RENTON — When Mike Macdonald reviewed his rookie season as the Seahawks coach in 2024, the most glaring statistic may have been this — 3-6.
That was the team’s record at Lumen Field, which was the worst since a 2-6 mark in 2008, when the Seahawks went 4-12 in Mike Holmgren’s final season and the second-worst since the infamous 1992 season, when the Seahawks went 1-7 at home en route to a franchise-worst 2-14 record.
Even more perplexing is that the Seahawks started 2-0 at home before losing six of the last seven, and that they went 7-1 on the road, tying the best mark in team history.
It’s a trend Macdonald and Seahawks players said Wednesday they know needs to be reversed in 2025, with no better time to start than Sunday in the regular season opener against the 49ers at Lumen Field.
“We have to win at home — point, blank, period,” defensive lineman Jarran Reed said Wednesday, calling it “very important” to reestablish the team’s long reputation for having one of the better home-field advantages in the NFL
“We have to take care of home field,” Reed said. “This is our sanctuary, this is where we play, and we have to use that to our advantage.”
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Macdonald said he and his staff spent considerable time in the offseason trying to figure out what went wrong at home a year ago and how to fix it.
One thing that stuck out is that the Seahawks tended to start slow at home, averaging just three points per game in the first quarter at Lumen Field, which was 25th in the NFL, compared to five points per first quarter on the road, which was tied for seventh.
“We spent a lot of time studying it, and we’re tweakers,” Macdonald said. “We’re always trying to figure out what’s the best way to do stuff. We’re tweaking our away schedule, too. We’ve looked at our home operation from Friday to Sunday. Something as different as like, ‘How do we get the guys to eat more frequently? How can we help control that?’ We’re looking at everything.”
One other substantive change the team made to try to start faster is changing its pregame warmup routine.
Macdonald said he didn’t want to get into details of those changes, but the on-field portion that is visible for anyone who shows up to the stadium early appears to feature more fully padded one-on-one and competitive drills and an overall faster tempo.
“We’ve done studies on other sports and studies about high performance and what allows you to be at your best as soon as possible,” Macdonald said. “Those are the things that went into those decisions.”
Macdonald also said he has tweaked some aspects of his own game-week routine to try to assure the team’s game plan is as clear as possible to players by the end of the week.
“If we can go in with a very simple, clear objective of what we’re doing, that helps us get off to a fast start,” he said. “… You’re not going to be perfect starting games out, record shows that we’re not perfect starting games, trying to be better, but it’s both. It’s how you start the game with clarity. Can you start fast? That’s not whether or not you’re in right plays. There’s lot of things that go into how you start a game — how well your guys are playing, how will they execute.’’
In the wake of the poor home record in 2024, and some games that ended with opposing fans seeming to outnumber and out-cheer the home games, the Seahawks included a note in information sent to season ticket holders in the spring highlighting the team’s resale policies and noting that the team can revoke season tickets at any time.
The note stated “accounts that resell a majority of their season tickets will be contacted and given an opportunity to respond before any renewal eligibility decisions are made.”
The Seahawks hope that results in fewer tickets sold to fans of opposing teams.
Another factor that can’t be ignored when reviewing last year’s results is the schedule of teams the Seahawks played at home and on the road.
The Seahawks were an underdog in five of the six home games they lost in 2024, the only exception a shocking 29-20 defeat to a Giants team that finished 3-14 and was a seven-point underdog.
The Seahawks lost home games as underdogs to Buffalo, the 49ers, the Rams, Green Bay and the Vikings, all but one of which (San Francisco) made the playoffs.
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None were favored by more than the 3.5 points of the 49ers, who were still relatively healthy when they came to Seattle on Oct. 10 and beat the Seahawks 36-24.
The Seahawks lost home games as underdogs to Buffalo (31-10 as three-point dogs); the Rams (26-20 in overtime as one-point underdogs); Green Bay (30-13 as 2.5-point underdogs) and the Vikings (27-24 as three-point underdogs).
The Seahawks beat Denver (26-20 as six-point favorites) and Miami (24-3 as 4.5-point favorites) as home favorites and Arizona 16-6 in what was a pick ‘em.
The only road game the Seahawks won against a team that made the playoffs was the regular-season finale against the Rams, who had already clinched the NFC West and was resting key players.
The other six teams the Seahawks beat on the road last year all had losing records and a combined won-lost mark of 36-66.
So maybe the home-road record in 2024 was much a function of opponent as setting.
The Seahawks are back in the underdog-at-home boat Sunday with the 49ers favored 2.5 points as of Wednesday afternoon, according to VegasInsider.com.
Receiver Cooper Kupp was on the winning end last season of the Rams’ overtime victory over the Seahawks at Lumen but has experienced wins and losses in Seattle, going 5-2 with L.A. since 2017.
He’s hoping to find out what it feels like winning in Lumen with the home team Sunday.
“It’s always been a challenge (playing at Lumen),” Kupp said. “You just knew it was going to be loud, and I am very excited to be on the other side of it now. I know it’s something that we’ve talked about here and being able to defend our grass, defend our spot, and make it something that carries that weight that’s always been in Lumen. I think that’s something that the guys here have taken into account — it’s important to us.”
Bob Condotta: bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Bob Condotta is a sports reporter at The Seattle Times who primarily covers the Seahawks but also dabbles in other sports. He has worked at The Times since 2002, reporting on University of Washington Husky football and basketball for his first 10 years at the paper before switching to the Seahawks in 2013.