The Seahawks have made their share of mistakes over the course of their first two games, but have still found ways to get the job done down the stretch, and the result is that they are the only unbeaten team in the NFC West through two weeks of the NFL season.

Given the way the Seahawks overcame a disastrous first half of offense in Week 1, then some run game struggles, on both sides of the ball, among other miscues in Week 2, and still came out on top, it was no surprise that head coach Mike Macdonald, when asked about the attributes that have helped his team to wins in their first two games, he started with resiliency.

"I would say resiliency," Macdonald said Monday. "You want your team to be that. You want a resilient football team. You want a together football team. A confident team that's composed, poised, tough. There's been some things in the first couple of games that haven't gone our way, whether it's self-inflicted or the other team's doing good stuff at the time. So, we've been able to be adaptable and steadfast kind of in the vision of how we need to go win the game. So, all those things are great. Again, we're sitting here, It's great to be 2-0. It's a great win going across the country. I think if you ask any of our guys in that locker room, not one would be complacent or just feel like 'Hey, we've made it' by any stretch of the imagination because there's a lot of plays out there that we should be able to convert and put ourselves in a better position as the game goes forward."

In addition to the team's resilience are five more things we learned from Macdonald's Monday press conference:

1. Geno Smith is "playing his tail off."

The Seahawks were outrushed on Sunday by a huge margin, with the Patriots running for 185 yards to Seattle's total of 46. So for the Seahawks to win, they needed their pass defense to hold up, which it did, particularly after making second-half adjustments to limit the damage Jacoby Brissett was doing throwing to tight end Hunter Henry, and they also needed a lot from Geno Smith and the passing game.

Smith came through with one of his best games as a Seahawk, completing 33 of 44 passes for 327 yards, overcoming a few drops from his receivers, as well as the aforementioned lack of a running game. And most critically, Smith led a game-tying drive at the end of the fourth quarter, followed by a game-winning drive in overtime.

"That was a heck of a performance, man," Macdonald said. "I think Geno, there's a little chip on his shoulder. I like it because they just keep sleeping on this guy. He played at a super high level. He deserves all the credit that he's getting right now. He's playing his tail off."

2. Tyrel Dodson made one of the biggest plays of the game, with an assist from outside linebackers coach Chris Partridge.

While the Patriots were able to have a lot of success running the ball throughout the game, Seattle's defense got a stop when it needed it most. Facing third-and-1 at the 39-yard line on the opening possession of overtime, the Patriots put the ball in the hands of 227-pound running back Rhamondre Stevenson, who had 81 yards in the game after rushing for 180 the week before, and Stevenson was met in the hole by linebacker Tyrel Dodson, who with an assist from Jarran Reed, was able to stop Stevenson for no gain. That led to a punt, and the Seahawks went on to win the game on the ensuing possession. After the game, Dodson credited outside linebackers coach Chris Partridge, who helps with the team's short-yardage strategy, with alerting the defense to what would happen on that play. Macdonald agreed a day later that Partridge had a hand in that stop, but was also quick to credit the work done by Dodson and the rest of the defense on that crucial stop.

"If you need anything done at a high level, give it to Chris Partridge," Macdonald said. "The guy is just a force for us on our staff. Really appreciate his work ethic and his mentality on the things that he's in charge of. It's a bunch of different stuff without getting into everything, but, he deserves a lot of credit. I mean, T-Dot made a heck of a play, and he's being humble by dishing it out to Chris. I mean, he's the guy making the tackle. A couple of assists on that play. Leo (Leonard Williams) had great B-gap penetration, and then J-Reed was in the A-gap on that play and then ended up actually kind of taking the engine out of the running back and making sure he didn't get any more progress. Those guys did a great job."

3. Boye Mafe "is doing an excellent job right now."

Outside linebacker Boye Mafe opened his second game of the season with a sack on New England's first third down of the game, his second sack in as many games, and Boye continued to be a nuisance for the Patriots offense throughout the game. Yes, there were a few plays he'd like to have back where he had a shot to make a play in the backfield and couldn't finish, but overall Mafe is off to an outstanding start, as is evident in several numbers, not the least of which is the fact that he has an NFL leading 14 quarterback pressures according to NFL Next Gen Stats.

"I'm thinking run game and pass game and the way we're structured, if you're going to play on the edge for us on early downs, you have to set a violent edge to the defense," Macdonald said. "If you don't have an edge, you saw a couple of times yesterday, the ball circles you. And that's not good. And that's a challenge that we had for Boye going into the season. So talking about having the mentality to take the coaching, understand what areas of his game that he needs to improve, and then attacking those things, having the mentality and the humility to attack areas of his game that needed to be improved. And he's done that and he's had some really good reps on tape in early downs and conversion rushes. It's still not perfect. There are still plays yesterday that he can improve on in that area. And then on third down, again, I can't think of a time where the guy hasn't been here and doing all the things that we're asking him to do. He's in great shape. He understands the game plan, he understands what his fastball is. He's not trying to be somebody he's not, but it also is teamwork on how you rush the passer. You can't just be out there rogue winning certain ways, and that's not congruent with the rest of the rush. So how that kind of works together with all four guys, I think he's doing an excellent job right now. And to your point, there's room for him to grow and finish in some of those plays. So off to a good start, but there's a lot of credit in terms of his mentality and his approach over the last few months."

4. It's on coaches and players to improve the run defense.

The Seahawks weren't tested a ton in the running game in Week 1 other than a couple of scrambles by Denver quarterback Bo Nix, but against the Patriots, Seattle knew it would see a committed rushing attack, and that first big test of the run defense didn't go as Macdonald would have hoped, with the Patriots rushing for 185 yards on 36 carries.

Asked if the fixing that is about the team's scheme or the players executing, Macdonald said it's a little bit of everything.

"It's both," he said. "Scheme-wise, some things that without getting all the details, I'm putting that on my shoulders, on how we prepare or how we call it. Situations we're putting guys in, we can be better on that front, me in particular. And then on the other hand, there's just old school football fundamentals that we need to be better at in our front seven, our edge mechanics, how we're taking on blocks. Some of our run fits at the second level. Those things need to be improved. So I'd say it's a combination of both."

5. The Seahawks have "got to move people" to succeed in the running game.

Coming out of the opener, the Seahawks were feeling pretty good about the running game after Kenneth Walker III rushed for 84 of his 103 yards in the second half. But Walker suffered an oblique injury late in that game, and did not play against New England. And with Walker out and the line not getting the push Macdonald was hoping for, the running game produced just 46 yards on 19 carries.

"We've got to move people, man," Macdonald said. "Right now we're not moving them. So that's a challenge for us moving forward."

And speaking of the line, unlike the opener when Anthony Bradford played the entire game, rookie Christian Haynes got a couple of series at right guard, a rotation that could continue as those two continue to compete at that spot.

"I'll kind of leave the offensive line rotation to keep it more under wraps, but it's still an ongoing thing," Macdonald said. "I thought AB (Bradford) had some good plays. You leave the Denver game thinking, 'Hey, we're on a good trajectory here.' Going to the New England game, we didn't run it as effectively. Now we threw the heck out of the ball and did what we needed to do to win the game. But moving forward, especially in those situations where we need to run the ball, we're going to have to get that done."

As for Zach Charbonnet, who rushed for 38 yards on 14 carries starting in place of Walker, Macdonald still liked a lot about the second-year back's performance even the numbers weren't all that impressive, especially when factoring his work in the passing game, including a crucial third-down catch on the winning drive.

"I think the 3^rd-and-6 conversion he had on the sideline to put us almost into field goal position tells you (about) his conditioning level. I mean, the guy (is the) Energizer Bunny, man. (He) just keeps going. There wasn't a lot there for him, so I thought he ran hard, executed well in the in the tempo type stuff. But, the play that sticks out in my mind is the one handed catch he made that on that 3rd and 5. I thought that was just a great testament to his will and situational awareness to try to get the first down, how important that was. So, that was an incredible play."