A defining moment awaits Mike Macdonald's Seattle Seahawks

Nearly five years ago – Jan. 9, 2021 – the final embers of the Seattle Seahawks’ Super Bowl era were snuffed out by the Los Angeles Rams.

A month after that playoff loss, Russell Wilson publicly expressed his discontent and was traded a year later. Two more lackluster seasons resulted in severing the final on-field tie to the glory days. Meanwhile, the Rams supplanted the Seahawks as the preeminent team in the division after the playoff win in Seattle catapulted them to a Super Bowl title the next season.

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It was from these ashes that Mike Macdonald rose. He is by all measures the foil to Sean McVay. The adjectives used to describe McVay and his offensive mastery (“wunderkind,” “genius,” “prodigy”) are identical labels applied to Macdonald’s work on defense. So far, this year has borne the fruit of that expertise. Despite playing without a handful of starters for most of the season, the Seahawks have piled up the second-most sacks, third-fewest rushing yards allowed, and have the fifth-best scoring defense in the NFL.

The numbers and results are unimpeachable, but if there is one thing that Macdonald still has not accomplished yet, it’s beating a great team. Some of that is the schedule, you can’t control how good an opponent will be, and the Seahawks have won in thoroughly convincing fashion against lesser competition this season. However, in the still extremely small sample size of 26 career games as a head coach, the Seahawks have beaten just two teams with a winning record this year (the Steelers and Jaguars, both 5-4) and two teams last year that made the playoffs – the Broncos and quarterback Bo Nix in his first-ever NFL game and a Rams team that was resting all of its starters.

Successfully countering McVay means ending the reign that he and the Rams have had over the Seahawks in all meaningful games since their 2021 playoff win. A sweep followed in the 2021 season, as did the setbacks in 2023 that kept Seattle out of the playoffs. And I’m sure Macdonald needs no reminder of his first foray into this rivalry: a 26-20 overtime loss that proved to be the difference in giving the Rams the division and keeping the Seahawks out of the playoffs.

Now, they arrive on equal footing, as balanced of a matchup as it has been since that fateful day in 2021. Quarterbacks in the midst of MVP-caliber seasons, dynamic wide receivers, ferocious defensive lines, and two men at the pinnacle of coaching their respective disciplines.

The parallels from McVay to Macdonald extend to what they are able to get out of their rosters. In the vein of similar adjectives, “teacher” and “great communicator” have been used to describe how these two bring out the best in their players and put them in positions to succeed. Just look at what has happened over the past few weeks, where McVay has leveraged his plethora of tight ends to wreak havoc on defenses and Macdonald has overcome the loss of key players on defense with standout performances from the likes of Drake Thomas and Ty Okada, along with Tyrice Knight and Riq Woolen, both of whom had lost starting spots earlier in the season.

Oh, and if the personality traits and adjectives used to describe the two coaches aren’t enough, there might be another similarity between them. In his second season, McVay led the Rams to a Super Bowl appearance. A win on Sunday puts Macdonald in the driver’s seat to do the same.

A defining moment awaits Mike Macdonald’s Seattle Seahawks

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