Mike Macdonald says the quiet part out loud after Seahawks loss to Lions

The Seattle Seahawks got taken to task by the Detroit Lions in Week 4. Well, to be fair, it was Seattle's defense that had the real issues. The offense had 38 first downs. One can only blame Geno Smith and his pals so much. And really, Smith should share none of the blame for Seattle's 42-27 loss to Detroit.

Seattle also should not use excuses for their defensive performance. Sure, there are certainly some built-in ones. Mainly, Seattle was without two players - Leonard Williams and Boye Mafe - who were in the top ten of the NFL in quarterback pressures entering Week 4. Seattle was also without starting linebacker Jerome Baker and rookie defensive tackle Byron Murphy II.

If Seattle can get healthy and meets the Lions again in the playoffs, should 12s expect a different outcome than what they saw in Week 4? There is hope for that. On Monday, however, Detroit seemed to out-scheme Seattle as much as outplay them.

Mike Macdonald admits the Seahawks are not where they need to be for long-term success

Even if Seattle were playing with a number of backups, head coach Mike Macdonald would not expect his defense to be so much worse than it had been in the first three games. He believes backups should not be such as drop off from the starters. In the case of the Seahawks, though, that drop-off does seem fairly precipitous.

In his post-game press conference, Macdonald was having none of the potential excuses for the team's dismal defense in Week 4. So bad, in fact, that Lions quarterback Jared Goff was able to complete all of his 18 passes for nearly 300 yards. Goff even caught a touchdown pass.

Asked if Week 4 was a "litmus" test for his team, the coach said no. He also admitted that the team just isn't where it needs to be currently. That might even imply that the success of the first three games was a bit of a lie.

Macdonald told the media, "I wouldn’t say (Week 4 was) a litmus test, it just shows us we’re not the team that we need to be at this point. I mean, that’s just - that’s what it is. Just wasn’t good enough. They did what they did to win the game...So, it’s, how do we move forward right now as a football team and take the next step because we’ve got a short week coming up and there’s urgency...we’ve got to go to work here over the next few days and make this right."

Potentially, Macdonald feels the team is about where he thought it would be by Week 4. There have been issues on defense, however, such as tackling and run defense. Macdonald was supposed to fix that, but he still might. But maybe the team isn't where it needs to be right now because the Seahawks simply don't have all the players they need to make Macdonald's scheme work.