What led to Seattle Seahawks' defensive issues vs Rams?

The Seattle Seahawks picked up their biggest win of the Mike Macdonald era last Thursday night, staging an epic comeback to stun the Los Angeles Rams for a dramatic 38-37 overtime triumph that vaulted them atop the NFC standings.

To do so, the Seahawks had to overcome an uncharacteristically rough night from their second-ranked scoring defense.

The mind-boggling numbers from Seahawks’ epic comeback win

Seattle gave up a franchise-record 581 total yards, which was more than double its 283.4-yard season average coming into the game. Most of the damage came through the air, as MVP favorite Matthew Stafford threw for 457 yards and star wideout Puka Nacua piled up a career-high 225 yards receiving.

Prior to Thursday night, the Seahawks had surrendered just three completions of 40-plus yards all season. Stafford & Co. topped that by themselves, gashing Seattle’s vaunted defense for four completions of 40-plus yards.

What led to those big plays on Thursday night? Macdonald was asked that question during his weekly day-after-game conversation with Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Friday morning.

“There were a couple that (were) good plays by them,” Macdonald said. “And frankly, we have to execute better in the back end. So it’s a good wake-up call. And I think of it might be a little function of not having full-speed reps throughout the week, and are we asking them to do too much on a short week? I think that’s part of the conversation as well coming back to the coaches.

“And then let’s look at the fundamentals in some of those things – our eye progression, footwork, things like that – that I think can get cleaned up. But it’s a combo of both. I think it’s kind of everybody involved takes part of that accountability.”

The Seahawks’ defensive issues on Thursday night were a stark contrast from the teams’ first matchup last month, when the Rams mustered just 249 total yards in a 21-19 win – including just 105 yards over the final three quarters. Stafford threw for a season-low 130 yards in that game and averaged just 4.6 yards per pass attempt, which was the lowest mark of his entire 72-game Rams tenure.

Stafford’s 457 passing yards in Thursday’s rematch were the most since he joined the Rams in 2021.

“We had a couple miscommunications, and that can’t happen,” Macdonald said during his press conference on Friday. “To me, if we’re not executing it at the highest level, then that means that I didn’t make it clear enough for them to go execute in those moments. And that stings, knowing that those (mistakes) are avoidable.”

Seattle did hold the Rams to just three touchdowns in six red-zone trips on Thursday night, twice forcing Los Angeles to settle for field goals after driving inside the 10-yard line.

And after falling into a 30-14 hole in the fourth quarter, the Seahawks buckled down and forced three straight three-and-outs to help key their improbable comeback.

Macdonald praised veteran defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence and veteran defensive lineman Leonard Williams for helping Seattle’s defense turn the tide in the fourth quarter.

“It was a really emotionally charged game, and it wasn’t really going our way defensively for a large part of the game,” Macdonald told Brock and Salk. “And so you need guys like that to keep your poise and to keep your edge and to have that balance and kind of show the guys, like, hey, let’s stay the course, keep playing, keep making the adjustments.

“Like, the tide’s gonna shift at some point for us. And they were a big driving force behind that.”

Hear the full conversation with Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald at this link or in the video at the top of this story. The Mike Macdonald Show airs at 9:30 a.m. on Brock and Salk the day after Seahawks games.

What led to Seattle Seahawks’ defensive issues vs Rams?

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