For Macdonald, the focus is on how he and the coaching staff can help players move from developing a game plan at the start of the week to practicing and executing on match day.

“I think it’s all about how we do what we do,” Macdonald said. “The , how we drill. how we practice it, how it manifests on game day, when this system is good, we play really good football. I feel like that’s where we’re at so from top to bottom we’ve had to do a great job of packaging it and bringing it to life here on the field. training and Sunday.

There were plenty of positives for Macdonald and his coaching staff to focus on, including, as he pointed out, situational football and the recent improvements shown on defense.

“We’re doing a lot of really good things,” he said. “Situationally, the three phases really relate to these situations. We had a lot of big point changes at the end and start of the halves, so it’s about being consistent, being efficient offensively on the first downs, to take advantage of the things that we get from the looks that we observe, defensively, I think we have seen a steady improvement in our process and our play on the first downs, which. can help us create more passing situations where we can start to affect the quarterback.”

But ultimately, the first nine weeks of the season weren’t good enough, so the Seahawks are hoping they’ve maximized their time off to help them make a jump in the final eight weeks of the season.

“In no way are we happy or satisfied with where we are,” Macdonald said, relaying the message he shared with the team. “Actually, it’s okay to be a little angry about where we are, just because we expect more from our football team right now. But you have to be proud of the mentality, the drive and the resilience that we showed mentally to continue to look at our process and try to do our best.”