Mike Macdonald: Monday night shows that we are not the team we need to be

The Seahawks opened the season with three straight wins, but their winning streak snapped Monday night in Detroit.

Lions quarterback Jared Goff didn't throw an incompletion throw and the Seahawks were never able to get out of an early hole en route to a 42-29 loss. In his post-match press conference, Macdonald said the players “fought the game hard” and found several other positives from the performance, but the coach's biggest takeaway was that the team is not where it needs to be when she wants to keep up with the top teams in the NFC.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a litmus test, it just shows us that we’re not the team we need to be at this point,” Macdonald said. “I mean, that’s just – that’s it. Just wasn't good enough. They did what they did to win the game, they did a great job, they had a great plan and we came up short. So it's about how do we move forward now as a football team and take the next step because we have a short week ahead of us and there is urgency – I mean there is always an urgency but we have to keep working here in the next few days and do it right.”

The timing is favorable for a Seahawks rebound as they will face the Giants at home in Week 5, but Monday night's loss and lessons on what the Seahawks need to do to get to the Lions' level will Even if they lose, their NFC East opponents will continue to have an impact for a long time.