MIKE MCDANIEL: It’s unfortunate, but that’s the nature of the National Football League, and I’m not making excuses, I don’t think anybody in the locker room is. But it’s tough. The National Football League is tough.

About the positive points of the match.

MIKE MCDANIEL: I thought we took care of the ball. I thought Skylar (Thompson) did a good job with the offense. I think I should have prepared a lot better. 11 penalties is not good enough, but we took care of the ball. I think (Tim) Boyle came in and I thought he did a great job of leading the guys, was really good in the huddle, and was really good at communicating the things that needed to be communicated from the sideline. And I think the bottom line is I see the quarterback as an extension of the offense, and the offense is an extension of me. And three points, I’ve never won a game by scoring three points. So I think collectively, starting with me, we’ve just got to get better, and we’ve got to figure it out quick.

MIKE MCDANIEL: I didn’t talk to Skylar (Thompson) until the end of the game. It was a rib injury that was pretty painful. And half the pain or half the frustration for him, I think, was trying to figure out a way to stay out of the game. And it ended up being pretty painful. He fought through it, but we’ll get a chance to look at him tomorrow.

With the last two weeks, Tua Tagovailoa going down, Skylar Thompson going down, I guess what’s the next step in the planning for you guys over the next couple of weeks? What’s that plan?

MIKE MCDANIEL: I think you have to look at everything. And you have to find a way to give your team the best chance to win. In 2022, this is something that happened to us. And at the end of the day, the rest of the league doesn’t care, and it shouldn’t. We have to find a way to get better collectively. And that’s going to take a bigger effort from everybody, including myself, or starting with myself.

What was the reason behind the game announcement just before the end of the half?

MIKE MCDANIEL: The approach was the same as we did in Week 1 last year against the Chargers, where you try to take a shot and have a defense defend it. In that situation last year, we had a defensive pass interference that led to a field goal that ended up being a two-point game. We tried the same thing and it didn’t work out the same way. But that was the thought process.

What was it again with DK Metcalf’s touchdown?

MIKE MCDANIEL: Yeah, there’s a couple of things from the beginning of the game that I know the good news is that we found our rhythm as a defense, I think, as the game went on. And the good news is that we have the right people on this team, I think, and the right people on defense in particular, that they don’t have to worry about the overall score, but more about how do we prevent self-inflicted wounds from hurting us. And as frustrating as that was, as a focus for the game, I think collectively I was happy with the decision to then play a better defense and respond.

With the self-inflicted wounds, a lot of penalties, pre-snap on offense, also on special teams. Just really the rhyme or reason of —

MIKE MCDANIEL: No, I think we’ve got to do a better job of road management, and that starts with me. But then it goes on to everybody. I think the crowd rocked and it was like the first time in a hostile environment. And so that’s a quick lesson that you’ve got to learn from and get better or you don’t expect different results going forward. But yeah, I think it was 11 penalties for 85 yards. And especially when you’re having trouble in the red zone and not scoring touchdowns and you’re there multiple times, you can’t afford to do that to win the football game.

MIKE MCDANIEL: Terron (Armstead) got poked in the eye. And then UNC cleared him during the game and they looked at him after the game. And he and (Kendall) Fuller are in protocol now and we’ll evaluate them tomorrow.

How do we get Tyreek Hill more involved in the attack? In the first half he was a single target and in the second half he seemed to pick up. But with all the injuries, where do you see him fitting more into the attack?

MIKE MCDANIEL: Absolutely. Tyreek (Hill) as a captain and a leader did a great job all week making sure he did his part, not only in the passing game but in the run game. And in the process, we have to give the Seahawks credit, they did some things to neutralize him. I think ultimately some of the things that we expected to be cleaner in the run game led to longer drives, more opportunities for him. But this team needs him. He was prepared. He was ready. He had the right energy. So we’ve got to do a better job of getting him the ball. And we’ve got to do a better job of staying on the field so we can get our playmakers the ball. I think we only had three three-and-outs, but I think there were a lot of four, five play drives where we could have gotten a first down and then we couldn’t get out of our own way. So it’s got to get better, so everybody gets better.

When we talk about the offense, with the rollercoaster of quarterbacks that you have now, how does the offense continue to click the way they have with so many changes under center? What do they need to do to prepare?

MIKE MCDANIEL: I think we’ve got to find consistency at the core of the group. The guys that really know the offense have to really go for it. And we’ve just got to keep chopping wood and getting better quickly. Again, things like that happen. And every season, there are teams that find a way to win football games when their starter or even their backup is out. So that’s what we signed up for this year in the current situation. And I think it’s also important to — as I told the team — we’ve had two straight seasons where we’ve won football games. And I think we were 3-0 in both scenarios. And it’s a long season. It’s Week 3 and we’ve got to — the idea is you keep getting better so that you’re at your best at the end of the season. That was our main focus this year. It hasn’t changed. It’s just been magnified. But that’s the National Football League. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. And we need everybody to focus on the right things to get better.

When you look at the current offensive inconsistencies, how much of it can you attribute to insecurity at quarterback coming in with an unfamiliar face, relatively speaking? And how much of it is Seattle’s defense or penalties or something?

MIKE MCDANIEL: I think as competitors we look at ourselves first. But I would be foolish not to recognize the very good plan, the effort, the excitement and the details that the Seattle Seahawks had. I don’t think it was the quarterback as much as you might think. I think it was the overall orchestration and execution of the pieces, from start to finish. And I have to look at that in terms of myself, what we do, what we’re good at and how we play clean football. And then I think there are a lot of guys who are looking at their finer details and whether it’s up to the standard of how they do their job. In short, it’s got to be better. So that’s our job and we’ve got to do it immediately and not waste any time.

(Question about fourth and one and going for it)

MIKE MCDANIEL: It was a combination of the work week with Jason Sanders being in the pregame. And I thought the matchup with the defense, I thought points were going to be tight. Even though there were 17 points in the first half and they came early, I was kind of playing where I thought our defense was. And those are things you always think about — if it was three yards further back or four yards further back, I might make a different decision. But basically, on first down, I’m thinking about where the field position is, and I thought it was close enough that he could have a good shot and a good effort.

FastScripts transcript by ASAP Sports