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: It's It's all the things that go into what makes
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: running a great slant route. You know, it's what makes
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: eat come to life. It's what makes, you know, people
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: talk about silent tape all the time. What pops off
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: the silent tape and relentless is the spirit we have of, of.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Playing without circumstance.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: We just, we just go, we go until the job's done.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: And I think, I think there's definitely, there's, you know, there's, there's,
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: there's evidence of that throughout the game, right? I mean,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: I think, I think you watched a relentless team yesterday.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: I think we are those things a lot of the times,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: but it hasn't been as connected and as consistent enough
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: to put great Seahawk football out there to the degree
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: and the caliber that we believe that we can get to.
• 4:10
  Speaker 6: Mike, when you've played on a short week in the past,
• 4:13
  Speaker 6: I guess what have you learned over the years as
• 4:15
  Speaker 6: to the priorities that you have to make to get
• 4:18
  Speaker 6: ready for?
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sure.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: We've tweaked our schedule a little bit. We've done it
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: multiple ways. I mean, you're fighting kind of a battle
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: on two fronts. It's the health body battle of trying
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: to get your body ready to play the best you can.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: And so how you recover and how you kind of
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: get reps without going full speed, there's an element there.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: It's also something we said about getting your body moving
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: at some point before the game. So that's something we consider.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: That's number one. And then two, it's the balance of
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: having a great, clear, concise... aggressive plan that you could
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: go execute at a high level. What do you do
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: to get ready for the altitude? I mean, there's some
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: things like recovery-wise, nutrition-wise, rest-wise on how we're going to
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: go into the week, but it's more of an awareness
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: and then maybe some strategy things involved on our front,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: but it's kind of in the player performance realm of
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: how we're attacking it.
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: Robert Henry, what's his status of progress, and why was
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: he not active yesterday?
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: We dressed three backs yesterday. He's coming along. He's doing
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: a good job on the team. He could be ready
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: to play if we needed him.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: In that situation, does he just get a subset or
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: package for him until he learns the whole playbook, or
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: you need him to be spun up pretty well before
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: you'll play him?
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Well, it would have to– I mean, there's different criteria
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: for having guys up. Does he need to know everything?
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: No.
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: After watching the film, do you have any different view
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: of the final, the play with Cooper and kind of
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: the measurements and how that all developed?
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: No, they said the ball didn't cross. I mean, they
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: looked at it and they said the ball didn't cross
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: the line. I mean, I could tell them I disagree,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: but they don't care what I think.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: You guys last year, eight-up man coverage. Teams stopped kind
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: of playing it against you for a while. This year
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: it's kind of gone the other way, and now teams
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: are increasing the amount of man coverage you're seeing.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: What do you think is different?
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Well, I'd probably argue that we see about the same
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: amount of man on early downs and probably some more
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: on more passing downs. But we've got to be able
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: to win. you know, teams are, teams are going to
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: do what they think they can do is successful. So
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: if we're seeing more man, that means that they think
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: they can play more man. So we're going to have to,
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: we're gonna have to beat man.
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: Big picture, Mike, how do you view the job that
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: Brian has done so far? And like, how do you
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: assess that in the context of the things that are
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: not going well with your offense run game turnovers?
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we, we talked about it, uh, with last week,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: like his, his, his approach of like trying to find
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: solutions and working through things that arise.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: I think he's done a great job of that.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Um, We're scoring points, but we're not as efficient, and
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: we've turned the ball over at a similar click that
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: we did early last year.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: But I think he's doing a good job. I think
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: he's doing a good job.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: But we've got to continue as an offensive staff, and
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: Brian's leading our offensive staff, of generating really clear plans
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: that we can execute. And as an offense, executing at
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: really a higher level. I don't want execution to say
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: it's like we're punting anything off on play.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: It drives me crazy when coaches are like, hey, we're
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: just going to execute better. It's like, yeah, no kidding.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: That's our job. But it's our job as a.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Football team to carry our responsibilities better and take care
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: of the football.
• 8:02
  Speaker 6: I don't know if you saw Jax's post-game comments, but
• 8:04
  Speaker 6: he's pretty hard on himself for that one ball he
• 8:06
  Speaker 6: didn't come down with for a guy who's accomplished all
• 8:09
  Speaker 6: he has when he's beaten himself over one play.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: What does that kind of tell you about him?
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: I'm not surprised to hear that from Jax, but, I mean,
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: is there a player you trust more with the ball
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: thrown to him on the planet?
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: I don't think so.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: It doesn't change one bit the way we see it.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: It was a really tough catch. I know he wants
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: to come down with it. We obviously have faith that
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: he'll catch those passes, but nobody we trust more than JSM.
• 8:39
  Speaker 5: With the offense not clicking yet the way you guys
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: want it to, Sam's leadership, his demeanor, how helpful do
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: you think that is as you guys continue to try
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: to find the right path?
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think Sam's a great representation of everyone we
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: have on offense and really on our football team. I mean,
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: we get a lot of questions on offense, but as
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: a team, there's things we fell short of yesterday.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: We take ownership of our area responsibility.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: And when your quarterback is one of those guys leading
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: the charge saying that, hey, I got to do X, Y,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: and Z better, I think it sets the table for
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: everybody else at play to have the same mentality. And
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: I think if you have that mentality, you got a
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: really good chance to improve. So, um, I said this morning,
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: I really, I really love our group.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: I love the people involved. I trust them. Um, so
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: let's go have at it, you know, let's go get better.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: When you have a fan sitting on the couch and
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: they see one guy that keeps catching the ball, they're like, well,
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: why don't you just double that guy or take that
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: guy with Can you help people understand a little bit
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: what you're trading off when you have to make those
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: decisions defensively?
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: I'd love to.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: I'm assuming you're talking about with number five yesterday. I
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: can tell you there's reasons why we were in certain
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: coverages when he did catch the ball. Sometimes you're right
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: on why you're in those coverages and sometimes you're not.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: When you double a guy, it takes away from other
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: areas and just because he catches the ball doesn't mean
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: that you don't have two people allocated to him so
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: um i understand it's probably frustrating to to um to
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: see that and it's frankly it's a fair set it's
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: a fair fair criticism um.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: But uh.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: I can tell you like we're trying to make the
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: best decision in real time we can to help our
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: guys put in in situations that we can based off
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: of the information we have and Sometimes as a play caller,
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: you nail it, and you feel great because your player
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: is in a great spot. Sometimes you don't, and your
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: player isn't in the optimum spot. And that happens sometimes,
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: That happens.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: Mike Pritchett and Trevon Diggs, are they earning more snaps
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: with their play so far?
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: Well, I talked about this this morning a little bit,
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: but I think– What's cool about our group is that
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: everyone's in competition with not just their position group, but really.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: How we deploy everybody else. So the answer to that
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: is yes.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: But how we do it, how we deploy our people,
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: it's really a week-to-week thing. It's an in-game thing. It
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: is hard to kind of change how you're going to
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: personnel things based off of how you practice, and sometimes
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: it's easier to change with how you're calling it rather
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: than how you– change people in game, but.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Those guys are doing a good job. They're doing a
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: good job.
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: How do you weigh when to keep Witherspoon inside and
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: affect maybe the game more directly and keep him on
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: outside corner? Is that specifically game plan dependent, or are
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: there some things that you're giving and taking there when
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: you move him outside?
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Well, it starts with he's a game-changing nickel. where people
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: have to account for him when he's inside. And he's
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: a really good outside corner as well, but he's.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Probably the best nickel in the game. So that's a
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: trade-off that you have to keep in mind.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: The way that Mighty is playing, Nehemiah, and what Josh
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: does well, I think that complements what we do.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: And then when you have Nick.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: The way we've been using him, he allows us to
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: do certain things. by how we've utilized Nick as well.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: So it's not just in a vacuum of how we're
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: using Spoon, but you've got to consider just how that
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: changes how we use the rest of our people. Mike,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: when you went back and watched the film, what stood
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: out about Byron's game yesterday?
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Byron's playing dominant football right now, and.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: I think we've got to do a better job around
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: him so he can, you know, so those plays come
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: to life a little bit more, setting up some of
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: the more past situations where he went on early downs.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: But, yeah, Byron's playing really great.
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: Looking ahead to Thursday, what are the Broncos doing well?
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Man, they're a tough team. They're really talented. Defensively, they
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: pair their personnel well with their scheme. They're aggressive. They
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: do a really good job defensively. affecting the quarterback, affecting
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: the ball, denying the ball. Offensively, it's kind of a
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: tried and true scheme that Sean's done over time. I
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: know he just took over play calling again. But the
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: quarterback's playing at a high level, extends plays. You know,
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: complimentary football.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: They're a good football team.
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: What's Elijah Roya got to do to take a next
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: step in packing?
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: I think it's a similar answer to what we're talking
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: about on defense. He's not just in competition with the
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: tight ends, but it's a receiver thing. It's a back
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: thing about having productivity when you're in practice and nailing
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: those things in practice so your role can expand.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: And then when you get opportunities in the game, making
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: it come to life, taking advantage of it.
• 14:26
  Speaker 6: Mike, we didn't ask you about this last Friday, but
• 14:28
  Speaker 6: Mike Ditka passing, I mean, is it? guy who studies
• 14:31
  Speaker 6: the game and appreciates, you know, good teams, good defenses.
• 14:34
  Speaker 6: What can you say about the impact he had on
• 14:36
  Speaker 6: the league?
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: He's one of those icons as a kid that you just,
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: you associate Mike Ditka with the NFL, you know, he
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: kind of is the NFL and for, you know, have
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: the opportunity to have, you know, work with Leslie and
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: Leslie playing for coach Ditka. It's cool to hear Leslie's,
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: you know, how he remembers coach Ditka, like, how he
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: went about his business, what type of person he was.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Really the cool thing I learned about him was like.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: How he went out of his way to be there for,
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: without getting all the details that he shared with me,
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: but like going out of your way to be there
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: for the people when no one's really paying attention. Like
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: when your players need you, your coaches, the people outside, um,
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: even when you're done coaching to maintain those relationships, uh,
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: kind of reminds you of why we do everything, why
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: we do what we do, you know? Um, So that
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: was really special to.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Hear when you hear about it.
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: Did you ever meet him or cross paths with him?
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: No, no, I was never able to meet him. That
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: would have been awesome. Anything else?
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: All right, thank you.
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: Thank you.