What finally awakened Seahawks’ pass rush? It got sick of hearing how great the 49ers were
Talk isn’t always cheap.
This time, Jadeveon Clowney, Bobby Wagner and the Seahawks got tired of hearing it.
And that’s why the Seahawks won their biggest game yet this season.
Clowney, Wagner and friends were sick of hearing that the Seahawks’ weak pass rush was their potentially fatal flaw. They were sick of hearing about how fabulous Nick Bosa, DeForest Buckner, Arik Armstead and the San Francisco 49ers’ front four was in pressuring opposing quarterbacks.
“For sure,” said Clowney, Seattle’s defensive end and the best player on the field for the Seahawks’ 27-24 overtime win over the previously unbeaten 49ers Monday night.
“It’s a competition. If you’re not competing, you need to retire.
“I don’t want to be outplayed by anybody.”
No need to retire that Seahawks pass rush, after all.
Against the 49ers, they had five sacks, their most since the season-opening victory over winless Cincinnati two months ago. They hit quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo 10 times, which had been about a month’s worth of smacks on a QB for Seattle’s inert front before Monday.
“Tonight was our night up front. We did what we are supposed to do. We put a lot of pressure on the quarterback,” Clowney said. “We made him throw some bad balls, got some turnovers. ...
“It took five quarters. But at the end of the day, who cares? In the end, we got the W. And they took the L.”
Particularly Garoppolo.
The 49ers’ previously soaring quarterback was shaken Monday night. Having to face seven Seahawks in coverage because of the effectiveness of Seattle’s front four, trying to dodge Clowney and defensive tackle Jarran Reed most of the game, Garoppolo lost two fumbles. Reed forced one. Clowney ran that back 10 yards for the reviving touchdown that had Seattle down 10-7 at the half despite being dominated for most of the first two quarters.
Garoppolo also threw an interception high through his receiver’s hands in the second half.
Those turnovers led to 21 of the Seahawks’ 27 points, including their touchdown drives of just 16 and 24 yards.
By the time Garoppolo got the ball with 1:45 left in overtime needing to win the game, he threw three scattershot balls that all went incomplete. The 14-second drive gave Russell Wilson and Seattle’s offense, which had just punted without timeouts seemingly playing for a tie, a final chance to win. Wilson did.
That’s how Seattle was victorious while committing four turnovers on the road for the first time since 1984.
The Seahawks’ pass rush was how.
The unit that had allowed 54 points and 764 yards in its previous six quarters against one-win Atlanta and two-win Tampa Bay ultimately outplayed San Francisco, top-ranked in pass defense and No. 2 in scoring defense in the NFL.
“That was our mindset the whole game. We just wanted to prove that we are the best defense on the field today,” Wagner said. “And it was really our mindset because we understood what everyone was thinking because of the last two weeks.
“We felt like we played really well. Guys were locked in. We played with a lot more disciplined. And it was just a mentality. We wanted to be great. The matchup that we had, we were going against, you know, their defense was considered the best defense.
“We just tried to show otherwise.”
Clowney was everything the Seahawks hoped for in its trade with Houston, and the Seahawks (8-2) are suddenly in an advantageous position in the NFC West race over the final six games of the regular season.
The first nine games for Clowney and the Seahawks were a frustrating, unfulfilling mess of 400-yard passers that had time to throw against Seattle.
But Monday night, the defensive front finally looked like what Seattle coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider traded and signed for after they dealt away 2018 top sack man Frank Clark to Kansas City in the spring.
It was what a defense and team can look like when it makes an opposing quarterback throw the ball before he wants to and before his receivers are open. It helped a shaky Seahawks secondary that needs all the extra cover guys it can get.
The game began with Seattle blitzing Wagner, fellow linebackers Mychal Kendricks and K.J. Wright and even cornerback Tre Flowers and nickel defensive back Jamar Taylor to aid the front four. But as the night went on Clowney and Reed took over, and Seattle was affecting Garoppolo with just four pass-rushers up front.
It was a startling turnaround for a defense that was 25th in the 32-team NFL entering week 10 with just 15 sacks. Quarterbacks had piled up three games with at least 395 yards passing against Seattle in the first two months of the season.
Heck, even Andy Dalton, since benched by the Bengals, threw for 418 yards against Seattle.
Garoppolo had just 248.
“We wound up sacking them five times tonight and getting after the quarterback like we had hoped to,” said coach Pete Carroll, who’d been insisting for a weeks a breakout was coming for Clowney and friends.
“Maybe this is the start that we’ve been looking for with our pass rush.”
It was the start Clowney has been looking for.
He is in a contract year. He knows at his position, sacks equal money. And he’s seeking $20 million or more per year at the top of the market for edge pass rushers in next spring.
He may have earned that in one night Monday, with the entire league watching.
“Jadeveon had the best game for us from a guy I’ve seen in a long time,” Carroll told Seattle’s 710-AM radio Tuesday morning.
Before the third quarter was over, Clowney had three tackles, one sack, four hits on Garoppolo, one forced fumble and that one fumble recovery, off a sack and strip by Reed.
In the fourth quarter, San Francisco had all the momentum and was driving for perhaps the go-ahead touchdown, down 21-18. On third down, Clowney did not go for Garoppolo’s fake handoff. As the quarterback rolled right at him, Clowney leaped and prevented him from throwing. Al Woods took advantage of that extra time Clowney gave him to get Seattle’s fifth sack of the game.
The 49ers had to settle for a field goal instead, and the game was tied at 21 with 6 minutes left.
“It was just amazing, man,” Wagner said of Clowney.
“He had been getting close. He just hadn’t been getting to the quarterback. To see him, J Reed getting to the quarterback, it helped us in the back end.”
Clowney had two sacks in nine games entering Monday.
“They come in bunches,” he said.
“When you get pressure on any quarterback in the NFL, I think, it’s going to help your team, your defensive backs and your defense play better.”
What changed for Seattle besides what Clowney said was “more energy” and consistency?
Reed contributed for the first time in four games since his return from a six-game NFL suspension for alleged domestic violence to start the season. He had 1 1/2 of Seattle’s five sacks Monday.
The Seahawks also put slowed Ziggy Ansah on the sideline as the game wore on in favor of forgotten, second-year man Shaquem Griffin. Griffin and Ansah each played 14 snaps as the edge rusher opposite Clowney for third-down passing situations. With the game on the line late in the fourth quarter, it was Griffin and not Ansah, the 2015 Pro Bowl end Seattle signed to a one-year deal as their biggest acquisition this offseason.
They were Griffin’s first snaps on defense this season.
Ansah still has just one sack through 10 games. His most noteworthy act Monday night was jumping offsides just as Clowney was poised to wreck more of Garoppolo’s night while isolated one on one with 49ers veteran left tackle Joe Staley.
Griffin appeared to get held multiple times on his way to perhaps adding to Seattle’s sack total Monday.
It was back to the role he had two years ago while starring as Peach Bowl MVP at the University of Central Florida.
“Just want to see him,” Carroll said. “We’ve been practicing him the last couple weeks and getting him some chances. He’s so fast, and he looks like he’s going to cause some problems. He got tackled about four times and engulfed in some stuff.
“He’ll cause problems. ... It’s great to see him on the field, and we’ll get a look at it and we’ll just try and see if we can fit him in and develop a role for him.
“That’s really what we’re searching for, a role for him to help us.”
This story was originally published November 12, 2019 at 9:33 AM.
