LANDOVER, Md. -- The problem with being as great as the Seahawks defense has been under Mike Macdonald is it can be kind of jarring when that unit doesn't quite play up to its insanely high standard.

That was the case on Sunday when, in a 33-31 loss to the Commanders, Seattle's defense wasn't nearly as bad as that final score might indicate -- Washington had one defensive touchdown and scored two more on short fields created by turnovers -- but it also wasn't quite as sharp as it usually is.

The Seahawks held the Commanders to 248 total yards, a 4.0 yards-per-play average, a 2.6 rushing-yards-per-attempt average, and held Washington to a 3-of-13 conversion rate on third down, all of which are very good numbers. But there were also a couple of costly drive-extending penalties, no takeaways to Washington's three, and no matter how tough of situations the defense was put in by turnovers, that unit still expects to keep teams out of the end zone.

The result of a solid, but not great performance for Seattle's defense was the end of a couple of pretty impressive streaks, most notably a stretch of four regular-season games in which an opponent failed to score more than 10 points. The Commanders also became the first team this season to have a play gain more than 20 yards after the Seahawks somehow went eight quarters without allowing a single play that long.

"The feeling right now, we're disappointed," linebacker Ernest Jones IV said. "We didn't execute. Hat's off to them, they executed, they made the plays when the plays needed to be made. But on our side, we just didn't execute. It was sloppy play from the beginning to the end, all three levels. We're not down, we've been here before, we've lost games. We'll be good."

The Seahawks' inability to get takeaways had a lot to do with the way quarterback Marcus Mariota played, and especially how he got the ball out quickly. The Seahawks did have two sacks, one each by Leonard Williams and Derick Hall, and nine quarterback hits, but they weren't able to force Mariota into errant throws at the end of the day.

"We didn't get enough pressure today, they did a good job taking care of the quarterback," Macdonald said. "We'll look at it and see where we can get better, but I don't think we hit our mark today on the quarterback."

Outside linebacker DeMarcus Lawrence added, "It's just all about us. I feel like us as a team, we feel like we beat ourselves, with not getting the ball on defense, cheap penalties, stuff like that. We understand the quality of football that we know how play; it's all about getting back in the lab and getting back to it."

"It's all about us honing back in together, learning from our mistakes and winning the next game."

Most frustrating for Seattle's defense was the inability to get a final stop in order to give the ball back to the offense after holding the Commanders to a single field goal and only three first downs on their previous three possessions, a big reason the Seahawks were back in the game in the first place. On that final drive by the Commanders, a team that to that point had only one third-down conversion all day, managed two big ones, both on third-and-long runs to put the game away.

"It's just all about us being on our details, understanding who we're playing," Lawrence said. "They hit the ball on the outside one play, then they ran their first RPO of the game on the last play. Knowing your personnel, knowing who's in the game and expecting those things before they happen."

The first conversion came on third-and-9 when the Commanders appeared to have audibled to an outside run after the Seahawks showed a blitz.

"They got to an audible against zero, they made a good check, and we didn't make the play," Macdonald said.

The second came when Mariota called his own number on third-and-7, running for the first down.

"They were in a great call versus what they were in," Jones said. "When you're in man and the quarterback scrambles, everybody's eyes are elsewhere, so it's tough. Hat's off to them, on those two plays, they had those plays ready, and we didn't execute."

But while Sunday didn't live up to the high standards that players on that side of the ball hold themselves two, they aren't worried about how they'll respond moving forward, nor did they need a loss to get them fired up.

"Trust me, the fire ain't going nowhere," Lawrence said. "We don't need no extra nothing, we're the Dark Side for a reason. Trust me, we ain't going nowhere."