Huge defensive turnaround in Seattle
The Seahawks go from terrible to terrific, and timing's right with playoffs looming
Let's be clear. The Seattle Seahawks defence stunk earlier this season. It doesn't anymore. Not even close.
Following a disheartening 44-34 loss at Buffalo on Nov. 8, the Seahawks were allowing the following awful per-game averages, at precisely the midway point of the season:
■ 30.4 points
■ 27.8 first downs
■ 455.8 total yards
■ 362.1 pass yards
How bad was all that? Consider that each of the latter three marks was on pace to shatter the NFL'S single-season record. And the fewest total yards the Seahawks allowed through Week 6 was 415.
Seattle's defensive specialist head coach Pete Carroll was livid following that blowout loss in Buffalo, a game that was far less competitive than the final 10-point deficit suggested.
“It's such an out-of-character game across the board that I don't even recognize us,” Carroll said then of his defence. Fast-forward eight weeks. Guess what? The Seahawks defence is playing about as well as any team's. Over the seven games since that loss in Buffalo, Seattle's per-game averages in the same statistics as above have plummeted to the following:
15.0 points (No. 1 in the NFL in that stretch)
19.6 first downs
302.1 total yards (No. 3)
203.0 pass yards (No. 6)
That's an incredible in-season turnaround.
Another barometer: Seattle had been sacking the opposing quarterback 2.4 times a game through Week 9. Since then, 3.4 sacks per game — tied for best in the league.
What's more, per seahawks. com, over the past seven games, Seattle's defence ranks third in the NFL in opponent yards-perplay (4.6) and fifth in opponent passer rating (78.3).
Indeed, the most total yards the Seahawks have allowed in the past six games is 353.
All that improvement was on full display in Seattle's crucial 20-9 home-field victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. In allowing only three field goals, the Seahawks improved to 11-4 and clinched their first NFC West title since 2016.
“There were times during the season where everybody had enough statistics to go ahead and blow us out, like we weren't worth anything on defence,” Carroll said Sunday, per seahawks. com. “But this defence is good, and they've shown it, and they've declared it.
“This is the kind of defence that we've played in years past, when we really had good teams down the stretch. To show like that again — week after week after week — and to show it again in the most difficult challenge that we had, and not give up a touchdown all day long, that's big time.”
Seahawks defenders pressured Rams quarterback Jared Goff on 24 drop-backs, the most in his five-year career according to ESPN Stats & Information.
It isn't only against the pass that the Seattle defence is now miles better. In what has to stand as one of the great goalline stands in franchise history, the Seahawks late in the third quarter denied the Rams a touchdown on four consecutive runs inside the Seattle five-yard line: from the two-yard line, the four, the one and the one.
“The goal-line stand was a famous one, and one I'll never forget,” Carroll said.
Pro Bowl strong safety Jamal Adams, whom the Seahawks acquired from the New York Jets in a trade in July, was downright giddy after having won the first division title of his four-year pro career. Any playoff foes that believe they're facing the Seahawks defence of September/ October vintage are in for a nasty surprise, he assured.
“For everybody out there, they need to start putting respect on this defence's name,” Adams said, per seahawks.com. “Because this defence is playing lights-out. And to me, we're the best defence in the league. You can quote that, you can do what you want to do with it.
“I believe in these guys, I believe in this coaching staff and what we bring to the table, day in and day out. I know how hard we work. We're just going to continue to get better, because we haven't even played our best football yet — and that's the scary part.”
In April 2019, Washington drafted Dwayne Haskins No. 15 overall. Twenty months later, the NFL club has waived the quarterback.
Unless Haskins can resurrect his career elsewhere in 2021, the 23-year-old will go down as one of the biggest draft busts in league history — a disappointment as much off the field as on it.
Earlier Monday, Rivera told reporters if Alex Smith cannot play again on his calf injury, then Taylor Heinicke will start at QB in Washington's season-ending, make-or-break game Sunday night at Philadelphia.
Win, and they're in the playoffs as NFC East champs. Lose, and their season's over.
Haskins shattered Big Ten passing records in his one season as a starter at Ohio State in 2018, but has struggled as a pro. Washington lost 10 of the 13 games Haskins started. He completed just 60.1 per cent of his throws and had more interceptions (14) than touchdowns (12).
Last week, the club stripped Haskins of his captaincy and fined him US$40,000 after video showing him at a strip club, without a mask on, went viral.
Of Haskins, Rivera said hours before the club waived him: “Sometimes you have to reach rock bottom.”