Seahawks’ Mike Macdonald gives the team a reality check after being torched by the Lions

The Seattle Seahawks lost their first game of the season after a 42-29 loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 4 on Monday Night Football. Despite the best efforts of Geno Smith, who went 38-56 and threw for 395 yards with one touchdown and an interception, their defense was unable to stop the Lions’ offense on the ground or in the air. For example, Lions quarterback Jared Goff threw a perfect 18-18 for 292 yards and two touchdowns. After the loss, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald forced his team to question why and how they fell behind.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a litmus test,” the coach said in Curtis Crabtree’s post on X (formerly Twitter). “It just shows us that we are not the team we should be at the moment. I mean, that’s the point. It just wasn’t good enough. They did everything they could to win the game, they did a great job, they had a great plan and we failed.

Week 4: Lions def. Seahawks

While Macdonald credited the efforts to the defense, he did admit they could have done more.

“Give Detroit a lot of credit, but it wasn’t a good performance on the defensive side of the ball. Our guys fought like hell and we kept it going until the last seconds, but obviously we’re not the football team we should have been,” the coach saddened in Dave Hogg’s report for the Associated Press.

Still, the Seahawks defense was missing some valuable weapons. For example, safety Julian Love suffered a thigh injury and left the field. Defensive tackle Byron Murphy II also injured his hamstring against the Dolphins in Week 3, another blow to a defensive line already missing Boye Mafe, Leonard Williams and Uchenna Nwosu.

However, Mike Macdonald refused to make excuses for the Seahawks’ Week 4 loss to the Lions.

“We didn’t change what we were doing. You can’t make significant changes because of an injury because you’ll never catch up,” he said.

Meanwhile, Goff’s perfect game broke the previous NFL record of ten, set by Kurt Warner for the Arizona Cardinals in 2015. During their victory, the Lions QB even caught his first career touchdown reception, catching a seven-yard pass from receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown in the third quarter.