Seattle Seahawks defense continues surge despite inexperience
For as much attention as the Seattle Seahawks offense has received in recent weeks, their defense is playing at a championship level.
Seattle’s defense continues to surge as the season unfolds, a most welcome sight for12s. It continues to baffle many, experts and fans alike. When you watch the Seattle Seahawks play, you don’t come away feeling you’ve witnessed a historically great, or incredibly talented defense on that given day.
No one is wowed or blown away by their play. You don’t shake your head and wonder how in the world Seattle assembled such a dominant unit. There are exceptions, of course, because Seattle has extremely talented players on that unit. However, for every Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright or Bradley McDougald there’s a Tre Flowers, Tedric Thompson, Austin Calitro and Barkevious Mingo.
I’m not casting shade on those players as Dougy B would say. I’m simply pointing out that while there are perennial All-Pro and Pro Bowl worthy players, the talent level simply isn’t that of an elite defense, or at least the elite Ds of Seattle’s recent history.
When investigating the numbers and success the Seahawks seem to be creating each and every week, there are some incredibly eye-popping and more importantly, familiar numbers. Performances that resemble or even rival the Legion’s success during the 2014 season.
Ball Control
A big part of that is the return to what helped make them successful, a viable and dominant running game, with a good measure of Mr. Wilson magic sprinkled in. That doesn’t explain all of it. Yes, time of possession is instrumental to a defenses ability to succeed, that is something that most if not all at least acknowledge.
Seattle currently allows 29:44 per game (though this number is drastically skewed by the first two games) compared to the 2014 squad that played behind a Beast and that stifling defense. That same 2014 team allowed 28:33. The last three games, the New Age Seahawks have actually surpassed that number (27:43).