The Seahawks beat the Falcons 37-9 on Sunday, and for all the big plays on offense and key stops on defense, what stood out most to Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald was the way his players celebrated each other after those big plays.
"Coming out of that game, I think kind of the lasting image that's in my mind is the guys celebrating with each other," Macdonald said Monday when asked about rookie Nick Emmanwori's big game. "Just the joy they have when their teammates have success. Talking about 12 as One, that's it right there in a nutshell. Happy for Nick, all the work he's put in, he's had a tremendous game, guys were excited for him, so that was really cool."
In addition to those celebratory good vibes, here are five things we learned from Macdonald's Monday presser.
1. Injury updates and Jalen Sundell's return.
The Seahawks saw rookie tight end Elijah Arroyo exit Sunday's game early due to a knee injury. Nose tackle Brandon Pili was also briefly sidelined by a knee injury but was able to return, and Macdonald said after the game that Pili was OK.
As for Arroyo, Macdonald said they're still working through the specifics of the injury, but that it is unlikely he will play this week.
"Elijah's got a knee," Macdonald said. "Just working through it right now, but I'd say this week's probably in jeopardy for him."
Macdonald also said that center Jalen Sundell should return to practice this week after missing the last four games on injured reserve due to a knee injury.
"Yeah, Jalen should be back this week, yeah," Macdonald said.
Macdonald has praised the play of Olu Oluwatimi in Sundell's absence, and Sundell competed at right guard in camp before settling in at center while Oluwatimi was sidelined by an injury, give the Seahawks some options with how they want to configure their line when he is back.
Asked what the plan was for Sundell when he's back, Macdonald only offered, "We'll see."
Macdonald was also asked about Emmanwori, who briefly left the game with an apparent hand injury that was checked out on the sideline, and who quickly returned.
"I haven't heard anything since he went back in the game, so I'm assuming that he's OK," Macdonald said. "I haven't heard anything on that front."
2. Rashid Shaheed makes the Seahawks more dangerous.
Playing in his fifth game with the Seahawks since arriving in a midseason trade, Rashid Shaheed had his breakout moment, returning a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown to jumpstart a big second half. Shaheed also had his best game on offense, catching four passes for 67 yards.
Getting Shaheed going and having a player with his speed to play off of Jaxon Smith-Njigba and the rest of Seattle's pass catchers should be a big help to Seattle's offense moving forward.
"That's obviously a huge part of the reason why we decided to trade for him," Macdonald said. "He's another great piece to our offense. We've got a lot of great weapons, including Jax, obviously, our tight end room, our runners, the rest of our wideouts are really talented as well. To me it's like, as a football team, what's our competitive advantage? It's the synergy of the group. It's the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, it's 12 as One, however you want to say it. If you can play together and you can play off of one another all the time and accentuate your teammates' strengths and build your teammates up and help your teammates have success, that's a powerful thing. So if Sheed's going in there and he's blocking in the run game and he's carrying it in some of the receiver run game, and then he's also running the whole route tree and making plays in the pass game, that's just going to make us that more dangerous, which is really cool."
As for Shaheed's kick return, Macdonald said the play was a great team effort combing good blocking with Shaheed's return skills.
"There were a lot of great blocks," Macdonald said. "Brady (Russell) made a great block—Brady played a phenomenal game on special teams, made a great play on punt. Paddy O (Patrick O'Connell) made a great block on that play. There were a lot of great blocks—I can't single out everybody—then he made a great run as well. It was definitely a team effort. It was a really great play everybody involved."
3. Assistant coaches had a big hand in Seattle's third-down success.
Seattle's defense has been good on third down all season, but it was particularly dominant on Sunday. The Falcons converted on just one of 13 third-down attempts—their first—and all three takeaways came on third down, with DeMarcus Lawrence forcing a fumble on a third-and-1 run, and with Emmanwori and Devon Witherspoon both intercepting third-down passes.
"I've got to give (defensive passing game coordinator/defensive backs coach) Karl Scott a lot of credit," Macdonald said. "He always has great ideas every week, he does a lot of the third-down game planning for us, and he was convicted about some of the calls we had this past game, and it was great to see those things come to life. And the guys did a great job executing it. Nick's interceptions, that's a defense we don't play that often, and the guys executed it phenomenally well. It was really Karl's idea, and it was great to make it come to life. And then on the short-yardage play, that's (outside linebackers coach) Chris Partridge's area, he does a great job game planning for that, he always has a great plan every week. It gives the guys a lot of confidence, and then at the end of the day, guys have to go make plays and attack the football. We had a funny little TV copy debate on who actually got the ball out, whether it was J-Reed or D-Law on the forced fumble. It turns out DeMarcus beat him by a hair there, so, sorry J-Reed. Next time buddy."
4. Anthony Bradford had a good game against the Falcons.
In Sunday's game, Seahawks right guard, Anthony Bradford was Seattle's highest graded offensive lineman by Pro Football Focus.
"AB graded out as our highest offensive lineman yesterday," Macdonald said. "He's playing hard, he's got a great punch."
According to Next Gen Stats, through 34 pass block snaps, Bradford didn't allow a sack and allowed just one quarterback pressure.
"I think his overall confidence is probably at a high point in his career at this point," Macdonald added. "He's practicing really well, he practices hard. He's doing all of those steps that it takes to end up putting good football out on the field."
While Macdonald said there is room for Bradford to improve in some parts of his game, he said there's, "a lot" Bradford is doing well.
"I know there's some plays that minuses or plays that aren't up to par, but there's a lot of great plays as well, and I thought he had a good game yesterday."
5. When Sam Darnold is clicking, the Seahawks are "playing really efficient football."
After what was a quiet first half for Sam Darnold vs. the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, the second half of the game was a different story. In the first half alone, Darnold completed nine passes for 67 yards and was intercepted once. In the second half, he went 11 for 15 threw for 182 yards and three touchdowns.
"I just thought we got a little bit more in rhythm on offense and it was more successful on first down," Macdonald said. "Had a couple actually get back on track, good plays, explosives. I think it's really that simple, you know. And it's a credit to Sam and our coaches of just, sticking to it, we're going to work through our game plan and make some adjustments and not get frazzled or discouraged or frustrated and just keep hammering away, and then eventually, we'll find some things that start to click. I thought Klint (Kubiak) called a great game in the second half and really set up some great plays. And I thought Sam played really well, especially late in the down. It's really accurate, but it really made some plays there when initially nothing was there, especially on that his last touchdown pass was a phenomenal play."
Outside of Darnold's one interception, and taking two sacks, he played an otherwise clean game, but Macdonald knows the turnovers are one part of his game he needs to improve on.
Macdonald said, "If you just look at how many times we turned the ball over, I think we'd all say it's too many. But I think Sam's playing really good football for us. There's a couple plays a game where, we got to protect the ball a bit better. But when Sam's clicking and he has been for the majority of the season, we're playing really efficient football and he's leading the charge for us. So keep plugging away, keep attacking it. Keep slinging the ball and we'll just, again, like every other position, there's always things that correct from a week-to-week basis. Find new things to screw up, we'll keep growing from it together and let's go rock and roll."
