Seahawks open Mike Macdonald era with dominant preseason win over Chargers

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – As opening acts go, the Seahawks couldn’t have asked for much more out of the coaching debut of Mike Macdonald as Seattle beat the Los Angeles Chargers 16-3 at SoFi Stadium Saturday.

All the usual caveats about the preseason apply, of course.

Both teams mostly played backups – including at quarterback – and each tried not to show a whole lot.

But Seattle dominated statistically, outgaining the Chargers 325-198 and scoring two touchdowns in the span of 2:28 in the second quarter to break the game open.

Maybe most impressive was the first viewing of the Macdonald-influenced defense.

The 37-year-old earned a rep as a budding defensive genius during his meteoric rise up the coaching profession, and while this may be as easy of a test as Seattle’s defense will get all season, it certainly passed with flying colors as the Chargers had just four first downs and 93 yards through three quarters, scoring only on a Cameron Dicker 58-yard field goal.

The Seahawks also played a mostly clean game as they had no turnovers and just one penalty through the first three quarters.

Here’s more of what stood out as the Seahawks improved to 1-0 for the preseason.

Defensive starters play two flawless series

The team’s starting defense – minus projected starting weakside linebacker Jerome Baker, who is out with a hamstring injury – played the first two series.

But as Macdonald might have hoped, they were not on the field long as Seattle’s starters forced two three-and-outs against a Chargers offense that went with backup Easton Stick at QB (starter Justin Herbert is injured) but did have four of five offensive line starters active.

The starting defense featured no surprises and consisted of outside rushers Boye Mafe and Uchenna Nwosu, interior linemen Leonard Williams, Jarran Reed and Johnathan Hankins, inside linebackers Knight and Tyrel Dodson, safeties Rayshawn Jenkins and Julian Love and cornerbacks Riq Woolen and Devon Witherspoon.

Woolen broke up a pass on third down to end the first drive. The second drive featured a tackle for no gain by middle linebacker Dodson, who is stepping into the role for the departed Bobby Wagner.

Defense dominates throughout

The backup defense also mostly had its way through the early portion of the game as the Chargers had five three-and-outs and a first-play interception on their first six possessions, gaining only 15 yards on their first 13 plays.

It was the defense that set up Seattle’s second TD in the second quarter when K’Von Wallace leveled tight end Hayden Hurst on a pass over the middle with the ball then careening into the arms of safety Coby Bryant for an interception.

That put the ball at the Chargers 21, and Seattle scored four plays later on an 11-yard George Holani run to take a 13-0 lead (which came after the Seahawks had scored on a 13-yard pass from Sam Howell to tight end Brady Russell a few minutes earlier).

First-round pick Byron Murphy II played tackle with the second unit and had a nice debut. He had a tackle for a loss of one on an Isaiah Spiller run in the second quarter and also just missed out on a sack after a hard rush late in the second quarter, with teammate Derick Hall then getting the sack instead (Hall also played well with five tackles).

Knight, a fourth-round pick out of UTEP, played the entire first half, going with both the starters and the backups, finishing with four tackles.

Offense goes with just three starters

Seattle’s offense, meanwhile, featured mostly backups. Starting QB Geno Smith, receivers Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf and a few others went through warmups in full pads but, as expected, did not play. Instead, backup Howell got the start at QB, with the only listed starters playing being guards Laken Tomlinson and Anthony Bradford and receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

Tomlinson and Bradford were replaced in the second quarter by rookie Christian Haynes and Raiqwon O’Neal with Seattle going with almost all backups the final three quarters.

Howell had some decent moments, notably running for a 14-yard gain to pick up a third-and-10 in the first quarter, the TD pass to Russell that capped a 12-play, 59-yard drive and put Seattle up 7-0 with 13:33 to play in the second quarter.

Howell also completed a pass of four yards to Kenny McIntosh to pick up a third-and-four on Seattle’s next drive following Bryant’s pick, which led to Holani’s 11-yard TD.

Howell finished the game 16-of-27 for 130 yards, one touchdown – and maybe most important no interceptions after leading the NFL in that category last year by tossing 21 with Washington.

Still, he also showed some of the inconsistency that has plagued him at times in camp, such as when he simply threw a pass into the ground and at the feet of Laviska Shenault Jr. on a first down in the second quarter and another time when he was short on a pass I the flat to Russell in the third quarter.

P.J. Walker entered the game late in the third quarter and led the Seahawks to a field goal to cap the scoring in the fourth quarter.

Third running back battle grows more intriguing

One of the more interesting position battles looming features second-year player McIntosh and rookie Holani fighting for the third running back spot behind starter Kenneth Walker III (who didn’t play) and backup Zach Charbonnet (who got one series and had two carries for six yards)

The battle might have only grown tighter in the way that the coaches like – each playing well.

McIntosh, in his first extended action as a Seahawk after he missed most of last year due to injuries, rushed for 40 yards on eight carries in the first half and had two receptions, including the aforementioned four-yarder that set up Holani’s TD run.

Holani, meanwhile, had the TD run and also a tackle in space on a punt in the second quarter and finished with 19 yards on five carries and six yards on two receptions.

Holani, though, couldn’t get the ball in the end zone on two tries from the 1 in the third quarter. On third down, a pass from Howell appeared a bit outside and Holani was pushed out of bounds at the 1 for no gain.

Seattle decided to go for it on fourth-and-one at the one, and Holani was stuffed for no gain on a run up the middle.

Holani, though, appeared to have nowhere to go on the fourth-down run with Seattle’s line getting pushed back.

Harris gets surprise start at center – where help is coming soon

In what might have been the only real lineup surprise, Nick Harris got the start at center ahead of Olu Oluwatimi.

Oluwatimi, a second-year player out of Michigan, is listed atop the depth chart and has usually worked with the first team during camp.

However, Macdonald said this week the battle is wide open and appeared to live up to his word going with Harris.

Neither, though, may be starting when the season begins as Connor Williams, a free agent who agreed to a contract last week, is expected to begin practicing this week and most assume he will quickly take over the starting role at center after having started there the last two years with Miami – though he is also coming off an ACL suffered on Dec. 11 and Williams will have to show his knee is ready to handle all that football requires.