Carlos Dunlap, Jamal Adams making playoffs enlivens, refreshes surging Seahawks defense
Bobby Wagner is already scheming over the Seahawks facing a quarterback few outside of Wake Forest had heard of before this week.
Carlos Dunlap was already beaming as if he’d just gotten that first playoff win of his career.
“I went from one and six, to six and one, in one season. That’s unheard of,” the former Cincinnati Bengal pass rusher traded to Seattle in late October said on Sunday.
That was after his NFC West-champion Seahawks finished their pre-playoffs portion of the season with a 26-23 rally past the San Francisco 49ers at State Farm Stadium.
Dunlap, the 31-year-old defensive end, has played in five postseason games in his decade in the NFL. He’s lost all five, with the Bengals. The last one was Jan. 9, 2016. He shared a sack in Cincinnati’s home loss to Pittsburgh.
His former team in Ohio just finished another long, dreary four-win season and is going home for the winter and spring again.
“I’m just grateful for the opportunity,” he said. “So when I say I’m happy to be here? Look at that: one and six to six and one.
“No shade. No disrespect to anything before. I’m just happy to be where I am now.”
The two weeks before, Jamal Adams was similarly ecstatic at clinching his first-ever NFL playoff appearance. The 25-year-old in his fourth season spent his first three years with the New York Jets. They just finished a two-win season.
Adams was so jacked at Seattle clinching the NFC West the previous week, Dec. 27 with its home win over the Rams, he went old Celtic Red Auerbach after the game. He not only brought to a postgame press conference but lit a victory cigar.
“YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT I haven’t been here before!” Adams said last weekend, shouting.
“It feels damn good!”
Adams wasn’t as thrilled Sunday entering the playoffs.
The All-Pro safety was throwing his helmet in frustration during the fourth quarter. He injured his left shoulder blitzing San Francisco quarterback C.J. Beathard. Jerick McKinnon, the 49ers’ running back, slammed his shoulder into Adams’ on a blitz-pickup block. Adams had his arm dangling at his side walked off the field to the sideline. Ryan Neal replaced him for the rest of the game.
Adams threw his helmet upon exiting the blue observation tent and being told he was done for the day, at least as a precaution so he can play next week in his first career postseason game.
“He hurt his shoulder and he was just so disappointed, more dejected about the fact he got banged up,” coach Pete Carroll said after Sunday’s game.
Carroll said the injury was to the opposite shoulder of the one Adams injured on the first play of Seattle’s loss at the Rams in mid-November. Adams played on then, for weeks, with essentially only one good arm.
“We’ll see what happens,” Carroll said.
As sure as Adams appreciates not being a Jet, he’s playing Saturday at 1:40 p.m. That’s when the Seahawks (12-4) host the Los Angeles Rams (10-6) in the first round of the NFC playoffs at Lumen Field.
He is part of the resurgent half of this team. Seattle’s defense has gone from the worst in NFL history in allowing yards and passing yards through the first half of this season to the asset that Carroll expects to carry the Seahawks to postseason wins.
The offense that slogged to six points and 109 total yards in the first three quarters Sunday against the 49ers is more a concern entering the playoffs.
The defense, not quarterback Russell Wilson and the previously top-ranked offense, is why the Seahawks won four in a row to end the regular season and six of their last seven games entering the postseason.
“Thinking about where we came from to where we’re at now, everything that we had — the ups and downs, the growth — I’m confident in our group,” Wagner said.
“I look forward to proving that in the playoffs.”
Fired up
Dunlap and Adams are bringing an extra, youthful enthusiasm unusual for veterans in January, after the long grind through another punishing, 16-games of pain in the NFL.
Their energy at being in the playoffs is particularly unusual for veteran starters in Seattle. Wagner and the Seahawks are in the postseason for the eighth time in nine years. For them this is no big whoop.
It is for Dunlap and Adams. They are refreshing Wagner’s, longest-tenured Seahawk K.J. Wright’s and long-time Seattle veterans’ energy for the playoffs.
“Seeing guys like that — especially for myself, K.J. and guys who’ve been here for a few times — it’s refreshing to see the excitement someone has when they first get to playoffs,” Wagner said. “It reminds you of your first time in the playoffs.
“I think it just creates an excitement to be back in this position, understanding what we want to get accomplished in the position that we’re in to do that.”
Wagner, Wright, Wilson, they expect this.
Dunlap and Adams cherish it.
“It’s been five years. So, you know it’s been a long time coming,” Dunlap said. “But these guys here have been there many times before, so they know what to do when they get here.”
Wilson, Wagner and Seattle’s core know they can afford not to freak out when they fall behind by 10 points to an inferior team in the fourth quarter. That’s what they did they did Sunday against the 6-10 49ers. San Francisco had been transplanted to Arizona for the last month-plus by COVID-19. The Niners just wanted all this to be over.
It was — after Wilson scrambled, threw and ran all over San Francisco in the final period. He completed his 35th comeback victory in the fourth quarter or overtime since he was a Week 1 starter as a Seahawks rookie in 2012. That’s the most in the NFL in that span. It was his third such comeback win this season, after Dallas in September and Minnesota in October.
Wilson was an MVP candidate but the Seahawks were allowing 30-plus points per game on defense at midseason. Josh Allen and Buffalo rolled the Seahawks for 44 points in early November, the most points allowed by a Seattle defense in the Carroll era.
The last eight games? The Seahawks have allowed Arizona 21 points, the Rams with Goff healthy 23, Philadelphia and the Giants 17 each, the Jets three points, Washington 15 after a late touchdown, the Rams nine and San Francisco with third-string quarterback C.J. Beathard three field goals in the first three quarters Sunday.
What’s changed?
Dunlap has revitalized the pass rush. It no longer needs Adams and Wagner blitzing to generate almost all Seattle’s pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Sunday Dunlap batted two passes, hit Beathard once and watched fellow end Benson Mayowa prosper opposite him with two sacks and a forced fumble.
The Seahawks’ defensive front four is now affecting passers. That’s allowed Adams and Wagner to stay in coverage more, and for shorter amounts of time. Seven in coverage instead of six or five has transformed the pass defense in the back end.
Sunday was the sixth time in seven games the Seahawks have had at least three sacks in a game. They’ve also had six in that span, at Philadelphia in a win Nov. 30, to offset the two Seattle had in its home loss to the Giants a week later.
“We’ve gone three sacks, three sacks, three sacks (per game), what it seems like the last month or something like that. That’s real consistency,” Carroll said. “I think since the (seventh) game, we’ve been the highest sack team in the NFL.
“It’s exciting to see it continue to show up in the games. I do think it all fits together.
“And Carlos is a force on the other side. He’s right in the mug of the right hand of quarterbacks. They can feel it.”
So can every Seahawk. Seattle entered the final weekend of the regular season having allowed the fewest points in the NFL since Nov. 19.
They can win shootouts. They can now win slogs, too. That’s how the defense has changed this team’s Super Bowl chances since early November.
“Our defense, it just continues to grow and continues to build,” Wilson said. “They are one of the best defenses in the National Football League, so that’s the exciting part.”
It’s the biggest transformation in this team. The Seahawks suddenly in the last month and a half have grown a defense that can get them through the playoffs, even if Wilson and the offense continue to stop and start again this month.
“I’m thrilled about the fact that we’ve just continued to crescendo,” Carroll said. “We have continued to play solid football and keep the points down.
“I’m ready to play anybody.”
The first three quarters Sunday were like the first two the previous week against the Rams. Or the first 1 1/2 quarters at Washington. And the 17-12 loss at home to the Giants last month, the only loss for Seattle since at the Rams Nov. 15.
Carroll said Wilson and play caller Brian Schottenheimer have carefully not forced the big plays to DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett down the field that were there in the first half of the season. Defenses have since taken those away with two-high safety coverage deep.
With Wilson in the fourth quarter, the coach and his Seahawks aren’t concerned entering the playoffs.
“I’m not worried about whatever you guys are worried about,” Carroll said.
“They’ve got to stop Russ in the fourth quarter. He’s been pretty dynamic then.”
This story was originally published January 4, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
