DENVER — Following Thursday’s loss to the Broncos, Mike Macdonald walked through the locker room dapping up defensive players like Devon Witherspoon, Julian Love and Ty Okada. It was appreciation from their head coach after Seattle’s defense held the Broncos to 168 total yards and an average of just 2.9 yards per play. These impressive totals are despite giving up two touchdowns in the first half of the game.
After halftime, the Broncos were held scoreless until their game-winning field goal in overtime. Seattle held Denver to just two first downs in the second half, and the Broncos managed only 30 total net yards, punting the ball away on all of their possessions after halftime.
“I feel like we just did a great job of putting them in third and longs,” Seahawks defensive lineman Leonard Williams said. “We did great on first and second down, putting them in third and longs, and then we were able to affect the quarterback. He started holding the ball a little bit longer. We were tackling the checkdowns and we just started playing cleaner football on defense.”
Devon Witherspoon said after the Broncos scored two touchdowns, the unit conversed at halftime and came away knowing they were better than the way they were playing.
“We just came to our senses,” Witherspoon said. “We told each other, ‘We got to stop the run, early-down run game.’ And then I felt we felt like we could play man cover against them. So we had to get tighter in coverage, take away the easy throws and easy windows that they were having early in the game… We got to be (expletive) better. Like we hold ourselves to a higher standard than that. And we don’t like getting scored on, especially by anybody. So, we had to go in there and make our adjustment.”
And they did make those adjustments. The Broncos finished with just 74 yards rushing on the night.
Despite coming up short in overtime, Macdonald was impressed by the “resolve” of a defensive unit that made great adjustments which allowed the Seahawks comeback in the second half and have a chance to win.
“I am really, really proud of our guys,” Macdonald said. “Really, just the resolve. I think they executed a really high level for what we were asking them to do today. It’s a really good offense, especially in the second half. Their offense, they did a great job. They played together, and our coaches did a great job of finding some solutions there after those two drives. So, it was great second half by those guys.”
