RENTON -- The tape of the Seahawks' 38-35 loss to Tampa Bay on Sunday wasn't any better than how it felt in real time.
It was three hours of humbling for a Seahawks defense that, through the first four games of the season, was lauded as among the best in the NFL.
The points allowed were the second-most of the 22-game Mike Macdonald era and more than doubled the average of 16.8 points per game they had coming into the game, which ranked second in the NFL.
Injuries that forced the Seahawks to finish the game without five key defensive players -- three in the secondary -- was a factor.
But the Seahawks say that's not an excuse.
"To me, it wasn't up to our standard," said veteran defensive Leonard Williams, who has increasingly emerged as a spokesman and leader of the defense since arriving via a trade with the Giants two years ago this month.
"We all agree it wasn't up to our standard, so we're just trying to hold each other accountable. Not really point fingers at specific players but point fingers at the problem. We felt like we didn't tackle well enough. We feel like we didn't pursue the ball well enough."
The Seahawks were assessed 10 missed tackles by Pro Football Focus and have the seventh-worst tackling grade for the season.
Williams said the good news is he thinks the issues are fixable.
"A lot of it is just effort, running to the ball," he said, "(Our coach) talks about effort, angles, and tackling. I feel like effort and angles are a big part of tackling. If you don't cover those two parts of getting to the football, then the tackling part is hard to catch up to."
Why effort might have been lacking is harder to discern. But Williams said Wednesday it should be a given.
"That's something we talk about as a defense, that effort erases mistakes," Williams said. "If one guy is trying to set the edge and he misses a tackle we should have a pursuit of nine or 10 other guys pursuing the ball inside (and) out, so that when he misses the ball it should be stopped as soon as he cuts back inside. That's a part of our defense. We play with hustle, we play with energy, and we help each other out by how hard we play."
A handful of the missed tackles came on screen passes.
The official play-by-play listed five Tampa Bay passes as "short" that went for gains of 13 yards or more, including two of 22 and 25 yards.
The Bucs had 202 yards after the catch, according to Pro Football Reference, after the Seahawks had allowed a combined 514 in the first four games.
"We see that offenses are attacking us with screen plays and that's something we're going to have to get better at," Williams said.
They need to do so quickly since the Seahawks figure to see a lot more of the same Sunday at Jacksonville.
Jaguars first-year coach Liam Coen was the offensive coordinator last year with Tampa Bay and the Bucs have kept much of his scheme.
"I think they run a similar offense to the one we just saw," Williams said. "So, in my opinion, it's a good thing we're going to see two back-to-back offenses like this. We've seen what we were deficient and lacking in, in this last game against that type of scheme, so we've seen that's something we have to work on and something we're going to get better at throughout the week."
And, Williams said, that's with whoever is on the field.
The Seahawks seem certain to be without rush end Derick Hall, who hurt his oblique early in Sunday's game, and it remains unclear if cornerbacks Riq Woolen (concussion) and Devon Witherspoon (knee), safety Julian Love (hamstring) and end DeMarcus Lawrence (quad) will be back this week.
Of that group, only Woolen practiced on Wednesday, and he did so on a limited basis.
But Williams echoed what Macdonald said after the game that it shouldn't matter who is on the field.
"We definitely want to have a next-man-up mentality," Williams said. "As soon as a guy is brought into this building, we want to let them know the type of standard that we play on defense right away and before they even get their first snap on Sunday. They know what type of mentality and the way we play football around here the first day that they're here, so I don't think we should change our messaging when it comes game day."
The Tampa Bay game has led to some hard conversations this week.
The good news in the eyes of Williams is that he and his teammates are responding the right way.
"At the end of the day, players are the ones that are the ones on the field," he said. "Players are the ones next to each other, we're communicating with each other. The best teams, in my opinion, are player-led. At the end of the day, we should be having the keys to the team. Coaches do a good job of facilitating and setting an example, but a good team is when the players take it and run with it."
Injury report: Seven sit out
Seven Seahawks sat out of practice Wednesday, six because of injury.
Defensive lineman Jarran Reed sat out as noninjury related/rest.
The six who sat out with injury -- Love, Witherspoon, Hall, Lawrence, linebacker Ernest Jones IV (shoulder) and offensive lineman Josh Jones (ankle).
Woolen and safety Nick Emmanwori (ankle) were limited. Fullback Brady Russell was listed as full participants with a wrist injury.
Macdonald said before practice that Josh Jones is already ruled out, which will be the third straight game he has missed. Macdonald said Jones will not go on IR.
Macdonald on Monday said Hall is "week-to-week," indicating he's out for the Jaguars game.
Woolen is still in the concussion protocol, but being on the field as limited indicates he is making progress and could get cleared to play by the end of the week.
It's unclear if the injury to Ernest Jones IV is significant.
He was not on the injury report at any stage last week, but he was on the report with a shoulder injury prior to the Arizona game but did not miss any snaps. He was also on the report prior to the Saints game, in which he played fully.
Emmanwori left briefly in the fourth quarter Sunday but returned.
Macdonald said before Wednesday's practice that Love, Witherspoon and Lawrence -- who all sat out against the Bucs -- are in a wait-and-see mode.
"With D-Law (Lawrence), we'll see how it plays out today," Macdonald said. "For all three, it's going to go later in the week in terms of play status and all that."
Notes
The Seahawks made one roster move Wednesday, signing safety Maxen Hook to the practice squad and placing offensive lineman Shane Lemieux on the practice squad injured reserve list. Hook is an undrafted rookie free agent out of Toledo who was in camp with the Eagles before being waived in the cutdown to the 53-man roster.