Seattle Seahawks: How the defense will return to dominance
O helps the D
The answer is, simply put, cutting down the defense’s exposure. In other words, reduce the number of opportunities the defense has to make mistakes. Until the problem areas can either be addressed, or enough experience has been gained for the issues to be minimized, the Seahawks need to hold the football as long as possible.
In essence, Seattle’s best defense is its offense. Their task is to control the game flow. In turn, decreasing the chances for opponents to find and exploit the Seahawks defensive deficiencies. By doing this, The Seattle Seahawks vastly increase their chances to win.
This strategy helps in numerous ways, not only in limiting chances for big plays on a young and growing defense but by allowing that defense to take chances in situations that are reserved for far more experienced teams.
Putting it together
To sum up, because of the way Seattle currently controls the clock on offense, they limit their opponent’s chances with the ball. The Hawks defense can and has taken chances to create turnovers at an impressive rate (fifth in the NFL with 13). This actually plays to Seattle’s strengths. A young, aggressive, great tackling team that shuts down running games.
Forcing teams to become one dimensional on offense, creates tendencies that can be exposed and exploited. Route combinations, formation preferences, player combinations, quarterback preferences, and habits are all things that are studied tirelessly throughout the week. Which allows the defense to gamble, based on what they see from the offense prior to the snap, and during the play itself.
If they gamble and miss, they trust the rest of an excellent tackling defense to rally to the ball and try again. If they gamble and succeed, it’s likely a turnover or at the very least a pass defended.
The 2018 defense will never be confused with the historically great defenses of Seattle during the “Legion” era. It’s doubtful they will lead the league in scoring defense for five straight seasons, which has never happened any other time in NFL history.
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Can they continue to succeed and compliment the offense this season? I believe the answer to that is yes. It will only improve as the young players gain more experience to draw on.