Mike from Oak Harbor asks, "Why don't the Seahawk coaches address penalties our players commit on the field more seriously? They say it's part of the game; they say mistakes happen; they acknowledge them, but the same bonehead, lazy, senseless, egregious penalties occur every week! They are game-changers!"
A: Mike continued on a rather long rant about penalties, and I get it, it can be maddening to see penalties hurt the team you cheer for. And the Seahawks had some costly penalties in Sunday's loss, including two on offense that killed early drives, and one on defense that helped explore a Buccaneers scoring drive. But it's also worth taking a step back and viewing things through a more objective lens.
Yes, the Seahawks have had some costly penalties, but so have 31 other teams in the NFL. Football, especially at this level, is an incredibly physically and mentally taxing job, and there are a ton of rules that players are trying to play within on every play. Sometimes penalties happen, it's just part of the game, and as Macdonald likes to put it, some are just the cost of doing business, such as effort plays that go just beyond what the rules allow, others are less accepted by coaches. But what's also worth considering here is that fans are always going to notice their own team's penalties a lot more than what's going on around the league.
For example, for as upset as Mike from Oak Harbor is, based on this question, I doubt he realizes that the Seahawks' 27 penalties enforced against them this year are tied for the fewest among the 30 teams who have played five games (only Pittsburgh and Atlanta, who had a bye, have fewer). Meanwhile, Seattle's 240 yards of penalties are tied for fifth fewest. Would Macdonald love it if his team never hurt itself with penalties? Of course, but relative to the rest of the league, the Seahawks are doing a pretty good job in that department.