Coaching matters: Mike Macdonald, Ryan Grubb adjust, Seahawks rally past Broncos 26-20

Coaching matters.

The two most prominent new ones got the Seahawks to overcome themselves to win in the debut of the Mike Macdonald era.

New offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb went from calling interior runs into walls of Denver Broncos plowing through Seattle’s offensive line in the first half to sending Kenneth Walker wider on more outside runs. The result: Walker had 19 yards in the first half, 84 in the second, and the Seahawks’ offense took off, well, running.

Macdonald’s new disguised, multiple defense left Denver coach Sean Payton calling short pass after short pass for rookie quarterback Bo Nix. Most of them left Denver inert against Seattle’s defense. Ten of the Broncos’ 13 points came when Seahawks turnovers and bad offensive-line play gifted them to Denver.

Walker’s 103 yards rushing on 20 carries, his seventh career 100-yard game, sparked the Seahawks and their offensive line out of a dreadful first half, and the defense mostly dominated Nix in a 26-20 victory Sunday at sunny, roaring Lumen Field.

Asked what the differences were between his first and second halves, Walker said “the adjustments. The adjustments we made.”

Walker left late in the game with what the team said was “abdominal pain.” He said after the win he was fine.

After Nix’s 4-yard touchdown run cut Seattle’s lead to 26-20 with just over 2 minutes left, the Seahawks had a third down in their own end. Tyler Lockett made a brilliant catch of Geno Smith’s short pass with a defender all over him to convert the first down and seal the 20th win in the Seahawks’ last 23 home openers.

“We know about Tyler...the guy makes plays, man. It’s unbelievable,” Macdonald said of Lockett. “Gave him the ‘closer ball’ in the locker room there.

“Yeah, pretty cool.”

Riq Woolen intercepted Nix then danced with teammates in the south end zone. Safety K’Von Wallace punched the ball after a Broncos catch for a forced fumble fellow new Seattle defender Jerome Baker covered for another turnover in the second half. And the Seahawks went from down 13-9 at halftime to a 17-0 rout in the second half, until a late Broncos touchdown.

Smith was 17 for 24 passing, 162 yards with a touchdown pass to running back Zach Charbonnet early in the fourth quarter. Smith avoided more leaky protection by his injured, porous line by scrambling up the middle for a 34-yard run for the Seahawks’ other touchdown.

Seattle’s new Macdonald defense of moving before and at the snap with clever blitzing dominated Nix and the Broncos’ offense. It resorted to mostly short throws all day.

Into the fourth quarter the Seahawks stopped Denver 10 times in the 11 possessions Denver did not get gifted to them by a Seattle turnover. Seven of those drive stops were Broncos three and outs.

The Seahawks play at New England next Sunday.

The Patriots upset the Bengals 16-10 in Sunday the first game of the post-Bill Belichick era. They dominated Joe Burrow and Cincinnati’s offense in a 16-10 road win.

“I thought they played really, really hard, so I’m proud of the guys,” Macdonald said of his Seahawks. “There are a lot of things that obviously we’re going to want to attack over the next week getting ready for New England, and we’ll do that.

“Hopefully we will make a huge jump from Game 1 to Game 2.”

New coaches adjust

The Seahawks learned Grubb can make adjustments based on what the game and opponent are presenting.

The new offensive coordinator spent much of the first half having Walker run directly into a Denver defensive line that was mauling Seattle’s weak offensive line, particularly inside up the middle. Walker had just 19 yards on seven carries. Backup runner Zach Charbonnet had two rushes for 3 yards and got dumped in the end zone for a safety in the first half.

“Lot of coordinators would have said, ‘Hey, let’s just pass it,’” Smith said of Grubb at halftime Sunday.

“K-9, Ken Walker was a beast today. He really set the tone for us...And once the run game opened up, it allowed us to then get into some of our tempo stuff and then start to pass the ball. And then you started to see our offense really come alive.”

Just as Grubb did the previous two years leading college football’s best offense for the University of Washington.

For the Seahawks’ first possession after halftime, Grubb changed Walker’s runs to more lateral races to the outside, at and off the offensive tackles. More to the point: Away from the interior Broncos dominating inside.

Walker suddenly was running free into open field. He made edge defenders miss while rushing for 6 and then 15 yards.

On a second and 11 from the Denver 23, Grubb had Smith hand off to Walker on a run slanting to the right edge of the formation. Walker outran every defender to the sideline then two more up the boundary. He soared over the goal line for a relieving touchdown and a 16-13 Seahawks lead.

It was the first consistently productive drive of the season for Seattle. It came from Grubb’s adjustment to more lateral running plays.

“Yeah, how they’re playing their fronts, made a couple adjustments on some of the schemes they were running,” Macdonald said.

The head man spent halftime with his defense he calls. He trusted Grubb to make the changes to the offense in the rushing approach with Walker.

“We knew we wanted to put more emphasis on the running game. Some of the game-plan stuff, we had to put some adjustments on,” Macdonald said.

“Credit to those guys. Understood what we had to do. Made the adjustments...Give it to K-9 and let him do his thing.”

Grubb had Walker doing the same thing on the following drive, into Denver’s red zone. He and the roaring home crowd thought Walker had a 6-yard touchdown run around the same right end as the previous score. But officials penalized wide receiver DK Metcalf for holding away from the play, negating Walker’s touchdown.

Seattle settled for the second field goal of the game from Jason Myers and a 19-13 lead.

“Yeah, I mean, that’s how we are going to have to operate to be successful,” Macdonald said. “Teams are going to take things away, and you going to need to move and shake in game to be able to move the ball on the ground.”

Coaching matters (continued)

One of the new drills Macdonald has had his Seahawks defenders do each day in practices is punching the ball as they wrap a defender for a tackle.

It paid off twice in game one.

Pro Bowl safety Julian Love punched the ball from Denver’s Audric Estime following his catch in the first half. The Broncos recovered that fumble.

Wallace did the same thing to produce the first turnover by Seattle’s defense of the season. The Seahawks converted that into a field goal for a 19-13 lead.

Macdonald’s Baltimore defense led the NFL in turnovers produced last season, when the new Seahawks coach was the Ravens’ defensive coordinator.

Seattle’s horrid half

The most positive — and amazing — thing about the first half Sunday for the Seahawks was they trailed only 13-9 after it.

Most NFL teams likely would have buried Seattle by about three scores or more, the way the Seahawks’ offense and special teams played to begin the opener.

Trailing 8-3 deep into the second quarter and with his offensive line battered and ineffective — for going on a decade now — Smith took the game into his own hands. And feet.

He saw yet another Bronco blitzing free off the edge of Seattle’s line as he was trying to throw from the Denver 34-yard line. Smith took off running up the middle. He eluded one defender then saw no one else, so the quarterback kept running — all the way to the end zone for a 34-yard touchdown that seemed to surprise him as much as the Broncos.

Despite being mostly horrid up to that point on offense and on special teams, Seattle led for the first time, 9-8.

But as it has for years, the Seahawks’ offensive line kept subverting all positives from Smith. And anyone else.

Rookie returner Dee Williams continued his rough debut to set up Denver re-taking the lead. He signaled to fair catch a Denver punt at about his own 10-yard line. When a Broncos gunner beat the Seahawks’ outside return blockers down the field and closed in free on Williams, the undrafted free agent decided not to field the punt. He let it bounce off the turf behind him. The Broncos downed the free ball at the 1-yard line.

On the first play of Seattle’s ensuing possession, Denver defensive end Zach Allen ran through Seahawks left guard Laken Tomlinson off the snap. Allen tackled Zach Charbonnet nearly as soon as the running back took the handoff from Smith, in the end zone for a safety.

The Broncos led 10-9.

It was the second Broncos safety off horrid Seahawks line play in the first half.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like that before, or heard of anything like that before,” Lockett said of two safeties in one half.

The Broncos’ first came earlier in the second quarter when Seattle right guard Anthony Bradford was blatantly holding Denver defensive tackle D.J. Jones in the end zone on a running play away from them. The officials flagged Bradford for the holding, with the spot of the foul in the end zone. By rule, that’s a safety. Denver led 5-3.

Williams gifted the Broncos three points by muffing a punt early in the second quarter. Denver recovered at the Seahawks 9. Seattle’s defense did its job again, but the Broncos got a short field goal to increase their lead to 8-3.

On the sidelines after his turnover, Williams paced and steamed, mad at himself. Uchenna Nwosu, the Seahawks’ key outside linebacker out and in street clothes with a sprained knee, grabbed the rookie around his waist, stopped his pacing and gave him encouragement.

“We’re in the dark place. We’re right where we’re meant to be,” Macdonald said, crediting defensive coordinator Aden Durde with the messaging at halftime.

“Whatever the circumstance is, that’s perfect for the Seahawks and the guys.

“They’re bought in. They did a great job.”

Seahawks’ sad start

Retired Super Bowl-champion safety Kam Chancellor raised the 12 flag representing Seahawks fans right before Denver kicked off in Seattle to begin the game and season.

It went downhill for the Seahawks immediately after that.

Their first three plays on offense to begin the season:

• A sack of Smith on the first play

• Smith throwing an interception over the middle while getting hit in the legs, when Denver defensive tackle D.J. Jones beat Seattle’s new center Connor Williams in pass protection up the middle.

• a false-start penalty on wide receiver Laviska Shenault

The second drive netted 3 yards and resulted in the first of Michael Dickson’s three punts in the opening half.

“Started just like we wanted to start,” Macdonald said, facetiously. “Drew it up that way.”

George Fant injured

Bad on top of bad: The Seahawks lost right tackle George Fant to a knee injury at the end of a play when defenders piled up on him and Smith in the first half.

“He has a little bit of a knee (injury)...we’re not sure what’s going on,” Macdonald said.

Stone Forsythe replaced Fant.

The 32-year-old veteran Fant was playing the first game of his second Seattle stint of his nine-year NFL career. He has been starting while Abe Lucas remains out. Lucas hasn’t practiced since he had knee surgery last winter.

Bo Nix’s debut

Broncos coach and play caller Sean Payton kept Nix throwing short passes for most of the first quarter into the second, with completions on one drive going for 2 yards, minus-1 yard and 4 yards.

Payton finally called for Nix to throw a deep pass 3 1/2 minutes into the second quarter. He tried to connect with wide receiver Courtland Sutton over Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon at the goal line on third down with the Broncos in field-goal range. Seattle Pro Bowl safety Julian Love raced over from the middle of the field and intercepted that pass at the 1.

At that point, Nix was averaging 1.8 yards per pass attempt.

Nix’s other deep pass attempt of the first half was a completion to Josh Reynolds for 25 yards down the left sideline over cornerback Tre Brown. That led to Denver getting a field goal of 45 yards by Will Lutz for a 13-9 halftime lead.