After a four-day visit to Nashville that included joint practices and a 16-15 loss to the Tennessee Titans on Saturday, Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said his team has a lot of areas to improve.
He joked that this was a polite way of saying there were many mistakes.
“It’s the optimistic way of saying that there’s a lot of things that we screwed up,” Macdonald said. “If you look at it positive, like good, all right, we know that we’ve got to work on, let’s get after it. But time’s ticking. There’s a sense of urgency behind it.”
With only one preseason game left against Cleveland at Lumen Field on Saturday at 7 p.m., Macdonald is focused on getting the team ready for the new scheme and the upcoming season opener against the Denver Broncos on Sept. 8.
It’s a big challenge, but Macdonald believes his team can meet it.
“We’ve got to make some of these mistakes go away as we move forward,” Macdonald said. “The guys know that and expect some big-time jump here this week.”
Macdonald did not say which players will play against the Browns, but he wants to see better performance from the Seahawks’ third down defense.
“(Tennessee) converted like 4 of 7 third-and-10-pluses, which is a huge no-no,” Macdonald said. “We looked at our execution in those situations.
You can’t be getting man penalties on third-and-long in the fringe area. So, you know, there’s a lot of room for growth on defense. I thought we took a step back this week.”
One positive from the game against the Titans was running back Kenny McIntosh, who led the team with 46 rushing yards on eight carries and caught two passes for 17 yards. McIntosh, who missed much of last season due to a knee injury, is aiming to secure the third running back spot behind Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet.
McIntosh has been getting most of the snaps in the preseason games but is still waiting for his breakout performance. His goal is to stay healthy and make the most of his chance to prove himself.
