Mike Macdonald's new way pays off big in his first preseason game as Seahawks coach

One bit was clear at the very beginning of the Seattle Seahawks first preseason game: New head coach Mike Macdonald is going to approach things in a way that former head coach Pete Carroll would not. This may not always pay off, of course, but Seattle dominated on Saturday. The Macdonald era unofficially got off to a brilliant start.

The start of the game was key and showed a difference between Carroll and Macdonald. The likelihood of Carroll ever beginning the preseason by playing almost all of his presumed starters on defense is almost nil. Carroll erred on the side of caution to not risk players to unnecessary injuries. Macdonald doesn't want his players to get hurt, of course, but he wants them to have a better mentality than they did under Carroll.

"Mentality" was a word Macdonald used several times in his post-game press conference. That word is important because it means much more than simply being focused on understanding the play-call. "Mentality" is as much of a team culture marker as something more simple and diluted. It means aggression while playing smart and believing that the players wearing the Seahawks uniform are the alphas on the field.

Mike Macdonald's philosophy will push the Seahawks to be much more aggressive this year

By playing his healthy defensive starters for the first two series of the game, Macdonald was saying to his own team and to Los Angeles, "Nothing we do is meaningless, and we will be the bully any time we want."

The Chargers did not have 100 total yards in the first three quarters. Yes, they were playing with a backup quarterback who struggled but that likely had as much to do with Seattle's defense than the Chargers' inefficiency. LA was also just two for 13 on third downs; a far better number than Carroll's recent teams.

In the last few years under Carroll, the team had become too soft. Cornerbacks played too far off from receivers at the line - a complete change from Carroll's early years when corners were extremely physical at the line with receivers - and the linebackers allowed far too many easy catches over the middle of the field. Worse, the run defense, which truly comes down to one man beating another, was atrocious.

Macdonald will not allow any of that. If a player isn't doing what the defense needs, someone else would take that player's spot. The head coach knows his scheme works. The players are the ones who have to execute it.

Macdonald told the press, "I'm just proud of the mentality, the focus that we had, the intent, it felt like the guys played really hard, felt like they were focused...We played the majority of our starters on defense, so we definitely wanted to start fast. Just get a feel for getting the call in, the subs, situational ball for real. The guys were locked in...All the edges that we're chasing, our mentality, we want to be rock solid."

Later Macdonald said that the team isn't where it needs to be to begin the season. That is likely true for every team in the NFL. 12s probably learned that Macdonald's defense is going to be a lot different than Carroll's, though. Forget about the softness of Seahawks teams in the past. Seattle is going to be ultra-aggressive and will not fear any other team.

More Seahawks news and analysis: