Commentary: So far, Mike Macdonald hiring hasn’t fixed Seahawks defense

SEATTLE – Let’s drop all pretenses that the Seahawks’ defense is somehow fixed. In fact, this Seahawks defense might not even be improved.

An uptick in performance on that side of the ball was supposed to be a built-in feature that came with the hiring of Mike Macdonald, the defensive whiz who shined as a coordinator with Michigan and the Baltimore Ravens.

A coach of his caliber seemed necessary for Seattle, which finished 30th in total defense last season and hasn’t cracked the top 20 since 2019. His schemes and ingenuity were supposed to revitalize the phase of the game that defined this franchise during its Super Bowl years last decade.

And maybe Macdonald still can. The season is only five games old. But these past two losses are a reminder that it’s still a players league – coaches aren’t a panacea.

The Seahawks’ 29-20 loss to the Giants on Sunday was one of the more glaring defeats in recent franchise history. There is a reason Seattle (3-2) came into the game as a whopping 7-point favorite, and it wasn’t just because it was a home team that had won three of its past four contests.

The Giants (2-3) were depleted. They were playing without standout receiver Malik Nabers and running back Devin Singletary. Moreover, even with those two, New York entered the game averaging less than 300 yards per game, which placed the team in the bottom third of the league in total offense.

Then Sunday happened, when the Giants not only emerged with a 9-point win but made it clear that the defensive issues that plagued Seattle in the final years of the Pete Carroll era remain today.

The Giants racked up 420 yards, including 175 on the ground. They possessed the ball for over 37 minutes. The Seahawks did manage to force a couple three and outs – including one toward the end of the game to give them a chance to win. And they knocked the ball out of running back Eric Gray’s hand on fourth and goal from the 1, leading to a 102-yard fumble recovery touchdown run by Rayshawn Jenkins.

But in the words of linebacker Jerome Baker, who forced that fumble in the first quarter: “Even if you look at that drive, they drove the whole field. So, yeah, we were happy we got the turnover and the points, but we also didn’t stop them.”

No, they didn’t. Just like they didn’t stop the Lions – who completed all 19 of their passes and averaged 7.8 yards per play in their 42-29 win over Seattle last Monday. Just like they really didn’t stop the Patriots, who despite losing in overtime in Week 2, ran for 185 yards on 36 carries and gifted the Seahawks a missed field goal.

Really, the only two games in which Seattle has put up noteworthy defensive stats were against the Broncos and Dolphins. Was it because of dominance on that side of the ball? Or was it because Denver was debuting a shaky Bo Nix at quarterback, and because Miami was playing without Tua Tagovailoa behind center?

After Sunday’s loss to the Giants, Macdonald didn’t expand too elaborately about the defensive struggles.

“We got outplayed and out-executed today. That’s what happened. I thought we made some good adjustments as the game went on,” he said. “I’m not sure what the numbers are saying, but when we did create third downs in the first half we didn’t get off the field.”

But perhaps Macdonald made a nonverbal statement about the defense at the beginning of the fourth quarter, when the Seahawks were down seven and faced a fourth-and-1 from their 35-yard line. Macdonald decided to go for it, and it resulted in quarterback Geno Smith being sacked and the Giants scoring on a field goal on the ensuing possession.

Maybe this was simply analytics and Seattle would have tried to move the sticks regardless of how the defense had been playing. More likely, Macdonald saw a unit that couldn’t keep the Giants off the field all game and decided he needed to get a first down. Might have been the difference in the game.

Last Monday, Seattle could have pointed to the absence of an array of players on the defensive front as an excuse for their shoddy performance vs. Detroit. But they were much healthier vs. the Giants, who were a long way from healthy themselves.

The truth is, there is a whole lot of work to do defensively. Coaches matter in the NFL – perhaps more so than any major professional sport. They aren’t a cure, though. If the Seahawks want to stop this losing streak, they better figure out how to stop an offense.