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RENTON, Wash. — Among the concerns for the Seattle Seahawks coming out of their 30-13 loss Sunday to the Los Angeles Rams is whether their defensive showing suggests the team is headed down a familiar path.
In recent years, Seattle’s defense has had a fatal flaw each season. In 2019, the passing defense was so troubling that Seattle had to swing a midseason trade for safety Quandre Diggs. In 2020, the pass rush was so rough that it necessitated a midseason trade for defensive end Carlos Dunlap. In 2021, it took about a month and a few personnel changes — inserting Ryan Neal, cutting Tre Flowers and promoting Tre Brown — before the pass defense came around. Defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. and secondary coach Andre Curtis were still fired after that season. Last season, the run defense was one of the worst in the league. There was no drastic midseason personnel move made, but the defensive line was overhauled in the offseason.
Basically, when it comes to Seattle’s defense recently, there’s always something drastically wrong. Players are shuffled in and out. The scheme shifts. Coaches are hired and fired. Still, there’s almost always something.
GO DEEPER
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Seattle’s run defense looked fixed against the Rams. Running backs Cam Akers and Kyren Williams combined for 81 yards on 37 carries. Seattle held the Rams to 2.2 yards per carry on designed attempts by running backs, the second-lowest average in the league ahead of Monday Night Football (all stats provided by TruMedia unless stated otherwise). Los Angeles rushed for first downs on 18.9 percent of designed running back carries, the 12th-lowest rate of the weekend. The Seahawks ranked No. 1 in percentage of their opponent’s designed running back carries to go for zero or negative yards (37.8 percent).
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“I thought we played pretty good versus the run,” linebacker Jordyn Brooks said after totaling 12 tackles in his first game back from a torn ACL suffered eight months ago. “We had a few mistakes there at the end as far as penalties, but I thought, for the most part, we played sound in the front seven.”
The new flaw in Seattle’s defense, based on the Week 1 performance, was containing the pass.
The Seahawks allowed quarterback Matthew Stafford to average 8.8 net yards per attempt. Only the Chargers’ effort against Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa (466 passing yards, zero sacks) was worse. Tagovailoa and Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins were the only quarterbacks with more explosive completions (16 or more yards) than Stafford, who had seven. This despite Cooper Kupp missing the game due to injury, leaving Stafford’s top target as fifth-round rookie Puka Nacua.
PUKA ARE YOU KIDDING!
1️⃣7️⃣ @AsapPuka | 📺 @NFLonFOX pic.twitter.com/oAg7kvFpaR
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) September 10, 2023
It’s only one game, but Seattle knows from its past that one game can be emblematic of a larger, recurring problem. So, this is the question for the Seahawks: Were these struggles in the passing game a blip or a sign of a trend?
One positive for Seattle is that it doesn’t appear that the issues in coverage were due to overcompensating against the run (many of the problems occurred in obvious throwing situations). That means Seattle can, in theory, correct of some these mistakes while remaining stout against the run. But there’s a lot to correct. The seven explosives from Stafford exploited a little of everything in Seattle’s defense.
The 16-yard completion to Nacua in the first quarter was largely due to nickel Coby Bryant missing the ball in the air and Brown missing a tackle. The 21-yard toss to tight end Brycen Hopkins was a busted coverage on a play-action rollout against a single-high look. The 20-yard throw to Nacua in the second quarter was an in-breaking route against single-high coverage. Receiver Tutu Atwell’s 44-yard catch in the third quarter came because Brown got tangled up with safety Julian Love in man coverage. Tight end Tyler Higbee beat Love on a double move on the outside on his 30-yard reception in that same quarter.
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Atwell ran an in-breaking route from the left side of the formation for a 21-yard gain in the fourth quarter, this time against a split-safety alignment. Nacua’s 21-yard catch in that period was against man coverage versus cornerback Michael Jackson. Atwell’s 15-yard catch in the fourth quarter wasn’t technically an explosive, but it was nonetheless deflating for the defense, and it was a one-on-one play over the middle against Bryant.
And as explosive as the Rams were, they left some opportunities on the table. Van Jefferson broke open on a deep route in Diggs’ zone and dropped what would have been a gain of at least 40 yards early in the third quarter. On consecutive plays in the second quarter, Nacua dropped in-breaking routes over the middle that would have been gains of at least 17 and 11 yards, respectively. The first drop was wide open against a simulated pressure — linebacker Bobby Wagner rushed; edge rusher Darrell Taylor dropped into coverage — out of a single-high set. The second drop was against a two-high safety look, but Nacua found space between Wagner and Love. Nacua even beat Riq Woolen down the left sideline for what could have been a 35-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter, but Stafford barely overthrew him.
Most of the Rams’ big plays attacked (or attempted to attack) the intermediate area of the field, which is also where Stafford went on a handful of his third-down conversions that weren’t explosives. Like the 12-yarder to Higbee against man coverage from linebacker Jordyn Brooks, a 10-yard completion to Jefferson and the 12-yard completion to Higbee, all of which were on Los Angeles’ opening drive.
“I think they were trying to space us out more,” linebacker Bobby Wagner said of the breakdowns in the middle. “They were running more routes outside of the hash that made us have to honor that, which kind of opened up the middle. But we’ll adjust.”
QB1 threadin' the needle to @tutuatwell. 🧵
📺 @NFLonFOX pic.twitter.com/oAzy33nMxu
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) September 10, 2023
These are not new issues for the Seahawks. After a Week 3 loss in 2021, Flowers lamented Seattle’s inability to guard digs and in-breaking routes. Benching Flowers didn’t solve the issue, as Sean McVay and the Rams illustrated that same season, repeatedly beating Seattle’s defense with the same concept. Last year’s playoff loss to the 49ers featured some of those same issues, receivers running free in the middle of the field.
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There are dramatic overreactions every year on the Monday after a team starts its season with a loss, but in the case of Seattle’s defense, failing to figure out how to defend the middle doesn’t feel like an isolated incident.
“They have a well-versed dropback game with all kinds of stuff, with the crossing routes and the principles and all that,” Carroll said Monday on his Seattle Sports radio show. “They just went from one to the other. We were about 60-something percent in our zone stuff against them, and that was enough for them to hit them and make their first downs.”
Carroll lamented the lack of a pass rush, saying: “It’s really hard to beat Matthew Stafford with something new and fool him. You have to attack him and make sure he’s uncomfortable. That’s what we couldn’t get done.”
The Seahawks were one of only five teams over the weekend to not record a sack, and they had the second-lowest pressure rate (15.4 percent), ahead of only the Broncos (13.8). Putting more heat on the quarterback would undoubtedly make life easier on the secondary against any passing concept.
“We have to win our one-on-ones, and we have to communicate as one,” said nose tackle Jarran Reed, the only defensive lineman with a quarterback hit Sunday. He also had two of the team’s seven quarterback pressures. ‘That’s unacceptable, that’s on us, we have to take that to the chin.”
The Seahawks might have reinforcements on the way. Seattle is hoping Jamal Adams (quad) can practice this week. Carroll said “there’s a really good chance” rookie corner Devon Witherspoon (hamstring) will play against the Lions in Week 2. Witherspoon will be a full participant in practice with the intent of making his debut in Detroit, Carroll said.
The Lions hung 45 points on Seattle’s defense in Week 4 of last season and just beat the defending champion Chiefs on the road in Week 1 on Thursday night. How Seattle performs its next time out will go a long way toward determining whether there’s reason to believe that unit will avoid having an Achilles’ heel for the first time in years.
(Photo of Tutu Atwell, 5, Tre Brown, 22, and Artie Burns, 23: Steven Bisig / USA Today)