The Mike Macdonald era in Seattle started off with a victory, with the Seahawks beating the Broncos 26-20 thanks to standout performance by the defense and a second-half surge for the offense.

Hera are five rapid reactions to Sunday's season-opening win at Lumen Field.

1. Mike Macdonald's defense was as advertised to start the season.

When the Seahawks hired Macdonald away from Baltimore, the hope was that the former defensive coordinator could help turn things around for Seattle on that side of the ball. And while it was only a one-game sample size, Sunday was a great start for Macdonald's defense.

The Broncos scored 20 points, but other than a late-game touchdown drive while trailing by two scores, the only damage Denver did was either the result of Seattle turnovers, or a pair of safeties. With players flying around the field and making sure tackles, the Seahawks forced seven three-and-outs, held the Broncos to just 231 yards, and had three takeaways, interceptions by Riq Woolen and Julian Love, and a forced fumble by K'Von Wallace that was recovered by Jerome Baker.

2. Kenneth Walker and the running game helped ignite the offense in the second half after a rough first half.

Despite such a strong performance by the defense, the Seahawks found themselves trailing at halftime 13-9 thanks to a rough start by the offense, which had a pair of safeties and a turnover, as well as a special teams miscue, a muffed punt that set up a Denver field goal.

The Seahawks had eight possessions in that first half, and six of them started with negative plays: two sacks, three penalties, one of them a hold in the end zone for a safety and a run for minus-1 yard that was a second safety. The two times the Seahawks gained positive yardage to start a first-half drive, they scored a touchdown and a field goal.

So in the second half, once the Seahawks got those negative plays out of the way, Ryan Grubb's offense really got to work, and leading the way was the running game, with Kenneth Walker III setting the tone on his way to 103 yards on 20 rushes, including a 23-yard touchdown run.

With the running game going, Geno Smith and the passing game were also able to settle down, leading to 17 second-half points and a Seahawks victory.

3. Geno Smith showed off his wheels.

Back in April when the Seahawks were just getting started with their offseason workout program, Geno Smith shared a picture showing the fastest measured speeds of Seahawks players for that first week of workouts. At the top of that list? A 33-year-old Geno Smith, who hit 21.67 miles per hour. As Smith would admit later, a few of his teammates were motivated by that and bested his top speed the following week, but Smith's point still stood: the old (by football standards) man can still scoot.

And in his first game since sharing that, Smith showed off his speed to provide one of the team's few first-half highlights on offense. After hitting DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett for back-to-back first downs, Smith was looking to pass once again, but when he saw a huge hole up the middle, he tucked the ball and took off running. With 25 yards to go, he used a subtle juke to freeze safety P.J. Locke before sprinting to the end zone for the Seahawks' first touchdown of the season.

With that 34-yard touchdown run, Smith became the oldest player since 2000 to have a touchdown run of 30-plus yards, according to NFL research, besting the likes of all-time great running backs like Adrian Peterson and Emmitt Smith.

Smith's run might have been his biggest play of the game, but he also did plenty of damage with his arm as well, particularly in the second half when the pass protection held up better. Smith threw an interception on his first attempt of the game, the result of a hit as he let the ball go, and was under pretty heavy pressure for most of the first half. Once the offense settled down and the run game got going, Smith found a lot more success, and finished the game 18 for 25 for 171 yards yards, including a 30-yard touchdown pass to Zach Charbonnet.

4. Year 10 Tyler Lockett looks a lot like the previous versions of Tyler Lockett.

Tyler Lockett missed a decent amount of practice in training camp and didn't play in the preseason while dealing with a thigh injury, one that had him listed as questionable on Friday's injury report.

But if there was any rust for Lockett, it didn't show on Sunday. Lockett, who is starting off his 10^th season with the Seahawks, did what he has done throughout his career and just found ways to get open, resulting in six catches for a team-leading 77 yards, including a fantastic third-down catch late in the fourth quarter that allowed the Seahawks to put the game on ice.

With Sunday's performance, Lockett eclipsed the 8,000-yard mark in his career, making him the second Seahawk, along with Steve Largent, and the 113^th players in NFL history, with more than 8,000 receiving yards.

5. Julian Love picked up where he left off in his 2023 Pro-Bowl season.

Julian Love broke through in 2023, his first season with the Seahawks, to make the Pro Bowl for the first time in his five-year career. And on Sunday, he's picked up right where he left off, putting together a Pro-Bowl worthy performance to help lead a big day for the defense.

Love had an interception for Seattle's first takeaway of 2024, a team-leading 12 tackles, including one tackle for loss, as well as a forced fumble, though Denver was able to recover the loose ball. Love was just one of many defenders making sure tackles in space throughout the game to limit the yardage on Denver's short pass attempts.