There were still things to enjoy in the loss, including a big day for Geno Smith and the offense, but most of all Macdonald was proud of the way his team fought to stay in the game for four quarters stay after falling behind 0-14 early on.

“I can tell you, our guys really fought in this game,” Macdonald said. “They held on until the last second and that’s what I’m most proud of at the moment. We will stick to that and that is a foundation that we have built here and that we will continue on. Now, four weeks into the season, the message all week has been that we are on the foundation of our football team and we want to be there, and it is obvious that we are not yet the team we want to be. and we shouldn’t be the team we’re going to be. We have time to grow as a football team, we have a short week, we have to have a sense of urgency and we have to take advantage of the next one. But it just wasn’t good enough, especially on the defensive side of the ball, so we have to do it right and move forward.

Monday’s game was an exciting game with both teams making plenty of great plays, a common theme when these teams have played each other in recent years. And if the Seahawks are playing anywhere near full strength, maybe they can come up with a few more stops to give them a chance to win. With Seattle and Detroit off to a 3-1 start, both are considered playoff contenders, but the Seahawks need to improve a bit to get where they want to be.

“Detroit is a great team, they showed it, they proved it, they proved it again tonight. “And we want to be a great team, so we have to become a great team. We want to become the team we believe we can be and that is our focus.”

Quarterback Geno Smith, who rushed for a career-high 395 yards, added: “We’re 3-1, that’s what it says, and now we’ve got to move on to the next game. 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 and win every game we can. We didn’t make it today, but that’s why we have time next week. So we’re going to improve, keep going and get ready for next week.”