The Seattle Seahawks' undefeated season ended in epic fashion in a 42-29 loss to the Detroit Lions on Monday night.
Mike Macdonald's defense got scorched, allowing Jared Goff to set a record and forced just three punts all night.
In three games against the Denver Broncos, the New England Patriots, and the Tua Tagovailoa-less Miami Dolphins, Seattle had allowed 43 total points (14.3 per game), 3.9 yards per play, a 4.7 yards per pass attempt average, and 67.0 passer rating. In Week 4, Seattle's defense gave up 42 points, 7.8 yards per play, 15.7 pass yards per attempt and a 158.3 combined passer rating.
Monday was considered the first real test of the season for Seattle. Macdonald dismissed that notion but added that his team needs to be better moving forward.
"I wouldn't say it's a litmus test. It just shows us we're not the team that we need to be at this point," he said, per the team's official website. "That's what it is. Just wasn't good enough. They did what they did to win the game, they did a great job, they had a great plan, and we came up short. 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 -- I mean, there's always an urgency, but we've got to go to work here over the next few days and make this right."
Seattle's defense was without several pieces up front, with Uchenna Nwosu, Boye Mafe, Byron Murphy II and Leonard Williams all out before the game. Then it lost safety Julian Love in the second half. Regardless of the injuries, getting scorched in the fashion it did Monday night is never good.
"Just not a good enough performance on our front," Macdonald said. "Got to give Detroit a lot of credit. I thought they had a great plan offensively… They just outplayed us on the defensive side of the ball for us."
The positive for the Seahawks is that Geno Smith and the offense were sensational. Smith passed for 395 yards while the unit generated 38 first downs, the most by a losing team since the Rams (36) in Week 4, 2019.
Seattle will need to lean on that explosive offense as the defense gets healthy and figures things out.
"We're 3-1, that's what it says, and now we've got to get on to the next one," Smith said. "That's just football, that's NFL football. I think the only team that went undefeated was the '72 Dolphins, so we're just trying to go out there and win every game we can. Today, we didn't get it done, but that's why we've got next week, so we're going to improve and get back on it and get ready for next week."
Next week brings the New York Giants to Seattle before the schedule really ramps up with the 49ers, Falcons and Bills on tap.
