Why Sam Darnold, Mike Macdonald say the Seahawks’ loss to Bucs is on them

The Seahawks got two Ls on Sunday.

The loss. Yet leadership.

Sam Darnold took full responsibility for the interception on Seattle’s last offensive play, even though he got hit as he threw it and thus did not go in the direction he intended toward wide receiver Cooper Kupp with 53 seconds remaining and the game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers tied at 35.

And his coach took full responsibility for his Seahawks defense not sacking or hitting Baker Mayfield until very late in a loss at Lumen Field, where Seattle allowed 426 yards. The Seahawks also allowed seven conversions in 11 third downs, 38 points — and Mayfield to become the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for 375 or more yards with fewer than five incomplete passes.

Mayfield was 29 for 33 against Macdonald’s unit that is the pride of the Seahawks.

“I have to do better with our defensive game plan and execution and how we call it,” Macdonald said after the Seahawks fell to 3-2 heading to Jacksonville (3-1) next Sunday. “When you put up a performance like that it means that I didn’t prepare them well enough.

“It hurts. It stings,” Seattle’s coach said.

“It should, because our guys work extremely hard and they care. But we’re going to use this to move forward and that’s the only thing we can do. We’re going to take it on the chin and move forward...and move on and grow and go get ready to play our best game against Jacksonville. It’s that simple.

“Offense played great. Special teams played great. I’m sure there are things on that end, too, with penalties we got to fix.”

But what about all the injuries in your secondary, Coach? Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon missed his third game in four weeks because of a bruised knee ligament. Pro Bowl safety Julian Love was out with a hamstring injury. During the game Sunday, embattled cornerback Riq Woolen got a concussion. His replacement, Nehemiah Pritchett got targeted by Tampa Bay for a touchdown on his second play, then he got hurt. Rookie safety Nick Emmanwori returned after missing three full games plus most of the opener with a high-ankle sprain. Then Emmanwori got hurt again. too.

Macdonald was having none of that as an excuse for his defense that was second in the NFL allowing 15.7 points per game through three games allowing 426 yards and 38 points to Tampa Bay Sunday.

“Yeah, look, they were banged up, too. Injuries happen in the NFL,” Macdonald said, or almost spat. “I have to design better plays and put our guys in better positions consistently to play better on defense.

“It’s that simple.”

Macdonald was a in box schematically Sunday. Blitz Mayfield, and expose his battered secondary?

He was torn by that choice all game.

With the score tied at 28 in the fourth quarter after Darnold’s second touchdown pass to Barner of the second half, Macdonald did blitz. And he got burned. Ty Okada, playing because Pro Bowl safety Julian Love was out injured, blitzed. Mayfield threw to where Okada blitzed from for a 17-yard completion.

Yet Macdonald kept blitzing, even with practice-squad promotees. When rookie safety Nick Emmanwori left injured later in the drive, D’Anthony Bell entered. Macdonald blitzed him, and Bell got Seattle’s first hit sack and hit on Mayfield. That ruined Tampa Bay’s drive across midfield, and forced the Buccaneers to punt in the tie game.

In the third quarter, the Buccaneers exploited third-string cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett for a touchdown catch by Steilacoom High School’s Emeka Egbuka, on Pritchett’s second play filling in for concussed Riq Woolen. Tampa Bay led 21-14 on Egbuka’s TD and catch for a two-point conversion.

“We have to plaster better,” Pritchett said, using DBs’ term for covering more tightly down the field.

Macdonald said that was his fault, too.

“When you have guys open like that, that can’t happen,” he said. “That’s my job to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

With NFL rules favoring the offense on pass plays, defenders can only cover so long. Pressure is paramount to slowing down a passing game. Yet Seattle was missing veteran defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence for the game with a thigh injury. They lost edge rusher Derick Hall, one of their primary pressure guys, in the first quarter with an oblique injury.

Macdonald wasn’t having any of that, either.

“No. Our guys went in there and played. The expectation is the same no matter who is out there,” the coach said.

“But again, we got to design better things. Pressures have to be more locked in. Got to call them at better times. All these things. Our pressure coverage was very weak today. That’s something we need to look at.”

Macdonald acknowledged he was caught in rough spot schematically. He also blamed himself for not having better schemes when he did blitz.

“We wanted to pressure this game, and we didn’t do it well enough,” Macdonald said. “And so like I said, it wasn’t designed well enough and didn’t call it in the right spots and we didn’t get it done.

“But you’re right, against this team it’s kind of pick your poison at a certain point (against Mayfield and the Bucs).”

Sam Darnold takes blame on offense

While Maconald put all the defense’s issues on himself, Darnold did the same on the decisive play on Seattle’s offense. It decided the game.

The Seahawks’ still-new quarterback threw what could have and should have been two interceptions earlier in the fourth quarter of this wild, tied game. A penalty on the Buccaneers saved him on the first one. A lucky bounce against his own goal line spared him on the second.

Then, with 58 seconds left and this shootout tied at 35-35, fate caught up to Darnold. And the Seahawks.

The QB waited then threw while getting hit by Tampa Bay’s free-blitzing safety Antoine Winfield Jr. No Seahawk blocker picked up the safety through the left B gap, between the guard and tackle. Darnold’s pass toward Cooper Kupp over the middle was low. Too low. It diverted into the shoulder pad and off the helmet of Bucs defensive lineman Logan Hall. That changed the direction of the ball, into the arms of Tampa Bay’s diving Lavonte David for an interception at the Seattle 35-yard line.

This interception counted.

The Buccaneers ran out the clock from there, to the winning field goal by Chase McLaughlin from 39 yards on the game’s final play.

It was as if Darnold didn’t complete 28 of 34 passes for 341 yards and four touchdowns in his best game so far for Seattle.

“The last turnover, definitely on me. I was just trying to throw it away,” Darnold said. “I think it might have deflected off a helmet. Once I saw it was going to be hot to my left I just tried to throw it away, and I think it deflected off somebody’s helmet. At the end of the day I got to protect the football in that situation and can’t give them a short field to put the game away like that.”

It was the second time in five games, the Seahawks’ only two losses, that Darnold has committed a turnover in the final minute of a one-score or tied game. He lost a fumble in the opener Sept. 7 when San Francisco’s Nick Bosa pushed right tackle Abe Lucas into Darnold and knocked the ball from the quarterback’s hand before he could throw from near the 10-yard line. Seattle lost 17-13.

On this final, fateful play Sunday, Darnold said he should have changed the protection call at the line of scrimmage, to defend Winfield’s safety blitz. But the QB also saw David, the linebacker, lining up the offense’s right. That’s why he threw left to Kupp cutting across the middle. But at the snap David ran hard to his right, the offense’s left. Darnold was preoccupied by Winfield blitzing free in on him and didn’t account for David’s change to the left.

Darnold said the protection call he chose was one the Seahawks had practiced against that safety blitz and look Tampa Bay had presented on film. But there was an alternative protection in the game plan for against that look, too. That’s the one Darnold rued he didn’t choose.

“I feel like that was bad quarterback play on that last snap,” he said.

For more reasons than not audibling to the right protection. Darnold said he regrets not throwing at the snap to the backside, to rookie wide receiver Tory Horton running an out route against soft coverage to the right sideline. Darnold appeared to never look to Horton.

“Yeah, felt like I could have changed the protection and been aware of if they’re bringing it to the other side,” Darnold said. “I had a good answer to that side, and I think Tory was open as well on the right side. So I just got to be a lot better there pre-snap.”