The past five weeks have been challenging for the Seattle Seahawks, to say the least.
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After a 3-0 start that saw the team take a two-game lead in the NFC West, the Seahawks have dropped four of their past five games. That’s dropped Seattle into a three-way tie for first place with Arizona and San Francisco, the latter of which has already beaten Seattle on its home field.
With the recent struggles in mind, Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk asked Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald if the team’s focus moving forward would be to lean on its strengths or fix its weaknesses.
“I think you gotta start making some decisions on where to narrow it down. You can’t focus on everything,” Macdonald said Monday during The Mike Macdonald Show on the Seattle Sports. “So taking out the stuff that we feel like is kind of sunk costs at this point, maybe trying to trim that and then really focusing on and honing in on the stuff that we want to go excel at. That’s stuff that I feel like (there) may be opportunities that we haven’t been able to take advantage of at this point. And stuff that we do feel like we’re doing well, we can try to build on that a little.”
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WSU Cougars football coach Jake Dickert, whose team is 7-1 and ranked No. 22 in the country, joined Brock and Salk the following day and was asked the same question.
“Too many people focus on weakness and not enough about really leaning into your strengths,” Dickert responded. “And I think that’s the one thing our staff have done a great job: What is (quarterback John Mateer’s) strengths? Because (if) we’re trying to operate the offense like it’s (former WSU quarterback) Cam Ward, that doesn’t work. So we’ve got to lean into what our guys do well because then they’re not going to hesitate. My No. 1 job as a head coach is to make sure I eliminate fear so our guys can play fast without hesitation. And if you do that, great things can happen because football is such an imperfect game.
“It’s all about our strengths and we’re going to attack them instead of just reacting. If you’re a reactionary football team, bad things are going to happen because there’s too many good players on that field.”
Applying the lesson to the Hawks
Dickert has led the Cougars to a surprising successful campaign and bowl eligibility in their first season since 10 school bolted the Pac-12 for other conferences, leaving WSU and Oregon State behind in what’s for now a two-team league. And FOX football analyst and former pro quarterback Brock Huard feels there’s something that the Seahawks and their first-year head coach can learn from Dickert’s answer.
Related: How the No. 22 WSU Cougars are excelling under Jake Dickert
“More often than not, and certainly four of the last five games, (the Seahawks have) been a reactionary football team,” Huard said. “They’re reacting to their opponent. They’re not the one imposing their will with the ultimate aggression that we hopefully one day see. And it is different between 17 and 22 year olds and NFL guys. Seventeen and 22 year olds, when (Dickert) talks about fear, I think there is a lot of molding with that, of eliminating that fear. There’s still a lot of growing up to do. By the time you get to the NFL, (you’re) in some ways somewhat hardened, somewhat experienced through college. You’ve got pretty unique talents, you’ve gone through it because you’ve got some great gifts and you’re pretty elite at what you do.
“So I wouldn’t say fear is as much of a involvement at the NFL level, but I would say reaction is. I would say cutting it totally loose is. I would say playing fast and aggressive and all those things (are).”
Huard could think of one NFL team that is embodying what Dickert said, and that team is a Super Bowl favorite at the midpoint of the season.
“I can’t help but think of the one program in the NFL that is doing that right now as well as anybody and better than everybody, and that’s Detroit,” he said. “When I listen to (Dickert), I hear (Detroit Lions head coach) Dan Campbell.”
The Lions are 6-1 and leading the NFC North, which has looked the best division in the NFL this season. But it wasn’t always smooth sailing for Campbell in Detroit. His team went just 3-13-1 during his first season in 2021, a small step back from a 5-11 record the season prior. However, the Lions appear on their way to a third straight winning season, and perhaps another deep playoff run after reaching the NFC title game a season ago.
“It didn’t happen in eight weeks in Detroit,” Huard said. “… This might take a little while to get all the pieces that Mike Macdonald and crew want to have so they can play in that very similar manner.”
Listen to the full discussion at this link or in audio player to appear in this story. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.
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