Seahawks coach ‘sick to his stomach’ over defensive struggles

The Seattle Seahawks have gotten out to a 2-0 start to the season. But according to head coach Mike MacDonald, that doesn’t mean that everything has gone smoothly thus far this year.

In Week 2 against the New England Patriots, the Seahawks defense allowed 185 yards on the ground to Rhamondre Stevenson and company. And MacDonald is none to happy about their struggles in run defense whatsoever.

“All of the things that showed up in the first game [against the Broncos] that was positive, I thought we took a step back this game,” MacDonald said via ESPN’s Brady Henderson. “I think we ended up with like 10 missed tackles, the ball getting out on our edge…You never make it in this league. It’s always week to week, prove it to me. That has to be the mentality. A hundred and eighty yards, it makes you sick to your stomach.”

It seems like MacDonald is specifically upset with the tackling effort of his linebackers and in the secondary. When it came to the defensive line, he was actually quite complimentary.

“It’s an unselfish job,” Macdonald added. “Those guys, they’re doing a great job. I know the run stats right now don’t really [show it], but you can’t put it on those guys. I think they’re doing a great job.”

Allowing 185 rushing yards simply isn’t going to be a recipe for success in most weeks. But to the credit of the Seahawks defense, they were able to limit the Patriots passing attack to just 149 yards through the air.

We will likely see the Seahawks run defense get tested again in their Week 3 matchup with the Miami Dolphins.

After the concussion suffered by Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa last week, we could very well see them rely on their rushing attack with Skylar Thompson under center for the foreseeable future.

So it will be interesting to see if we get a better effort from the Seahawks defense on Sunday.

[ESPN]