The key to the Seahawks return to the playoffs? Forget any other number. It’s all about the ball
Pete Carroll is sending the Seahawks back to the movies again.
Not to watch holiday films. And not just to review their previous game or scouting the upcoming opponent, the Arizona Cardinals, in the regular-season finale and playoff tune-up Sunday at CenturyLink Field.
Each week Seattle’s coach shows video of how he and his staff teach the Seahawks to punch out the ball to force fumbles and break on them and tip them for interceptions. Then Carroll compares Seattle’s teachings to the turnovers forced by other players around the league, to critique other techniques — and to find new ones for the Seahawks to employ.
This doesn’t just happen during the season. Carroll does this in the spring and during minicamps.
The two favorite standbys Carroll uses from the past to drive him his point that it’s always “about the ball” are Charles “Peanut” Tillman, the former Chicago Bears cornerback, and former Seahawks cornerback Byron Maxwell.
“Our way is dope. But there are tons of different ways to attack the ball,” said Seattle middle linebacker Bobby Wagner (two forced fumbles, on interception returned for a touchdown this season). “He’ll show film on older guys, too, like ‘Peanut’ Tillman and other guys. So it’s always something.
“(Tillman) was the first guy he showed us clips of, to try to get everybody conscious of punching, of punching the ball.”
This year those films have almost been as good as Black Panther. The Seahawks lead the NFL in turnover margin, at plus-14.
It’s the one aspect of the game Carroll spends by far the most time drilling, reminding, drilling — and reminding again.
“We truly believe in it,” said defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr., a coaching disciple of Carroll’s since he hired Norton onto his USC staff 15 years ago. “It’s not just talk. It’s the walk. It’s the attitude. It’s the mindset. It’s truly understanding how important it is to success and winning.
“And just making it real. It’s not just something you talk about. It’s every bit as important as a touchdown or a field goal or a tackle.
“It’s part of our fabric.”
It’s a main reason Seattle (9-6) has clinched a return to the NFC playoffs for the sixth time in seven years.
“Sweet. There ain’t nothing better than that. That’s as good as it gets for us.” Carroll said of his team’s NFL-best turnover margin. “That’s what spells your chance for success and we couldn’t be more committed to that thought. That’s exactly where we want to be. And we’ve got another week to see if we can hold that, just a little sidebar kind of emphasis. We’d love to wind up on top of the league in that area.”
The Seahawks have been among the league’s best in turnovers for many of the eight seasons Carroll’s been Seattle’s coach. They’ve had a positive margin in every year Carroll has led them since the first one, the tumultuous 2010 of change.
They were a whopping plus-20 in turnover margin in 2013.
How much does that matter to success? The 2013 Seahawks won the Super Bowl.
The following season Seattle was plus-10 in turnovers. It went back to the Super Bowl.
From 2007 through 2016, teams that won the turnover margin won the game 78 percent of the time. A study in 2014 showed teams that finished in the top 10 in the NFL in turnover margin averaged more than 10 wins per that season.
The defense assuredly has this turnover mindset ingrained. What’s been even more remarkable this season is how few times Russell Wilson and the Seahawks’ offense have given the ball away.
Seattle is only eighth in takeaways with 24. But the Seahawks have committed just 10 turnovers in 15 games. If they can go gift free Sunday Seattle will tie the 2010 New England Patriots and 2011 San Francisco 49ers for fewest turnovers in a regular season in NFL history.
“I think that’s an extraordinary fact of ball and I’m so thrilled to be a part of that,” Carroll said. “I wish we had the record outright.
“But it just gives us a chance to go after it again (next year).”
Half of Seattle’s turnovers this season came in the losses at Denver and at Chicago in the first two games. That’s why the Seahawks were 0-2.
Mike Sando of espn.com found Seattle’s five turnovers in the 13 games since the loss at Chicago are the lowest for any team from weeks 3 through 15 since at least 1940. If they commit no turnovers of just one in the regular-season finale the Seahawks will set a NFL record for the fewest turnovers from week three through the end of the regular season, Sando found.
“The No. 1 aspect of that is we’ve gone eight games without turning the ball over,” Carroll said. “I mean, that’s a fantastic number... an incredible number.”
Seattle is 6-2 in those eight games, with wins over Dallas, at Arizona, at Detroit, at Carolina, versus San Francisco and against Kansas City; the losses were at the Rams and at the 49ers.
Seattle’s four fumbles lost this season are tied for the third-fewest in league history. The record is two, by the 2002 Kansas City Chiefs.
Last weekend’s win over the Chiefs was the 10th of 15 games Wilson didn’t throw an interception. Three of his six interceptions this season came in the first two games, including the game-breaking one Chicago returned for a touchdown.
“Russ has a huge part in that and he’s great at not giving them the football,” Carroll said, “but everybody contributes.”
Of course every football team from the NFL down to the local Pop Warner league wants to steal the ball from opponents and secure it from them.
So what’s unique about Carroll’s emphasis on turnovers?
“Emphasis. Emphasis in every way. Forever. Every turn. Every step. Every day,” the 67-year-old coach said.
“April, May, it doesn’t matter when. It’s the No. 1 thing that we emphasize. And we’ve been doing that for a long time. What our challenge is, is how well can we emphasize it and how well can we transfer that emphasis so that they engage it and adopt that as part of their play? The mentality of it, there a constant that just goes away if you don’t.”
Carroll’s Seahawks never need a reason to celebrate--walk into their locker room after a win and it looks like spring break in Cancun.
But Wagner and his long-time linebacking partner K.J. Wright especially appreciate how his coach and team celebrates turnovers.
“We talk about different ways to get (the ball). How important it is from an offensive and defensive standpoint,” Wagner said. “You realize how important it is. How much it can change a game. How much it can change momentum at any given point, if you ever knock the ball out or get a pick.
“And it’s celebrated. We have fun when we win the ball.”
That includes a turnover belt they pass around the sidelines after a defender gets a turnover in a game.
“Yeah, like a heavyweight-championship belt,” Wright said, laughing.
The belt stays in the defensive meeting room for the days between games, and for viewing next to all the films of Seahawks and Tillman and others punching another ball out.
Wright said Wagner and rookie cornerback Tre Flowers have become particularly adept at ball punching this season.
Carroll stresses the importance of taking care of the ball and stealing it from foes from the first hours a player is drafted or signs with the Seahawks. Then when he walks from the locker room to the team meeting run, every Seahawk passes a giant wall photo of Kam Chancellor punching the ball from Detroit wide receiver Calvin Johnson’s grasp just before he got to the goal line to save a primetime home win in 2015.
Cliff Avril habitually turned sacks into fumbles for Seattle, until a neck injury forced the Pro Bowl end to retire this past offseason. Earl Thomas punched the ball out multiple times from ball carriers, to save scores and games against the Rams and others.
The Seahawks not only have a culture but a how-to history on forcing turnovers.
Wright has been hearing Carroll’s message on turnovers and watching those videos on getting the ball out just about every day for the last eight years.
“I know since I’ve been here it has been consistent, it has been emphasized, that if you get the ball out you win the game,” the longest-tenured player on the Seahawks’ defense said.
“We know that. We realize it. We practice it all the time.”
This story was originally published December 26, 2018 at 5:51 PM.
