Let's put this to rest finally: The Seattle Seahawks hiring Mike Macdonald was the correct move. Moving on from long-term head coach Pete Carroll was a risky move, and even midway through the season, Macdonald might not have looked great. The last three games have proven he knows what he is doing.
Sure, the New York Jets, Seattle's Week 13 opponent, might be going through an extremely disappointing season, but they still have the remnants of a quarterback named Aaron Rodgers, good offensive weapons, and a very good defense. New York should be better than it is, and for the first half against Seattle, New York was quite good. It wasn't enough.
This was despite a complete meltdown by the Seahawks special teams in the first half when they muffed three kickoffs, allowed New York to return a kickoff for a touchdown, and had an extra point blocked. One might jokingly have thought special teams coach Jay Harbaugh should have been fired at halftime. He shouldn't have been, of course, but he could have been.
Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald beginning to make his mark on the rest of the NFL
The reason that Harbaugh's job is safe is because the Seahawks defense, for the fourth straight game, was what 12s hoped the unit would be when Macdonald was hired from the Baltimore Ravens in the past offseason. Seahawks fans were told it might take a half-season for Seattle's defensive players to acclimate to Macdonald's scheme. Just when it seemed as if they wouldn't, they did.
Seattle's defense has been dominant for the last four games, including a Week 9 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. The reason the team lost that game had little to do with the defense, and more about bad turnovers by quarterback Geno Smith. In the last three games, the defense was the reason Seattle won.
No team has had more than 300 total yards against Seattle since Week 9, and Seattle has won each of those games. Before New York's final futile drive of the game, the Jets had less than 50 total offensive yards in the second half. A lot of credit could go to defensive lineman Leonard Williams because he had a 92-yard interception return and two sacks, but Williams has been a product of Macdonald's elite scheme.
Of course, just like with the Ravens, Macdonald's scheme - or any coach's scheme - works better if you have the pieces, but the scheme also augments the players. Williams has been great throughout his career, but he has not played any better than he has in the last two games when he has a total of 4.5 sacks, four tackles for loss, and his interception return. He is better because of Macdonald.
The same can be said of safety Julian Love and cornerback Devon Witherspoon. Both are fantastic players, and both are better because of Macdonald and the situations he puts the players in based on his anticipation of what might happen.
Seattle is now 7-5 and in sole possession of first place in the NFC West. The team is still a long way from making the postseason, but they are in a prime position to do so. Once there, Macdonald's Seahawks defense is going to make Seattle a very dangerous team to play.