The Seahawks are back in Seattle following an impressive 31-17 road victory in Pittsburgh, and a day after that Week 2 win, head coach Mike Macdonald gave his thought on the game, while also providing a few injury updates, during his Monday press conference.

Here are five things we learned from Macdonald's session with the media on Monday:

1. The defense is setting a high standard early while still looking to grow.

The Seahawks have allowed only 17 points in each of their past two games, and in many ways have been even better than that, particularly in Sunday's win in Pittsburgh. Of those 17 points the Steelers scored, 11 came on two drives that started in Seahawks territory following turnovers, and on Pittsburgh's other nine possessions that started on its own side of the field, the Steelers offense managed to produce just a pair of field goals.

Add to that some impressive play from the defensive front, a secondary that was stingy even without two of its top defensive backs, and rock solid linebacker play led by Ernest Jones IV, and there's a lot to like about what Seattle has done on defense so far this season. The caveat, of course, is that the season is only two weeks old, so the Seahawks have to build on that and continue to grow as the season progresses.

"Our guys are playing really hard, our details and execution improved from Week 1 to Week 2, which is a positive trend, something we've got to keep going," Macdonald said. "The message to our guys is, 'Look, it's on tape. The standard of how we want to be is how we want to be, and it's nonnegotiable.' That's the expectation on how we need to play moving forward. The guys are determined, they understand that there's plenty of room for growth, it's early. And I think they also understand what it takes to play great football, and that's the preparation you do in the offseason, the connection you build with your teammates, being able to live through some of the storms you're going to get, whether it be through injuries or things that happen in game, and play great situational football when the time comes. So we understand the standard, we're just trying to nail the process right now."

2. Sam Darnold was "unflappable" in his first win as a Seahawk.

Sam Darnold's second start with the Seahawks started with an impressive scoring drive that was capped by a 21-yard touchdown pass to rookie Tory Horton. Darnold's next pass after that, however, was intercepted by Jalen Ramesy, then the Steelers got another interception on a fouth-and-1 pass that was tipped at the line of scrimmage, leading to the Seahawks trailing 14-7 at halftime. Darnold was great other than those two turnovers, however, including two big plays in the fourth quarter that helped the Seahawks secure a win—a third-down escape and completion to AJ Barner to extend a drive, then a 43-yard completion to Jaxon Smith-Njigba on the next play to help set up a Kenneth Walker III touchdown run that put the game out of reach.

"I think Sam's playing great football right now," Macdonald said. "Tough as nails, unflappable. He had a bad throw on the interception, and Ramsey made a great play as well. But other than that, this guy's playing decisive—the play he made on third down there on the second drive of the fourth quarter against that linebacker pressure they had, that was just vintage Sam Darnold, just playing off schedule, making a play, finding AJ, then coming back and throwing the explosive to Jax, which was another phenomenal play. So I think he's playing great football right now."

3. It was a group effort to get Derion Kendrick ready for a big role in Sunday's game.

Two weeks ago, Derion Kendrick was still a member of the Los Angeles Rams, then the cornerback was waived as part of the cutdown to the 53-man roster and claimed by the Seahawks. Kendrick had a small role in the opener, playing only on special teams, but in Week 2, less than two weeks after joining his new team, the Seahawks asked a lot of the fourth-year corner. With Devon Witherspoon out due to a knee injury, Kendrick took over the nickel role, resulting in him playing 42 of 62 defensive snaps. Kendrick's game included a third-down pass breakup he probably should have intercepted, then later an impressive diving interception in the end zone for a critical red zone stop in the second half.

Asked about Kendrick' ability to get up to speed so fast, Macdonald made a point of praising the assistant coaches who helped get him ready.

"I'm not the guy that's meeting with him behind closed doors that extra time, taking him through all the nuances of what he needs to know," Macdonald said. "That's Neiko Thorpe, that's Karl Scott, that's Jeff Howard. Those guys are the ones who really put in the extra time to get it taught. It wasn't like we just put him in there on Wednesday and it was, 'Figure it out.' This is a process that had to go all the way up to gametime and throughout the game to make sure that we were clear. You're always going to tailor your gameplan to your personnel and what you feel like they can do well, and I think that was an example of it as well. But to come in and attack it like he did—really the effort, the competitiveness, what I was most pleased with with his play was he was not backing down, plays through the echo of the whistle. All those things are what we want to be trademarks of our defense."

4. Using The Tush Push In The Right Situations.

In Sunday's game, the Seahawks, for a second week in a row pulled out the AJ Barner tush push to try to convert on a fourth down. Barner was successful in it, as he was in Week 1 and picked up two yards on the play in the second quarter. Later in the game, the Seahawks found themselves in a few fourth-and-one situations. On one of them, not being deep into Pittsburgh's territory, they sent out the punt unit and punted it away. On another, on Pittsburgh's 29-yard line, they opted for a play action pass. That play ended with a tipped Sam Darnold throw that was intercepted. The decision to not pull out a tush push play there may have left some confused, but as Macdonald explained in his press conference on Monday, they were weighing the outcome of how many yards they would gain.

"Can you get over a yard in it," he said. "In that situation, that was part of the conversation. Not saying that we wouldn't do it for a yard or more, but right now that was part of the reason we didn't do it."

On Seattle Sports radio on Monday morning, he said, "We're going to be aggressive on fourth down. We have to be. That's the way the NFL's going. You have to take advantage of these drives. Once you get the ball in plus territory, you have to figure out ways to maximize points."

5. Macdonald likes his team's running back rotation.

In Week 2, Kenneth Walker III was the talk of the Seahawks running back room, finishing the game with 105 rushing yards and a touchdown. In Week 1, Zach Charbonnet led the running back stats sheets.

"I'm pleased with how we're rotating the guys," Macdonald said. "It's hard to project how the games are going to play out. I think we're going into games with a certain plan and then you got to let the plan of the day kind of dictate to itself."

With two backs in Charbonnet and Walker who have both proven how effective they can be, Macdonald and the coaches are trying to find the right balance in rotating them, for purposes of longevity.

"We're playing the long game, but we're also trying to win games and being most productive we can possibly be."

Macdonald also added, "With both the guys, we want them to go the whole year. We need both backs to be effective, great backs for us."

Although Charbonnet wasn't able to get going in Week 2, finishing the game with 15 carries for 10 yards, Macdonald said, "I think they both are playing at a high level with Zach's game, I know that productivity wasn't what he expects, but frankly there just wasn't a lot of opportunities for him. I think the opportunities were there for Ken and Ken had a great game. I'm happy for him, but Charbs played a good football game. He played a really good football game, helped us win, played winning football, just the yards weren't there yesterday."