Less than three weeks ago, the Seahawks were celebrating a dominant home win over the Dolphins that gave them a 3-0 record to start the season.

On that same field Thursday night, the Seahawks walked off the Lumen Field turf disappointed and searching for answers following their third loss in the last 11 days, this one a 36-24 defeat to the 49ers.

The good news for the Seahawks is that, thanks to that 3-0 start, they're still tied with the 49ers atop the NFC West at 3-3—the Cardinals could make it a three-way tie with a win in Green Bay on Sunday—and in a 17-game season, there is still so much time to get back on track and make this a successful season.

But for that to happen, the Seahawks know they need to make some big improvements in a few areas, most notably their turnover differential, which sits at minus-10 after losing three turnovers without a takeaway on Thursday, and their defense that, after looking so good early in the season, has been susceptible to too many big plays, including a 76-yard Brock Purdy touchdown pass to Deebo Samuel and a game-clinching 76-yard run by Isaac Guerendo in the game's final minutes.

"Look, it stings," Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said. "It stings to have lost three in a row, to lose it against your division rival at home, prime time, such a great environment. Guys fought their tails off down to the last minute, but we're not playing well enough to be the team we needed to be.

The message to the team is we have the people in the building. Our players, our coaches, to become a really good football team. Right now, we're just coming up short. That's obvious based the off tape and what's going on. We've got to start faster. We have to win the takeaway differential. That's a team stat. We're just not doing the things that good football teams do to win football games. And so we're going to attack it, we're going to take a breather and really go back and dissect the heck out of that thing. I just told them, you've got one of two options, you can give up or you can fight like heck to make it right. That's what we're going to do. We're six games into the season and there is a lot of football to be played, but just like the message was last week, we've got to get better in a hurry. We're finding new ways to lose games and that's no good. But we've got the right guys for the job, guys that are in it. We're going to do this thing together and fight forward, and go to Atlanta next week."

Quarterback Geno Smith, who has been outstanding this season, had statistically his worst day of the year, completing 30 of 52 passes for 312 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions, and his assessment of Thursday's game was pretty blunt.

"Obviously we did a lot of things that you don't want to do when you talk about winning football games," he said. "We didn't control the ball. Didn't control the clock. Turned the ball over. Had penalties. You know, all the things that we talk about every week. Like I said, when you play against good teams, well-coached, you can't shoot yourself in the foot. Those are the things we're doing right now. That's to be totally honest with you. Just getting in our own way. We got to stop doing that."

So how does a team go about stopping those mistakes?

"Practice harder," Smith said. "Work harder, better."

If there's a positive to take out of this loss, it is that, much like in previous losses, the Seahawks stayed resilient even as they fell behind. In this case, the Seahawks trailed by as many as 20 points in the third quarter, but were able to rally to make it a one-score game thanks to Laviska Shenault Jr.'s 97-yard kick-return touchdown, which was followed by a quick stop by the defense and 94-yard touchdown drive by Smith and the offense.

Even after Smith's interception set up a 49ers touchdown to make it a two-score game, the offense responded again with a 70-yard touchdown drive capped by a Tyler Lockett touchdown catch to make it 29-24 with 1:44 left. With all three timeouts available, the Seahawks had a chance to get the ball back for a potential winning drive, but on the first play of the 49ers' next possession, Guerendo broke free for 76 yards, setting up Kyle Juszczyk's game-clinching score.

For the third straight week, the Seahawks fought to the end, but for the third straight week, that wasn't quite enough, and they know that needs to change in a hurry.

"There are a ton of fighters in this locker room," guard Laken Thomlinson said. "I don't doubt anyone in here. Just that attitude alone, I know for a fact that we're going to take advantage of these next 10 days. So that alone, I know that we're going to find a way to break through this."

As for how the Seahawks actually get that job done to, as Tomlinson put it, break through this, the key will be what Macdonald called a surgical approach.

"You can't fix everything overnight," he said. "You've got to pick one thing at a time. You've got to be really surgical in our approach, positive. There are good things on tape. The effort was there. The guys are trying to play physical. Trying to play the right way. We've got to look at what we're asking and how we're coaching it and how teams are attacking us, and then go from there. That's really just going to be the thought. Kind of like a mini bye week so going to be looking at ourselves a lot over the next few days and then go back to work on Monday."

"The guys are battling. The guys are battling their tails off. I'm proud of the effort, and I don't know what the score was at some point, but (it) looked bleak. Laviska took the kickoff back, guys fought back to within a score, and we didn't get the four-minute stop on defense. It's kind of a tale of the last three weeks right now."

Coming off a Thursday game, players will get a very well-deserved break following a stretch of three games in 11 days, beginning with their Week 4 Monday night game in Detroit. That break should allow players to get healthier, and also mentally recharge after a tough stretch.

"It's good," defensive end Leonard Williams said of the break. "We just had three losses in a row, which is not good. It's going to give us some time to reflect. hopefully everybody's their biggest judge in these next three days, because we all have to look inward and figure out what we can do as individuals to help this team."

Coming out of the break, the Seahawks will look to correct the mistakes that caused them to lose three straight, but they'll also move forward knowing that, at 3-3, everything is still available to them going forward.

"Of course you're going to be upset and worried about losing three straight," Macdonald said. "Of course. But we are 3-3. We are six weeks in. We started fast. Obviously we have not played good football in the last three games, and onward we go. The mentality always has to be 'Hey let's move forward, attack this thing, and let's fight like hell to make it right.' That's the message to the guys. There is no novel idea, but that's just got to be the mentality."