How to Fix the Seahawks: Part 2–Defense
By Ben Renner
Building on a Strength
For much of the season, the Seahawks’ defensive line was the strength of its defense. Defensive end Cliff Avril made his first Pro Bowl by registering 11.5 sacks. Middle linebacker Bobby Wagner helped the line immensely on run plays, largely because Seattle’s interior linemen were rarely pushed out of position.
In today’s NFL, having an effective pass rush is critical for a defense. Today’s quarterbacks are too good to give extra time to. During the final third of the season and in the playoffs, the Seahawks’ pass rush was inconsistent for a variety of reasons.
From Week 13 on (when Thomas broke his leg), the Seahawks weren’t themselves getting after the quarterback, either. Now, before issuing a long string of curse words at me, it wasn’t entirely their fault, and it’s not like they were awful at getting to the quarterback, either. They just weren’t themselves. They smothered the LA Rams on Thursday night in Week 15 and handled Matt Stafford and Lions well in the Wild Card game. But the Packers, Falcons, Cardinals, and even the 49ers made plays and neutralized the pass rush for parts of those games, too.
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Most recently, as Bennett explained to Bill Wixey during his post-game tirade after the loss to the Falcons, Matt Ryan completed short passes and made a point to get the ball out of his hand quickly. A few obvious pick plays notwithstanding, the Falcons were able to pull this off mostly without a hitch. (Get it? Hitch?)
Why doesn’t every NFL team neutralize every opposing pass rush with short throws and quick passes? Because an NFL secondary and defensive coordinators around the league will adjust to it. Defensive backs will creep up on receivers knowing they don’t have to defend the deep ball as much and smother underneath routes. Defensive linemen will start putting their hands up sooner and focus on trying to clog throwing lanes, rather than trying to run by the offensive tackle every time. Against the Falcons, the Seahawks couldn’t adjust.
It could have been because the Falcons had an unusually deep well of offensive players to throw at Seattle. Their overwhelming talent on offense is similar to the 2013 Seahawks’ talent level on defense. (This is why I think Atlanta has a chance in the Super Bowl). They weren’t the only team to shake off the Seahawks’ rotation of talented defensive ends. The offensively-challenged 49ers made plays against the vaunted front-four of the Seahawks defensive line, too. When other teams made adjustments to slow the pass rush down, they were successful. Once again, Richard and company had to counterattack.