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“Seahawks deliver ‘team win’ over Falcons, affirm Mike Macdonald’s steady message.”
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“Seahawks deliver ‘team win’ over Falcons, affirm Mike Macdonald’s steady message.”

ATLANTA — Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald hates to sound like a broken record, but that’s the vibe he’s projected in recent weeks as he answered questions about his team’s shortcomings during a series of losses.

Whether explaining his team’s lack of turnovers, the defense’s inability to stop the run, or its one-dimensional offense, Macdonald repeats the phrase “It’s a team statistic” the way a singer repeats the chorus on a catchy hit song. Plate repeated.

The way the Seahawks beat the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday reinforced his message.

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Seattle led for most of the game and held a double-digit lead throughout the fourth quarter. Kirk Cousins ​​​​and the Falcons eventually had to give up a mostly successful running game. As a result, a Seattle defense that entered Week 7 as one of the NFL’s weakest teams at generating takeaways looked like the Legion of Boom for a moment when it came time to slam the door.

And the Seahawks did it wholeheartedly – ​​emphatically. Their defense surrendered to Cousins ​​on all three drives in the fourth quarter (rookie Michael Penix Jr. replaced Cousins ​​on the final possession) and their offense turned one of those takeaways into a touchdown to cap a 34-14 win for The Mercedes. Benz Stadium ends a series of three defeats.

A team victory, just as Macdonald had hoped.

“It feels good for us to work together and really kick ass as a whole team,” Seattle receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba said.

Seattle (4-3) had forced just four turnovers entering this game, one of the lowest totals in the league. In the final 15 minutes on Sunday, the defense nearly reached that number.

One of those takeaway points was that outside linebacker Boye Mafe sacked Cousins ​​on third-and-9 early in the fourth quarter, and outside linebacker Derick Hall recovered the resulting fumble 64 yards to give Seattle a 31-14 lead bring to. It was Mafe’s fourth sack – and Seattle’s second defensive score – of the season.

“We always talk about how slow (Hall) is, but he looked pretty fast in that moment,” defensive tackle Jarran Reed said, laughing at his young teammate.

On the next possession, Cousins ​​overthrew receiver Drake London and the ball ended up in the hands of safety Julian Love. His runback set up Seattle’s offense for a quick field goal push to take a 34-14 lead with 7:10 left. Five plays into the next series, Cousins ​​picked off tight end Kyle Pitts and was picked off by safety Coby Bryant, who started in place of the injured Rayshawn Jenkins (hand).

Bryant finished his first career start at safety in front of friends and family traveling from his native Ohio with a win and his first career interception.

“You could be my luck,” Bryant said, smiling.

Due to a series of injuries, Bryant was among the few fresh starters in Seattle’s second season on Sunday. In addition to placing Jenkins on injured reserve, Seattle was without cornerbacks Tre Brown (ankle), Riq Woolen (ankle) and Artie Burns, who was placed on injured reserve with a toe injury. Cornerbacks Faion Hicks and Josh Jobe were called up from the practice squad to make their season debuts. Jobe ended up starting alongside rookie cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett, another first-time starter.

Despite all the new defensive players, Seattle’s focus going into this game was on turnovers, knowing that a positive turnover margin was the key to the upset. They finished the day with a plus-3, thanks in no small part to their clean offense.

“Phew, they’re coming in droves,” linebacker Tyrel Dodson said of the three turnovers. “But they have to come more often. We need them like air.”

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All three of Atlanta’s turnovers came in obvious passing situations, something Seattle hadn’t forced often during its three-game losing streak. And the Seahawks were able to put the Falcons in catch-up mode by playing complementary football for the first time since Week 3.

Seattle scored the game’s first 10 points on a Ken Walker III touchdown run and a field goal before the Falcons (4-3) cut the deficit to three on a Bijan Robinson touchdown run. The Seahawks rebuilt their double-digit lead and took a 17-7 lead into halftime thanks to a 31-yard dart from quarterback Geno Smith to DK Metcalf on third-and-15 with 10 seconds left. Instead of throwing a short pass and calling a timeout to play for a field goal, offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb chose to be aggressive — and the offense rewarded his belief.

The lead at halftime came despite Atlanta’s hot start on the ground. The Seahawks have had one of the worst run defenses in the league for six weeks, and the first 30 minutes of Sunday’s game looked more like it. Robinson and Tyler Allgeier combined for 117 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries in the first two quarters (7.8 yards per carry). However, at halftime, Seattle’s defenders made an adjustment to avoid being hit by Atlanta’s zone-running system.

“Just stop running sideways,” defensive tackle Leonard Williams said. “At one point in the game they tried to make our D-line run sideways. We finally got to a point where we were checking each other out and saying, ‘Let’s go vertical, let’s push back blocks.’ The (Atlanta) running backs were really good at staying alive, so we’re talking always about the second, third and fourth man in the game.”

In the second half, Robinson and Allgeier combined for just 22 yards on 11 carries.

When Atlanta cut Seattle’s lead to 16-14 with a 5-yard touchdown pass from Cousins ​​to London, the Seahawks responded with a 63-yard scoring drive of their own that ended with a 17-yard touchdown Reception by Walker ended. The third-year running back had been listed as questionable due to an illness that entered the game, but he played through it — on his 24th birthday, no less — and had 69 yards on the ground and another 24 receiving yards. His teammates later referred to this as “The Kenneth Walker Flu Game.”

“He was sick today, man,” Smith said. “Two touchdowns on his birthday – that was sick.”

After Walker’s TD, the Falcons came up with a throw on their ensuing drive, and that set the stage for Seattle to unleash its pass rushers on Cousins, who had committed just five turnovers to start the game.

While intercepting Love, Cousins ​​felt pressure from rookie defensive tackle Byron Murphy II, who returned to the lineup after missing three games with a hamstring injury. Seattle had a total of nine QB hits and three sacks against Cousins.

“We knew from the film that Kirk doesn’t like pressure, so we knew there would be so many (opportunities) if we could put pressure on him – picks, turnovers, strip sacks, whatever,” Murphy said. “We did.”

The Falcons were among the teams that passed on Murphy in the NFL Draft, allowing Seattle to ultimately select him at No. 16 overall. On Thursday, Murphy said he wanted to make Atlanta feel his presence in this game. When asked if he had achieved that goal, Murphy replied: “Yes, sir. They definitely felt me.”

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Smith completed 18 of 28 passes for 207 yards and the touchdown for Metcalf, who led the team with 99 yards on four receptions. Unfortunately for the Seahawks, Metcalf injured his knee on his seventh and final goal – a long pass thrown wide of the net near the sideline in the third quarter. Metcalf was later carted off the field following his evaluation. Macdonald said the severity of the injury is unknown, but “we’re optimistic at this point, so it doesn’t look too serious.”

By leading throughout the game, Seattle was able to take some pressure off Smith, whose 32 dropbacks were his fewest since Week 1 (28). He had a season-low 10 dropbacks in the second half and attempted just two passes in the fourth quarter. Seattle would have liked to have managed more than the 19 yards on seven runs in the fourth quarter, but not having to play catch-up was a nice change for a team trying to put the game back together offensively.

“We were able to pass the ball when we needed to and we were able to run the ball when we needed to and that’s complementary football,” Smith said. “That’s what this league needs.”

Seattle found that balance by having sixth-round rookie Michael Jerrell start at right tackle for the first time in place of the injured Stone Forsythe (hand) and rookie Christian Haynes continuing to rotate with Anthony Bradford at right guard. There were bumps in the road along the way, like when Jerrell gave up the Falcons’ only sack or when Haynes was flagged for a false start on the next play, essentially ruining a drive. But overall the offense was better than it has been in recent weeks.

For example, on Walker’s 20-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, the Seattle running back received a kickout block from Jerrell and another key block from Haynes, which fended off linebacker Kaden Elliss and allowed Walker access to the second level. That drive was the first of the year with Haynes and Jerrell in the game together, and it resulted in a touchdown as the rookies led the way.

“The protection was great all day,” Smith said.

The whole day was really great for the Seahawks. Or, as Macdonald later put it, it was a “team victory.”

(Top photo by Julian Love: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)

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