Seahawks 44, Saints 13
MIKE MACDONALD: Great to see everybody. Obviously very pleased with our win. Really just proud of our process right now, the guys' attitudes, our approach every day.
The cool is thing about our group is we're not satisfied. We have room to grow as a football team. Talk about being decisive, shocking, relentless. I thought we were those things, but especially on defense there is room for growth. We can learn from extended drives. We will look at the penalties and see what went wrong there, and if it was cost of doing business or on the other end of the spectrum.
Overall just a great team effort. Guys played extremely hard, played together, and complementary football; our offense was efficient. Would've been great to not give up the ball at the end. Defensively we played hard. Did a great job. Really the story the day is our special teams unit.
I think Dave told me they're responsible for 30 points directly. That's pretty high powered stuff. So those guys deserve a lot of credit. Gave Jay Harbaugh a game ball.
Tory Horton just a phenomenal game as well. D'Anthony Bell with the punt block, great all around. Really proud of it, but now we got to go back to work. Got a game Thursday. Got a great plan to get or bodies and minds right.
We got to move on quickly because the game is coming fast.
So what do you got.
Q. With that in mind, how nice it was to be able to rest a lot of the starter for the last quarter?
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, it was critical. We played a lot of plays on defense in the first half, which is a good problem because of how quickly we were scoring. But that's one of the reasons we were getting guys out a little sooner than probably would've in a normal game.
Q. You say you're not satisfied. Your defense gives up 13 points. What are you not satisfied with right now?
MIKE MACDONALD: I think when they move the ball -- we'll look at it. From my perspective we made some decisions that we have been making smarter decisions in those moments. Couple penalties that extended drivers, some of the execution on third down.
So there is room to grow.
Q. You talked a lot about trying to build on leads.
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah.
Q. How do you feel about that first couple minutes of the first quarter, just that flurry there.
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, it was great. It was great to start the way we do. Again, our process I think is good. You know, we got to stick to that and believe in it, double down on it, the principles got us to this point.
But that is how we want to play football there at the beginning of the half.
Q. A lot goes into punt return. What about Tory's game makes him so good?
MIKE MACDONALD: I mean, just how he's attacked the whole process since he got here. We had ambitions for him to be our punt returner, and we're talking about countless, countless reps and hours of preparation, and he's playing really decisive right now. I can't wait to watch the play on our punt return unit and who sprung blocks and how we set the whole thing up.
Can't tell you exactly what happened on that play. Any time you spring a return like that there has to be some critical blocks that have to be executed. We will hopefully see those and I will give him a shoutout next time we get together.
Q. The growth process of you offense seems like they begin to score early. Talk about that, how they're maturing as well.
MIKE MACDONALD: Again, it's an emphasis on how -- being decisive is knowing what to do from the get-go. Klint and the crew deserves a lot of credit on how we start, our openers. That's important. How you start games and having a clear idea what you're trying to execute, trying to get done.
Q. From a depth standpoint, D'Anthony going out and getting the blocked punt; also had a tackle for loss. Ty making a couple big plays out there.
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah.
Q. How do you feel about those guys' contributions getting thrown in there?
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, I mean, I'm a broken record here: This is why we operate the way we operate. I think you felt the strength of the 70 today, and really proud of those guys. I mean, again, this is -- you have to kind of -- it's hard to stay ready when you're not in a prominent role and these guys have done that.
Derion Kendrick, again, phenomenal game. D'Anthony is playing really fast right now. Ty played a solid game. So I'm proud of those guys to come in and play winning football for us.
Q. Jaxon was pretty sick yesterday but I guess but he obviously rebounded well.
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah. Came back from the dead. Pretty cool. Not quite the flu game, the Jordan flu game, but it was pretty solid oops.
Q. You mentioned Derion Kendrick, three games, two interceptions in back to back games. What stood out to you?
MIKE MACDONALD: Should have three more. Has to go to the Leslie Frazier school of ball drills. Is Leslie over there? Ernest? Okay, EJ.
Yeah, so talk about a guy that like -- there is a lot of cool game plan things, little nuances of the game plan that he picks up and executes that doesn't necessarily show on the scoreboard. To me that's what fires me up the most because those are little edges that we chase throughout the week that give us edges.
You know, recognizing splits and distributions and those things. Playing fast, decisive, and he's just got a knack for making plays. It's pretty cool.
Q. It's a short turnaround to Arizona like you said. Any idea if Nick Emmanwori, Devin Witherspoon, or Julian Love will be able to play?
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, I fell into the trap last week. We're going to take it day by day. Of course we want those guys to play. 'Spoon gave it a go this morning. Just couldn't get there, so that was the right decision. I know that's killing him, but the rest of the guys stepped in and played great football in his place.
Q. (No microphone.)
MIKE MACDONALD: He's got an got ankle.
Q. What did you think of Ty Okada stepping in and playing the whole game like that?
MIKE MACDONALD: I thought he executed the game really well. Probably all the details I can't give you right now. I know he made some plays. He would have had a sack if he didn't lift the quarterback, so that would've been cool.
Q. With how things have gone at home, how nice was it to give your fans a performance like this?
MIKE MACDONALD: It's critical. I mean, look, this guy over here, EJ, deserves a lot of credit. He has made a big emphasis of it. Guys probably listen to him more than me. It's important for us to play this way at home. It was great to do that for them, so we got to do it more often.
Q. Sam had a perfect pass rating until the last two interceptions. Talk about the way he's been playing the last couple weeks.
MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, I mean, he's just playing really good with great confidence and he's decisive. I think one ball he probably wants back on the spray off to Jaxson. Guys are playing hard for him. Our protection right now is really good and we got to keep that going.
Look, Sam be first to tell you we're excited we're 2-1 but we have to go stack some wings and win another one. He's hungry to do that.
Q. What about just big picture your view of the offense through three games and how closely it's aligning with what you...
MIKE MACDONALD: Same thing: We are on our way. If Klint was standing right here I'm sure he could rattle off a about dozen things he wants to improve on. That's the mentality we want. Look, we're excited about the growth we have had. We love our guys. We love going work. But we understand that we can be a really good football team and we're determined to get there.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports