Mike Macdonald baits Raiders into interception

Film Study: Grey Zabel, Abe Lucas, Jalen Milroe, Tory Horton, Nick Emmanwori, Mike Macdonald's defense

Mike Macdonald has been called the best defensive coordinator in the NFL who is also the head coach and Thursday’s win over the Las Vegas Raiders was an opportunity for him to prove those opinions are accurate without even having his starters available. SumerSports’ Shawn Syed posted a crisp 6-minute breakdown of Nehemiah Pritchett’s interception off of Aidan O’Connell in the second quarter that is just one of the film study videos in this article that Seahawks fans should check out today:

Macdonald’s pre-snap alignment in the front seven essentially dictates to O’Connell which protections he should call by having three threats to the offense’s left (field side) and four to the right (boundary):

But because Seattle’s three rushers on the left appear more threatening, O’Connell sends LT-LG-C to the left and leaves RG-RT-RB to manage the four-player threat to the right. However, at the snap Macdonald drops two players on the left into coverage, leaving 3 players to block 1, and rushes all 4 players from the boundary side, giving the Seahawks a 4-3 advantage:

O’Connell either doesn’t have a “hot” or doesn’t throw it because he forces a pass to his second read, the out route/hitch, which allows Pritchett (bottom of this screenshot) to undercut the throw and make a relatively easy pick with Seattle having a 3-2 coverage advantage on both sides of the defense:

By the way if O’Connell does not get rid of the ball, he gets absolutely leveled by D’Anthony Bell, the free rusher. And this all happens despite the Raiders doing the best job of pass protection that they could have executed in the moment and the receiver deciding to hitch (good choice) instead of completing his route because he recognizes that Pritchett is covering the out.

To give you some perspective on the opponent, O’Connell is maybe at-best a modern day Tarvaris Jackson, but everything we see happen in this play (and during a dominant defensive first half) should resemble what Seahawks fans will see in the regular season against most starting quarterbacks. Macdonald knows how to mess up your pass protection, now he just needs to figure out how to create his own.

Tory Horton film study

All_22 has posted two Seahawks film studies in the past two days and he has a Grey Zabel video scheduled to premiere on Saturday night! This clip about Horton highlights what he did that is exciting, like the spin move for the touchdown, but also where miscommunication with Drew Lock could have led to a bad incompletion and an interception.

But All_22 is open about the fact that he has to make some assumptions on those plays and only Seattle really knows who is at fault:

(I ask that you click on these links more than once in the interest of encouraging All_22 to continue to make Seahawks content and prove that Seahawks fans will show up for these videos more than any other NFL team’s fanbase)

Although we don’t know for sure, the logic of the two plays in question would seem to indicate that Lock made the right read against Cover-3 and that maybe Horton’s best move on that play was to run the comeback to the sideline. And on the interception, maybe Horton was supposed to make a harder left turn towards the sideline than what he ended up running.

It is also fair to say that Lock has had his fair share of interceptions and incompletions, so it could be that both parties are partially at fault.

Nick Emmanwori film study

I’m going to watch this video later today, so I can’t tell you anything about it yet. I just wanted to share it as soon as possible. I know that All_22 is a Ravens fan, so he knows as well as anybody what Kyle Hamilton did for Macdonald in Baltimore and how that actually compares to Emmanwori’s expectations in 2025:

All_22 expects Emmanwori to be better at making plays at the line of scrimmage this season than he will do in coverage, but mentions that Hamilton was the same as a rookie.

I haven’t had a chance to watch the full video yet though so please share your takeaways in the comments section with other Seahawks fans:

Grey Zabel and Abe Lucas film study

These are also videos I have not had the time to watch yet, but we all know Football Scout well. He concentrates his videos on offensive and defensive linemen and this week made a post on the two linemen who could be most responsible for Seattle’s overall OL success this season:

When I say “most responsible”, I mean that Zabel is a huge investment at left guard and that was also arguably the Seahawks’ greatest weakness last year. And Lucas’s health could be the biggest question to get answered of all, especially since Seattle didn’t make much of an effort to insure the depth. We already sort of know what to expect from Charles Cross and sadly we also know what to expect at center and right guard.

So Zabel, Lucas, and Cross have the responsibility to carry the rest of this offensive line, which is basically the same as carrying the offense.

Here’s another Zabel video:

Fullback Highlight: Robbie Ouzts!

I think I’ve finally solved the problem I’ve had with spelling his name…It’s “ZTS” like the K-Pop group “BTS”. Robbie Ouzts. This has been a much harder name for me to spell than Emmanwori or even Houshmandzadeh.

This is why I hate embedding videos that the NFL blocks thumbnails for some videos that use their content. I don’t know how the NFL picks and chooses which ones to block because it is not consistent, but this is the Robbie Ouzts video:

Jalen Milroe film study

This is already the second Milroe film study I’ve seen this week (the first one I posted on Friday) and this is from Will Upton:

We should be getting a lot more of it after the next two games, as well.

And for anyone curious, here’s one about Geno Smith:

All_22 also has a Jamal Adams study releasing this weekend, if you’re curious about Seattle’s former safety who is back with Pete Carroll again and playing linebacker.

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