The Seattle Seahawks did a lot of things differently in yesterday's season-opening win over the Denver Broncos. For a fanbase accustomed to slow starts both in the season and in the first half of games under former head coach Pete Carroll, it must have come as a shock. I took a while for the offense to catch up, but under Mike Madonald's direction Seattle's defense was firing on all cylinders from the first snap all the way to the end of the game.
Meanwhile, the team also navigated the all-important area of halftime adjustments far better than they had in recent years - especially offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb. The Seahawks also managed the crunch time situation just right, especially on the play that sealed the game.
Here's what Macdonald told ESPN's Seattle radio affiliate this morning about the decision to pass on third and six.
Mike Macdonald on throwing late in game
"It's a sliding scale. You do quick, back-of-the-napkin math. If I remember right, if we didn't complete that pass you're looking at, like 1:40 with a timeout. They're in a four-down situation anyway, that's plenty of time to go down the field, so we were going to have a four-down situation on defense regardless. if we ran it and they used a timeout, now you're still looking at maybe 1:40 but no timeouts. That's still a lot of time to go down the field. So, we're like, shoot, basically the same situation. Let's go try to put it away right now."
Tyler Lockett made a brilliant catch to close the game out, but even if the results hadn't worked out, throwing the ball there was the right process. It doesn't take too much imagination to see Carroll running in that same situation, then Denver taking the ball the other way and winning a game that Seattle should have by rights.
It was far from a perfect debut for the Seahawks, but both Macdonald and Grubb impressed in their respective roles. That bodes very well for the future of this franchise.
