Seahawks’ Jamal Adams starred at Rams with one arm. Can he do it Thursday vs. Arizona?
Jamal Adams’ scoff is as effective as his blitzing.
The All-Pro safety was everywhere again for the Seahawks on Sunday against the Rams. He had two sacks. He forced a fumble on one of them that teammate D.J. Reed recovered. He had seven tackles, two for losses. He also put a hit on quarterback Jared Goff.
All with only one good shoulder.
He left during the first quarter, then returned to play the final 3-1/2 quarters so limited his coach said Adams was “heroic” for even being on the field.
“I was out there with one arm, pretty much the whole game,” Adams said after the Seahawks’ third loss in four games, 23-16 to Los Angeles at the palace called SoFi Stadium.
So is Adams in jeopardy of missing the Seahawks’ quick-turnaround game Thursday night against the suddenly first-place Arizona Cardinals (6-3) at CenturyLink Field?
“Hell, naw,” Adams said. “I’m a warrior, man. Whatever it takes. ...
“As long as my legs are moving, I’m going to find a way.”
The Seahawks need him to.
Adams missed four games in October because of a strained hamstring. Seattle’s prized acquisition in a splashy trade this summer from the New York Jets returned last week to play at Buffalo. Sunday was his fifth game with his new team — and fifth time it was apparent how absolutely reliant the Seahawks’ defense is on Adams pressuring quarterbacks from his strong-safety position.
He remains the only Seattle defender consistently doing it.
He also remains a feast-or-famine player; again on Sunday he gave up multiple catches and missed tackles. Once, rookie linebacker Jordyn Brooks sprinted over to prevent Rams wide receiver Josh Reynolds from scoring a touchdown after Reynolds broke Adams’ tackle attempt near the line of scrimmage on a quick pass.
Adams has 5-1/2 sacks in his five games this season. That’s one short of his career high for an entire season he set last year with the Jets.
Tackle Poona Ford had his first sack of the season to go with two hits on Goff. End Carlos Dunlap hit Goff once. And that was it for pressure on the quarterback by Seattle’s defensive line. The reason coach Pete Carroll has defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. blitzing Adams — and linebackers and defensive backs in general far more this season — is because the front four isn’t providing any consistent pressure.
Seattle’s last-ranked defense entered Sunday having allowed the most total yards and most yards passing through eight games in NFL history. It got ransacked more in the first half in L.A.
Goff completed 17 of 22 passes for 221 of the Rams’ 275 yards in the first half. As they did in Buffalo the week before, opposing receivers repeatedly galloped almost lonely through the back seven players of Seattle’s defense.
“We have to not give stuff up,” Carroll said. “We made enough mistakes here that we are giving plays to teams that are executing well, and they are making things happen. And we are getting behind the sticks, and they are rolling against our defense.
“It was HARD in the first half.”
The Seahawks have yet to marry Adams’ blitzes effectively with tight coverage behind them. Multiple times against the Rams Adams got Goff to throw the ball earlier than he wanted to, only to have have L.A’s receivers open by 5 or more yards in front of Seattle defensive backs. Once again, the cover men dropped too deep, fearing huge plays behind them, to make the blitzing work consistently.
Seattle starting its third- and fourth-string cornerbacks, Tre Flowers and Reed, didn’t help, either. Pro Bowl cornerback Shaquill Griffin missed his third consecutive game with a strained hamstring. Quinton Dunbar’s bad knee kept him out.
“They punched us in the mouth,” Adams said. “Obviously, we can’t do certain things that we put ourselves in a hole.”
Fundamental problems remain with a Seahawks’ defense that it is giving up damaging passes even when Adams or other blitzers do their jobs and force the ball out more quickly than the offense designed.
Yet Adams and the Seahawks held the Rams to just 114 yards and six points after halftime. Carroll said the defense made changes after the first half. Tighter coverage behind the blitzes was most noticeable.
“We improved,” Carroll said, “but it was after the fact.
“We’ve got work to do. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got to execute better.”
Adams has one-quarter of the Seahawks’ team total of 22 sacks, despite playing barely half the season so far and playing all but a few minutes of Sunday’s game with, as he said, one arm.
“I was in a lot of pain. I won’t sit here and lie to you,” Adams, 24, said. “Still in a lot of pain.
“But it is what it is. I signed up to play this game of football. I took on the journey at the age of 3, picking up my first football, playing in my first game. This is my dream. This is what I love to do. ... It’s just part of the game.
“I’ll figure it out. Whatever it takes, I’ll be ready to go.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 7:01 AM.
