South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Dunlap’s domination
Culture with Seahawks has been a refreshing change for pass rusher
Which surprised Carlos Dunlap more?
How cleanly he got free off the edge of Arizona’s offensive line on
fourth-and-10 with 38 seconds left Thursday night? How easily he sacked KylerMurray to end a pivotal, taut, one-score game?
Or howPete Carroll celebrated not with him but at him after it?
“You know, P.C. was fired up. He almost tackled me on the sideline,” the Seahawks’ recently acquired pass rusher said of his new coach.
That was after Dunlap’s two sacks, including winning one with 38 seconds left, continued his transforming Seahawks debut and sent Seattle to a pivotal 28-21 victory over the Cardinals to regain first place in the NFC West. A 6-foot-6, 285-pound Dunlap getting thrown by the 69-year-old Carroll to celebrate Dunlap’s first win in three Seattle starts?
“That was crazy to see a head coach that involved,” Dunlap said. “The whole sideline was like our 12s today. Everybody was locked into the game the whole way through, no matter what was out there. Field goals, everybody was celebrating. Seeing Bobby (Wagner) and Russ (Wilson) running out there after every field goal.”
Dunlap is not in Cincy anymore. “This is a whole different environment, man,” the two-time Pro Bowl defensive end in 101⁄ seasons for the
2
Bengals said. The culture here is very lovely. It’s contagious. It’s surreal. It’s refreshing.”
It’s decisive, too.
The Seahawks traded late last month to get Dunlap to bring some life, any life, to its flat-lined pass rush. The Bengals gave him away in exchange for reserve offensive lineman B.J. Finney and a late-round pick. Cincinnati had demoted the 31-year-old Dunlap to part-time, situational status as part of a youth movement lastmonth.
Dunlap is so happy with the move that late Thursday night he thanked every member of the Seahawks’ defense, the organization-even the people who checked him into Seattle when he first got here the lastweek of October. That’s what happens when you go from playing in only five playoff games in 10 years, never winning one, with the Bengals to a franchise that has gone to the playoff seven times in the last seasons. Seattle has played in 17 postseason games including two Super Bowls and won one NFL championship since 2010.
“The culture-from upstairs, to the city, to the valet in the hotel I was staying at when they first put me here-how in tune everyone is, how positive everyone is, (it’s) consistently,” he said. “Even with the way we started off, we had those two losses back to back. Everyone was consistently positive. No one was second-guessing anything. Everybody was honest with themselves, willing to work, acknowledged what we needed to do better.
“And we worked at it. It’s just, all the layers of the culture here, it’s just positive. Believe in it. The leaders, Russ, DB (Duane Brown), and Bobby. They speak it. They follow up. They’re out there on the front lines, doing it with you. They lead the way And I’m just trying to findmyplace.” Place found.
The Seahawks’ defensive line was inert, ineffective and in fact a liability before Dunlap arrived. They had seven sacks, total, in the first six games.
Missing out on Jadeveon Clowney re-signing with them. Not signing Everson Griffen after that this summer. The fact top rookie pass-rushing defensive end Darrell Taylor has yet to practice with the team after leg surgery in January. All that left the Seahawks having to blitz linebackers and defensive backs to generate any pressure on quarterbacks in September and October.
On Oct. 25, Seattle failed to sack or even hit KylerMurray one time in 48 drops backs inthe Cardinals’ winover the Seahawks. Seattle traded for Dunlap three days later.
Dunlap missed Seattle’s win over San Francisco the followingweekend because he had to complete a six-day protocol of COVID-19 entry testing before he could join the team. In his three games since, Dunlap has 31⁄
2 sacks, five tackles for loss and six hits on quarterbacks.
He’s already second on the team in sacks, two behind JamalAdams (51⁄ 2).
Much like he did in his career year of 2018 next to edge-rushing star Frank Clark, defensive tackle Jarran Reed is immediately benefiting from having Dunlap next to him. Since Clark left for the Chiefs in a trade, Reed had three sacks in his previous
17 games over two seasons.
Reed has three sacks in the three games he’s played next toDunlap.
Thursday night, Arizona’s next-tolast offensive play: third and 10 from the Seattle 27 with 45 seconds left. Reed looks worth the $23 million for which Seattle signed him this spring. He loops outside Dunlap’s inside move and beats Arizona’s protection on its right side to pressure and hit Murray into a rushed, incomplete pass at the goal line.
Next play: fourth-an- 10. Game and division lead at stake. Dunlap crashes into, wraps up and sacksMurray from behind before he had any chance to throw the ball. Dunlap gets up and yells over the roars of bonkers teammates: “BALLGAME!”