The Seattle Seahawks don’t have any time sulk over a deflating defeat on Sunday against the New York Giants.
Seattle has a quick turnaround with the division rival San Francisco 49ers coming to town for a Thursday night clash. The winner will leave Week 6 with at least a share of the lead in NFC West. In the Seahawks’ case, they’d continue to be alone atop the division standings.
But the 49ers present one of the toughest tests yet for first-year head coach Mike Macdonald’s squad. One of the biggest challenges will be slowing down San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan’s vaunted offensive scheme, which is led by one of the NFL’s best rushing attacks.
Macdonald spoke about what makes Shanahan’s play calling so effective, and the keys to slowing down the run during his conversation with Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Monday.
“If you’re not careful, they can gash you in a hurry,” Macdonald said. “You can play 15 plays well in a row and the 16th play creases you … They’re a really good operation, have a ton of respect for those guys. I’ve been going against Kyle Shanahan since 2014 (Macdonald’s first season as an NFL assistant coach). So, he’s familiar with what we do, we’re familiar with what he does, and we got to go out playing. That’s just the simple fact of the matter.”
A well-oiled machine
Shanahan held four different offensive coordinator positions before taking over as the 49ers’ head coach in 2017.
San Francisco ranked in the top half of the league in offensive yardage in his seven seasons heading into this year and is on track do so once again, averaging 407.4 yards through five games – second in the NFL.
The 49ers have been slightly more effective through the air this season, ranking fourth with 263.4 passing yards per game compared to eighth with an average of 144 rushing yards. But it’s the run game that has made Shanahan’s system so difficult to stop over the years.
San Francisco has been a top-eight rushing team in four of the past five seasons, including third last year. And the 49ers have maintained a potent rushing attack this season without the services of star running back Christian McCaffrey, who has been out with an Achilles injury all season.
Without McCaffrey, third-year running back and former undrafted free agent signing Jordan Mason is second in the league with 536 rushing yards, which is more than the entire Seahawks offense.
“The violence and precision on how they run their run game is really good,” Macdonald said. “They hang their hat on what they do.”
Macdonald has been particularly impressed with the way Shanahan has adapted intricacies of his scheme over the years.
“You turn on the 2014 tape and (it’s) a lot of the same blocking schemes, but how they get there has really evolved and how they utilize their personnel is unique,” Macdonald said.
A challenge for the Seahawks
Stopping the run has been a problem for Seattle that hasn’t changed under Macdonald.
The Seahawks were 31st against the run last season and 30th in 2021. This season, they rank 20th at 128 yards per game.
The lack of ability to stop the run has already been on display plenty in 2024. The Seahawks allowed a one-dimensional Patriots offense to rush for 185 yards on 5.1 yards per touch in Week 2. They surrendered 88 yards on 5.5 yards per carry to the talented running back tandem of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery in the first half of their Week 4 loss to the Lions. Then, the Giants had their way on the ground Sunday, piling up 175 yards on 5.1 yards per carry while starting running back Devin Singletary was out with an injury.
Macdonald shared what he feels are the keys to slowing down the run game.
“The principles of what we believe in the run game (are) staying square at the point of attack – all 11 guys – setting the edge, knocking them back inside-out and then making the tackle. You have to be able to leverage the football,” Macdonald said.
What exactly have the Seahawks not been executing this year?
“We’re not leveraging the ball well on the second level as well as we need to be,” Macdonald said. “I think, for the most part, our interior guys are fighting their tails off. … The second level run fits right now, we’re falling short.”
