The Seattle Seahawks defense had no answer for San Francisco 49ers wideout Mike Evans, who recorded seven receptions on 10 targets for 113 receiving yards, 16.1 yards per reception, and one touchdown.
Moreover, it was the Evans show in Seattle, as neither tight end George Kittle nor any other wideout came close to producing what the veteran wideout did in Week 6. With Evans torching the Seahawks’ Josh Jobe, the question is whether head coach Mike Macdonald should’ve provided help for Jobe.
On Oct. 12, Macdonald made an appearance on Seattle Sports and shared a blunt admission regarding whether he should’ve had a different approach to defending Evans, who was the go-to guy for 49ers QB Brock Purdy.
“I know Josh got beat a couple of times,” Macdonald said. “We trust Josh to play press man-to-man. He’s been doing it for two years now, and he’s done it at a high level. When that happens, you’re going to lose one-on-ones.
“As the play caller and the guy designing the defense, should I have helped out? Should I have given Josh more help in some of those situations? Yeah, I could have. There’s reasons why we called certain things in certain situations, and sometimes I’m right and sometimes I’m not.”
Mike Macdonald Still Trusts Josh Jobe After Loss to 49ers
Despite Evans’ performance against Jobe and the Seahawks’ secondary, Macdonald intends not to change his approach and still intends to continue to put players like Jobe in those one-on-one situations.
“When you’re not in the perfect thing on where they want to go with where the ball’s intended, then you’re going to end up in some one-on-one matchups,” Macdonald added. “Our guys have won plenty of those over the years, and we’ll continue to put those guys in those situations.
“We trust our guys, and I think that there’s always technique things that you can improve on, especially when you’re in one-to-one, man-on-man situations. But we don’t leave that game with any less trust in Josh.”
It will be interesting to see if the Seahawks do keep that approach when they face the Niners and Evans again on Nov. 29.
Seahawks Defense Was Put in Challenging Situations
While Evans’ performance for the 49ers was a reason for the Seahawks getting the loss, there was another issue that led to Seattle falling at home against the Niners.
Seattle Sports’ Michael Bumpus noted that the defense, along with not being able to contain Evans, had trouble defending short fields as the 49ers didn’t have to go that far to put up points on their first three scoring drives.
This defense has to defend short fields,” Bumpus said in an Oct. 12 video for Seattle Sports. “On their first three scores, the Niners only had to travel about 30-plus yards. When you have a short field, you give the football to a guy like Brock Purdy, who’s been really efficient this year; they’re probably going to put points on the board. We said the same thing a couple of weeks ago with the Commanders. They have to fix that and fix it early before you get to Denver.”
Seahawks’ Mike Macdonald Makes Candid Admission After Loss to 49ers