Point blank: Seahawks won the division because the defense went from atrocious to awesome
Jamal Adams had a title-winning victory cigar.
Then, he lit it. The All-Pro safety actually lit his cigar, Red Auerbach old Celtics style, during his postgame Zoom call. His team’s vice president of communications had to spray an aerosol air freshener over the podium area to clear Adams’ smoky air.
“You CRAZY!” fellow defensive hero K.J. Wright, 31, told the 25-year-old Adams on his way off the podium.
Wright was cackling at Adams, like a big brother to a little one.
”Good s**t man!” Wright said.
Adams, Wright and more “good s**t“ from Seattle’s previously ransacked defense are why the Seahawks (11-4) are NFC West champions for the first time since 2016.
Adams, on second down, and Wright on third and fourth downs, led Seattle’s goal-line stand in the third quarter Sunday that kept the Seahawks ahead 13-6. Then Wright knocked down a pass while rookie Alton Robinson and veteran tackle Jarran Reed (twice) sacked Jared Goff late. That kept Seattle in the lead.
It was the latest in six weeks of defensive uprisings: just nine points surrendered to the Los Angeles Rams. They had basically been owning Seattle like Amazon for the last few years, winning five of the last six meetings of division rivals.
No touchdowns allowed Sunday in a 20-9 victory, for the second time in three games.
No road trips to begin the playoffs in two weeks—for the first time in four years.
No wonder Adams was lighting a cigar.
The former New York Jet was celebrating clinching his first playoff appearance last week, screaming “HELL YEAH!” on Zoom following Seattle’s win at Washington.
Now he’s won his first division title.
“I don’t want to be too happy because I want people to say you know he’s dramatic or he hasn’t been here before,” Adams said.
“YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT I haven’t been here before! ...It feels damn good!
“There’s a little cigar man. Oh yeah, yeah. Yes sir, yes sir. It’s a celebration.”
A celebration, yes — of another win, and a complete transformation by the defense.
Last month, Adams was shouting—but on the sideline at Buffalo, at coach Pete Carroll between series. Seattle’s defense allowed the Bills to roll up 44 points that November day. It was the most points scored against the Seahawks since the defense-first Carroll became their coach in 2010.
Though he was on his way to setting the NFL record for sacks in a season by a defensive back, Adams’ many—too many, for the risk—blitzes were often running futilely into offensive linemen. Offenses were easily winning one-on-one blocking with the Seahawks’ four defensive linemen. The only consistent way Seattle could affect quarterbacks was by blitzing Adams, plus often Wright and fellow linebacker Bobby Wagner. It was five and sometimes four cover guys for Seattle against four and often five receivers.
The Seahawks were getting smoked. They allowed Atlanta to romp for 506 yards, New England 462, Dallas 522, Miami 415, Minnesota 449, Arizona 519. No team in NFL history allowed more yards in the first seven games of any season than this defense to begin 2020.
The flaw seemed fatal.
Then Seattle traded for Carlos Dunlap, Cincinnati’s two-time Pro Bowl pass rusher. He’s transformed the defensive line. He’s had two game-ending sacks, to beat the Cardinals and Washington.
He’s made Reed better. The defensive tackle had two more sacks Sunday and has 3 1/2 of his 6 1/2 sacks this season in the last month.
Cornerback Shaquill Griffin returned from injury. Adams got healthier. D.J. Reed became a revelation as the new, fill-in corner on the other side for injured Quinton Dunbar and Tre Flowers.
The coverage got tighter behind fewer blitzes. Fewer blitzes because Dunlap and the front four were getting home more often meant seven defenders against four and five receivers. That math was finally in Seattle’s favor.
So were the results.
The Seahawks have allowed 21, 17, 17, three, 15 and now nine points in their last six games. Their five best defensive performances in yards allowed have come in that span: the Jets (185 yards), the Eagles (250), the Giants (290), Arizona (314) and Sunday’s shutdown of the Rams (334).
“There were times during the season you would—everybody had enough statistics to go in and blow us out (saying) we weren’t worth anything on defense,” Carroll said.
“This defense is good. And they’ve shown it. They’ve declared it. And this is the kind of defense that we played in years past when we were really a good team down the stretch.
“To show like that again as week after week after week, and to show it again in the most difficult challenge that we had (in the division-title game) and not give up a touchdown all day long, that’s big time.”
Wright and rookie first-round draft choice Jordyn Brooks were all over the Rams’ many bootleg pass calls for quarterback Jared Goff Sunday. As the strongside linebacker, Wright often took out Goff’s primary receiver in coverage with instant recognition of the play. The longest-tenured Seahawk also was quick enough to get to Goff and keep him for short gains when the QB was forced to run with no receiver open. That was even when the Rams had two and sometimes three tight ends to Wright’s side, trying to confuse and overload him.
Brooks was so fast on the weakside linebacker spot opposite Wright, the Rams simply quit running bootlegs his way by the second half.
The stand
Wright continued one of the best seasons of his 10 in the NFL with Seattle. His contract is ending after this season.
He deserves a new one. And he would want it to be with the Seahawks.
The latest evidence of how invaluable he is: the game’s biggest sequence of Sunday’s game, the one that won the West for Seattle.
The Rams had a first and goal at the 2-yard line. But they lost running back Darrell Henderson in getting there. He injured his ankle when Adams chopped him down low from behind on Henderson’s run to the 2.
L.A. was already without injured lead back Cam Akers. Goff’s entire passing game is based on the zone read and runs first. With 5 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter, the Rams were down to third choice Malcolm Brown at running back. Tellingly, none of the their next four plays from the two was a bootleg or play-action pass.
Also tellingly, Carroll and Wright mimicked the same words to describe the Seahawks’ thinking at that point in the 13-6 game: “Give us a blade of grass, and we’ll defend it.”
On first down, Brooks was just too fast for the entire left side of the Rams’ offensive line. The rookie ran around the tackle, past the guard and center and combined with interior tackle Bryan Mone to drop Brown for a 2-yard loss.
“He is fast,” Carroll said of Brooks. “He is really fast.
“He’s playing much more like he’s been around for a while.”
On second and goal from the 4, Brown seemed on his way to the tying touchdown around right end. But Adams hustled from the backside and pulled him down from behind, just short of the goal line.
Carroll and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. kept blitzing.
“We were in full-on attack mode,” Carroll said.
Third and goal. Wright and Brooks were assigned to hold the “C” gap, between the guard and the tackle, while Adams blitzed again. Wright sensed that with only a foot to advance the ball for a score, Goff would try a quarterback sneak.
“I wasn’t (assigned to be) blitzing,” Wright said. “I just knew that it was time to take my shot.”
He blitzed, right at the center. He smacked into Goff trying to slide off center Austin Blythe’s left hip. Wright met Goff in the hole like an old friend. One who Goff owed money. For years.
Wright knocked the ball from Goff as the QB stretched it toward the goal line. Officials didn’t see that. They ruled fourth and goal inches from the line. Carroll challenged the ruling on the field, as much for a time out for his defense to regroup for the fourth down as for hopes replay would give Seattle the ball. There was no conclusive recovery by the defense on replay, under the mosh pit of bodies at the goal line.
Fourth and goal. L.A. ran again, Brown off right tackle. Wright blew up the play as if he’d been in Los Angeles’ huddle. He created a pile up in the hole immediately after the snap. Brooks flew in to stop Brown for no gain. Not even a foot.
It was the quietest fourth-down stop for the home team in the stadium’s history. One could hear the defensive players roaring in celebration from the press box, two levels and hundreds of yards away, as they ran wildly to the sideline.
Rams coach and whiz play caller Sean McVay blamed himself, for that sequence and for his offense not scoring a touchdown all day.
“I haven’t been good enough,” McVay said. “I’m not going to sit up here and make excuses.”
Safeties first
Now that Adams is back from the strained groin that kept him out throughout October, Seattle’s safety pairing of him with Quandre Diggs has been one of the league’s best in their first season together.
Adams has been flying all over, into the line and around the defense. Diggs has been mostly keeping the back door closed with pounding hits and error-free directing of coverages.
Sunday Diggs intercepted Goff in the red zone, in the second quarter. It was one of the worst throws you will ever see from a quarterback who has started a Super Bowl and been guaranteed $110 million by his team. Goff, playing with what NFL Network reported is a broken thumb that needs surgery, could have run yards on a scramble right. But he flipped a pass just before he got to the line of scrimmage and sideline. It was nowhere near closest receiver Robert Woods. Diggs caught the free ball on a dive.
Asked what he thought Goff was thinking with that throw, Diggs said: “I couldn’t tell you.”
The former Detroit Lions captain is, like Adams, now a first-time division champion. Days ago Diggs got named to his first Pro Bowl team.
“This is the plan that we had at the beginning of the year when we started those Zoom meetings (during the pandemic in the spring), when we started (delayed) training camp,” Diggs said.
“This is what we dreamed about, going out there and holding teams to nine points.”
Shocker, the man who was wearing a colorful sweater and was lighting a victory cigar was far more pointed describing his defense.
The current defense. Not the one from October.
“For everybody out there, they’ve got to start putting respect on this defense now,” Adams said, “because his defense is playing lights out.
“To me, this is the best defense in the league. And you can quote that. You can do what you want to do with it.”
This story was originally published December 27, 2020 at 7:46 PM.
