Mike Macdonald says Seahawks loss his responsibility as lack of turnovers, tackling stood out

RENTON – It’s one thing as a head coach to say you will shoulder all responsibility for a team’s performance when it’s training camp or preseason and nothing is on the line. Or to do so when things are going well

It’s another to take that on when the inevitable bumps in the road occur.

After the first regular-season loss of his NFL head coaching career, Monday night’s 42-29 defeat at Detroit, Mike Macdonald made clear once again that when it comes to the Seahawks’ proverbial buck, it stops with him.

“Whatever shows up on tape is my responsibility,’’ he said Wednesday.

“At the end of the day, I’m responsible for what goes on out there. And our guys are fighting their tails off to go do it. No player is ever going to show up and want to do it the wrong way. Everybody wants to win, everybody wants to be productive, and everybody wants to have success. The secret sauce is when you can get it planned together, they’re playing for one another, and they’re excited for everybody else’s success.“

He said those words before a team meeting Wednesday that was followed by a walk-through at the VMAC, the first steps for the Seahawks in attempting to move on from their unsuccessful operation in Detroit.

Most of the blame fell on a defense that gave up 42 points and for the third straight game did not force a turnover.

Some regression from the first three games – when the Seahawks allowed only 43 points combined – was expected because of the uptick in competition and injury issues that meant they played the second half without six key defensive players.

Macdonald reiterated the Seahawks needed to respond better regardless.

“It’s never as good and never as bad (as it seemed at the time),’’ he said of what the film showed. “But it was pretty consistent with what I reported right after the game. There’s just some uncharacteristic mistakes that we weren’t expecting. And then Detroit did a great job with their plan and their execution, too.

“So you don’t want to take anything away from them, but it’s just an overall, ‘Hey, it’s a one play at a time mindset. How focused can we be? Can we have the obnoxious communication that we’re chasing so we can avoid some of those mistakes and then let’s finish plays.’“

Macdonald did provide more clarity to what went wrong on one of the game’s key plays – a 70-yard TD pass from Detroit quarterback Jared Goff to Jameson Williams after the Seahawks had cut the score to 28-20.

Both safeties – Rayshawn Jenkins and K’Von Wallace, who was in the game with Julian Love sidelined with a quad contusion – blitzed, which left the middle of the field wide open.

Macdonald’s pointed to a communication error.

“It was just a mental error,’’ he said. “And we didn’t have a post player.”

Tellingly, Wallace saw action on only two more snaps, both in three-safety sets, with Coby Bryant getting the bulk of the two-safety snaps alongside Jenkins in place of Love.

Without Love’s leadership and communication in the back end, things seemed to be lacking as they gave up two drives of 70 and another of 80 on Detroit’s first four second-half possessions, all ending in touchdowns. The good news is he may be back this week as Macdonald said Love seems to be “doing OK.’’

As for the play of Wallace and Bryant filling in, Macdonald said:

“There’s area for improvement, without going into all of the specifics and stuff. Again, whoever steps in there, there are plenty of reps to go around. The expectation is we’re going play the right way, our style of football, and get the job done. I think you can speak for anybody that was on the field on Monday night, we just didn’t do that.”

Two other areas also stood out – the Seahawks not forcing a turnover and Detroit’s yards after the catch.

The Seahawks have been stuck at three forced turnovers since the Denver game, when they got two interceptions off Broncos QB Bo Nix and recovered a fumble. Only five teams in the NFL have created fewer.

Forcing turnovers was one of the characteristics of Macdonald’s Baltimore defenses – the Ravens led the NFL last year with 31.

“Everyone’s got their theories on it,’’ he said. “But you can’t go three games with no take-aways and two games in a row losing the takeaway battle and expect to have success. So, that’s definitely a point of emphasis with us. But, you’ve got to do it the right way. The ball comes alive when you play the right way on defense.“

The Lions also got a whopping 219 yards after the catch, via Pro Football Focus, on 299 passing yards.

The Seahawks had allowed only 249 yards after the catch in the first three games combined. Some of that was because of a few missed tackles, notably one by cornerback Devon Witherspoon on a short pass that running back David Montgomery turned into a 40-yard gain by evading a few other Seahawks along the way.

The Williams catch added another 55 of YAC.

PFF cited the Seahawks for only seven missed tackles for the game, which is on average with the 29 the Seahawks have for the season.

“There’s not one reason, it’s a couple,’’ Macdonald said of the yards after catch issues. ” … So we need to get that corrected and then when you’re open down the field and there’s nobody in the post, there’s going to be a lot of YAC (yards after catch), too. So, I think there’s a few things going on there.”