Dave Boling The Spokesman-Review
Kudos to Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald for playing it somewhat cool when asked to gauge the importance of this week’s game against division rival Los Angeles Rams.
Had he been strapped to a polygraph machine, he might have felt compelled to confess: “Are you kidding, this is the most important game of my career.”
Instead, he cautiously noted that every game is “a test of what kind of team we can become; this is a different scenario that we haven’t necessarily been in, yet.”
No kidding. This is Macdonald’s 27th game leading the Seahawks (winning 17), and it’s likely that this is the highest-impact, maximum-leverage meeting he’s faced.
A win could be a landmark for his career, one to point to in the future as the game that brought the Seahawks back to divisional prominence.
This is not just two 7-2 NFC West-leading teams meeting, it’s the first time since the 2023 NFL season that two teams have met while being ranked in the top five in offensive and defensive scoring.
The winners’ playoff probability immediately rockets into the “No Duh” range.
On a personal level, a win would mean, at least to some extent, that Macdonald had out-dueled Rams head coach Sean McVay, a still-young but widely hailed offensive mastermind.
Macdonald was regarded as a defensive whiz kid last season, but this could bring clarity to his growth into a full-service head coach, producing high-level leadership, motivation, administration, etc. The whole deal.
The 7-2 record, in fact, seems to be under-selling the 2025 Hawks.
The two losses were by a combined seven points, and both were the result of fluky turnovers in the games’ final minute. Against San Francisco in the opener, a Sam Darnold fumble was caused when a Niner defender pushed a Hawk blocker into him. And in the loss to Tampa Bay, a Darnold pass was intercepted after bouncing off a defender’s helmet at the line of scrimmage.
The Seahawks’ point differential of plus-103 is the highest in franchise history through nine games.
This week, some Seahawks talked about the influence of Macdonald’s regime.
DeMarcus Lawrence, an edge rusher who spent 11 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, marveled at the camaraderie that bonds the Seahawks.
“That’s the beautiful thing we have going on here,” said Lawrence, who returned two fumble recoveries for touchdowns last week against Arizona. “We don’t have a selfish bone in our bodies. We all play together as a team. In our D-line room, we have a saying ‘You feed my family, I feed your family.’ ”
And when the team wins, everybody gets fed.
It’s been suggested that Macdonald’s 2025 team reminds them of the early Legion of Boom teams under Pete Carroll: The blend of veteran leadership and youthful talent, a roster on the rise.
Fair concept, especially in the way the current Seahawks share the hyper-competitive mindset.
“It’s good to have that kind of competition in the building,” defensive tackle Leonard Williams said this week. “It pushes us to be the best that we can. … It’s like a competition every single day. It’s not just on Sunday, it’s in walkthroughs, it’s in the way we communicate, it’s in the way we run to the ball, it’s in how many shots we are taking on the ball in practice. We compete at every single thing, and I think that’s pushing our team.”
Lawrence said it took him a while to absorb Macdonald’s “Harvard Playbook.”
“You had to have a Harvard education in order to last in this system, but through the help of my guys, man, I made it through,” Lawrence said.
He was suspicious, at first. “When I came in, a lot of guys were like, ‘Oh, bro, just wait until you see how Mike dials things up.’ But now I understand the plays and how he’s dialing them up, and it’s a beautiful thing.”
Statistically, the Hawks and Rams are evenly matched, with the prime negative disparity for Seattle is in turnover differential, as they are minus-4 to the Rams’ plus-7.
And, of course, the Rams are playing at home. Although that’s not as much of an advantage as fans would normally consider.
In Macdonald’s first 12 road games as head coach, the Seahawks have gone 11-1.
If they can add the Rams to that list of vanquished, Macdonald and the Hawks will be well on the road back to the playoffs and leaguewide recognition.