'Dark Side' Not Enough? Seahawks' Mike Macdonald Talks Defense After Broncos Loss

The Seattle Seahawks might have lost 17-14 to the Denver Broncos at Empower Field on Thursday, but it wasn't because of Mike Macdonald's defense.

The "Dark Side" clearly did their part on Thursday night; it was just that the offense failed to do much of anything.

After forcing a punt on Denver's opening possession, the defense then gave up back-to-back touchdown drives in the second quarter, which isn't ideal.

But after that? Nothing. Absolute nothing.

Not including the kneel-down to end the half, the Seahawks forced the Broncos' offense to punt on seven straight possessions heading into overtime. And even with Sam Darnold's interception in overtime, the defense only allowed eight yards, and if it weren't in field goal range, it would have had to punt again.

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But what was the catalyst for the defensive masterclass?

"I think it's a great situation or observation of let's not panic," Macdonald said. "If you look at how they got down there in some of those situations, it was an explosive run that we could have played better. It was a third-down penalty. It's a couple third downs, frankly, I probably could have called better plays.

"So, we just felt like there were things that were within our control of settling down and sticking to the game plan, the process, staying together, finding some more solutions. I think our coaches deserve a lot of credit, the communication between me, AD [Aden Durde], the guys upstairs, and then the guys on the sideline of really finding solutions in that moment, and then trusting the work we put in and the preparation, and then just sticking to it."

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It is rather shocking that a defense can force seven straight punts from the Denver offense and still end up losing the game.

The offense with Darnold just struggled against the Denver defense all night, and those two interceptions were backbreakers for Seattle, and they couldn't overcome the second one.

So, it will be back to the drawing board for the 3-3 Seahawks, but not for the defense, which kept Nix to just 107 passing yards, only allowed three third downs, allowed 2.9 yards per play, and allowed just 168 total yards of offense.

And the fact that they lost is rather head-scratching to be honest.