The calling card for the 2025 Seattle Seahawks was their defense, as the team marched on to win Super Bowl LX. In their final nine games (regular season and postseason), only the Los Angeles Rams scored more than 20 points against the Seahawks’ defense.
Los Angeles recorded 37 points in the regular season meeting in December 2025 and 27 points in the NFC title game. As a result, Seattle’s defense was no fun to play against.
One player who faced this defense in its dominant form that led to a Super Bowl was Las Vegas Raiders QB Kirk Cousins, who was with the Atlanta Falcons. Cousins and his former team could only score nine points in that game, which ended up being a 37-9 result.
In a May 8 video from Seattle Sports, Cousins shared his thoughts on the Seahawks’ defense from the 2025 season, particularly head coach Mike Macdonald, the mastermind behind it all.
“I think you see a defense that plays together,” Cousins said. “Some of the effort and passion that came from the Pete Carroll system and world has carried over in Seattle with Mike Macdonald and what he coaches and emphasizes with effort, attacking, and playing together.
“I also think they do a great job schematically of giving the safeties, and even the linebackers, the ability to get to the right call. You may have two or three calls as a defense ready to go on any given play, and, based on how the offense aligns, whether it’s formation splits, shotgun, or whatever, they’ll be ready to get to what they feel is the right call in that moment.”
Kirk Cousins on Facing Pete Carroll, Mike Macdonald Defenses
Moreover, Cousins, who played against the Legion of Boom era of the Seahawks’ defense, compared facing that group under former head coach Pete Carroll to facing the unit led by Macdonald and his playcalling.
“[Carroll’s defense] was very straightforward. It was just hard to attack. I think with [Macdonald’s] defense now, it’s not like you break the huddle and say, ‘I know what you’re going to do.’ It’s more, ‘I don’t know what you’re going to do.‘
“And even after snapping the ball, you say, ‘I still don’t really know what you’re going to do here.‘ That’s probably the biggest difference in the defense compared to the one from 12 years ago. You could predict it, but that didn’t mean you could take advantage of it.”
Philip Rivers Gives Seahawks Defense Its Flowers
Cousins isn’t the only veteran signal caller to give the Seahawks’ defense under Macdonald its flowers. Recently, former NFL QB Philip Rivers, who came out of retirement for the Indianapolis Colts, gave praise to the Seattle defense when he had to go up against them.
“I’ve got to make sure I know where [Nick Emmanwori] is all the time,“ Rivers said on April 1. “Then here’s [Devon] Witherspoon, that obviously is a heck of a blitzer as well and a great DB. And then there’s the defensive front, and how do we want to handle Leonard Williams? And what about [DeMarcus] Lawrence and Uchenna [Nwosu] and these guys rushing on the outside?”
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