First-place Seahawks aren’t without questions. Here are some answers to what readers ask
The Seahawks have won five consecutive games and eight of their last nine.
They have seized first place in the NFC West. If it wins its last four regular-season games, beginning Sunday night at the division-rival Los Angeles Rams (7-5), Seattle (10-2) will be assured of no worse than the conference’s second playoff seed. That means a first-round bye and home field for at least one playoff game.
But all that doesn’t mean these Seahawks don’t have questions. You do, too. You asked some online this week.
I’ve got answers.:
From @cobyregis: Over the past couple weeks Russell Wilson has actually begun to throw picks. Is that a trend we should be concerned about? I know Monday night’s was a freak accident, but still. Should we be concerned going into this last four-game stretch?
No. The Seahawks aren’t.
Wilson has thrown four interceptions against 29 total touchdowns this season (an NFL-leading 26 passing). Two of his four interceptions have been returned for touchdowns. That is concerning. Monday night’s interception the Vikings’ Anthony Harris came after Wilson attempted to leap and spike his batted pass back to him into the ground, as he’s coached. But as he jumped a defender hit him. Wilson got no height on his jump and this tapped the ball from below up, instead of from above down. Up, directly to Harris a few yards downfield.
“I was trying to knock it down. I think I got hit right as I was trying to knock it down,” Wilson said.
“So I guess I got to work on my hops a little bit and get up a little higher.”
But four interceptions in 418 drop backs is not worthy of concern.
The Seahawks are convinced they have the best player in the league at the most important position in the sport in each game they play. And Wilson’s regular-season record of 48-17 in Novmber, December and January since 2012, the best in the NFL, gives his team justification to thinking it has the right man to win this month.
From @danscharf96: Why do you think we’re suddenly getting so many more takeaways on defense?
The season-changing reason: an almost out-of-nowhere increase in pass rushers pressuring opposing quarterbacks.
Through nine games, heading into the Nov. 11 game at San Francisco, the Seahawks were 25th in the NFL with just 15 sacks. They has just 25 hits on quarterbacks all season. Then Jadeveon Clowney dominated the line of scrimmage as few Seattle defensive linemen have in a game this decade, and the Seahawks beat the previously unbeaten 49ers to take over control of the division.
Even when Clowney missed the following game, at Philadelphia, with his core-muscle injury, Seattle’s pass rush swarmed Carson Wentz and the Eagles into five turnovers in a shut-down win. Ziggy Ansah had his first standout game as a Seahawk in Clowney’s absence.
Monday night, seven more hits on the quarterback, an interception by previously brilliant Kirk Cousins to Tre Flowers, and two Vikings fumbles recovered by Seattle. Rasjheem Green, forgotten as a third-round pick last year who did next to nothing for his first 1 1/2 seasons, has been brilliant the last three games in limited time. He has earned more pass rushes at defensive end, or inside Clowney and Ansah in third-down situations.
“He’s playing tough as hell,” coach Pete Carroll said this week. “He’s really helping us.”
In the last three wins, that pass rush has eight sacks and 21 QB hits. The result: quarterbacks are throwing the ball far earlier than they want to and often under duress. Receivers that had time to get open earlier in the season do not now, so those throws are into tighter coverage. The increase in sacks have come with fumbles forced on those sacks.
Voila! The defense has forced 11 turnovers in those three games. The Seahawks have won them all.
For the season, Seattle is plus-10 in turnover margin. That’s third-best in the NFL. Double-digits on the plus side in that all-important statistic often leads to championships.
“We’re hawking the ball, and it’s coming out, and we’re getting some shots at it,” Carroll said. “We need to keep riding that.”
From @dscharf96: What’s your take on L.J. Collier? it’s pretty disappointing that our first-round pick almost never gets on the field and doesn’t contribute much when he does.
It is more than a tad curious the team’s top rookie draft choice has been a healthy inactive for five of 12 games, especially with the pass rush almost inert into November.
But the coaches believe the nearly six weeks Collier lost after his high-ankle sprain in training camp in late July set him way back in development in the defense. They seemed upon Collier’s return to treat this as a sort of redshirt year for the rookie, to borrow a college term. The coaches even have put linebacker Shaquem Griffin in as a hand-on-the-ground rush end for the first time in his two-year career rather than try Collier the last three games on passing downs.
It’s 2020 for do-over debut for Collier, it seems. After whiffing hugely on previous first-round pick Malik McDowell as a pass rusher (it’s not difficult to believe Seattle wouldn’t have drafted a defensive end in round one this year if McDowell had worked out) it does qualify as a disappointment.
So far, anyway.
From @rtsolari: Why has Josh Gordon seen so little action?
Good question.
Gordon has played 74 snaps in three games (24.7 plays per game) since Seattle signed the former Cleveland Browns Pro Bowl wide receiver off waivers last month from New England. He has five targets and four catches, on slant routes for first downs on third downs.
So I asked play caller and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer what @rtsolari asked me. I asked asked Schottenheimer if Gordon only running slant routes for catches is because he remains limited in what he can do in Seattle’s playbook.
“No. We certainly do a lot of things with him,” Schottenheimer said. “He just made some good plays on those (slants). We’ve tried a couple double moves with him; he got the PI penalty against Philadelphia that was a big play.
“But I would say it’s definitely coincidence.”
Schotteheimer said Gordon is “getting better, getting better. More comfortable I think with the system. Obviously, the time between he and Russ is really continuing to grow.
“Unbelievable catcher of the football. I think his hands, the ability to catch the football is maybe the best I’ve ever seen. The ball is in his area, he finds a way to catch it but, he’s doing a really good job for us.
“We’re very pleased with him.”
That hints we will see more of Gordon, and on more varied routes, this month.
From @IsForAt: How did Russell Wilson escape the flu that went through the team’s locker room last week into this one? Tiny bubbles?
That’s nanobubbles to you and me, sir.
No, the franchise quarterback with franchised products such as “Recovery Water” from Tacoma’s Reliant Beverage Company did not specifically tout his investment kept him from the flu that knocked Tyler Lockett, Flowers, David Moore and at least five other Seahawks basically out last week.
I asked Wilson Thursday how he avoided the outbreak.
“I don’t know. I hydrate a lot. I think that’s a big part of it,” he said. “Just making sure that you wash your hands a lot, all that stuff. I’m touching the football all the time. I don’t know who’s over there sick or not in the bathroom or whatever it may be.
“I was just fortunate not to get it. There’s a lot of guys that have gotten it, unfortunately. There’s, I don’t know, we had eight guys, nine guys last week. I think we’ve had a couple this week potentially.
“I don’t know. It’s just been a thing that’s been going around for whatever reason.”
Submit more questions on Twitter (@gbellseattle) or by email at gregg.bell@thenewstribune. I’ll answer more next week.
This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 11:48 AM.
