Pete Carroll: Seahawks Tre Flowers, D.J. Reed ‘battling.’ A possible change at cornerback?
The Seahawks are swapping out defensive linemen during games like they are Bitcoin.
They have switched and removed linebackers for scheme and, in the case of Jordyn Brooks’ late hit in the final minutes of Sunday’s overtime loss to Tennessee, discipline.
Are they about to make changes at their shakiest position on a defense that just gave up 532 yards and 33 points?
At first glance, Derrick Henry romping for 182 yards rushing for the Titans against Seattle in the Seahawks’ overtime loss Sunday doesn’t demand changes in pass coverage. But Ryan Tannehill threw for 347 yards on 27 completions. Seattle’s starting cornerbacks Tre Flowers and D.J. Reed broke Pete Carroll’s cardinal rule of not getting beat deep on pass routes. Tennessee’s Julio Jones and A.J. Brown raced past them multiple times in Seattle’s home opener.
That had the veteran coach using some of his most common euphemisms to describe Flowers’ and Reed’s play Monday.
“They managed through the game,” Carroll said.
Flowers got beat twice in the first half. A.J. Brown zipped past him up the left seam along the yard-line numbers for what should have been a 72-yard touchdown in the first quarter, but Brown dropped the ball. In the second quarter, Jones hesitated as if he was cutting outside then ran a post route from outside left to right. Jones easily got inside and over the top of Flowers.
Free safety Quandre Diggs took a shallow path to Jones. He wasn’t deep enough to help Flowers inside. That became a 51-yard completion from Tannehill. Bobby Wagner’s sack on third and goal limited Tennessee to a field goal and just a 6-3 lead after Flowers gave up that 51-yard catch.
Carroll’s step-kick technique for his Seahawks cornerbacks demands they turn and run with receivers off the line of scrimmage and generally stay inside and high, behind them. That is to force the receiver outside to the limited space of the sideline, rather than openly running to the expanse of green turf in the field’s middle.
“I didn’t like the big post route,” Carroll said. “That was (no) safety help, as well. But, for the most part — we got beat on a double move one time with Tre that didn’t look good.”
Reed’s most obvious mistake was taunting over the fallen Brown, after Reed got his hands on Brown as Tannehill’s deep pass was arriving inside the 10-yard line midway through the fourth quarter. That 15-yard penalty didn’t hurt Seattle because end Kerry Hyder broke into the backfield and pressured Tannehill into throwing incomplete to end that drive on fourth and 2 from the Seahawks 29-yard line.
Flowers missed a tackle on Henry’s 60-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter that sent the Titans on their comeback from being down 30-16. But it would have been the most remarkable tackle of Flowers’ four-year NFL career.
The 203-pound cornerback had the thankless task of being alone with the 247-pound Henry sprinting at him outside left. The play began with Seattle safety Jamal Adams recklessly blitzing off the edge too far inside, to the opposing center. Henry just stepped outside Adams and was free to charge past the diving Flowers on the edge.
“They are hanging in there. They are battling,” Carroll said of Flowers and Reed.
“We mixed a lot of different coverages, and a lot of different stuff that they did. They were involved with run support quite a bit, too, in the game — like the one on the big play that we missed.
“But they are battlin’.”
In Carroll-speak, “they are battlin’” and “they are hanging in there” are usually euphemisms for “not good enough.” The coach doesn’t just crush his own players publicly with his assessments.
Carroll, defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. and the Seahawks have multiple options if they want to make changes at cornerback. Those options are more viable this week for Seattle (1-1) entering Sunday’s game at Minnesota (0-2) than they were last week.
Sidney Jones, a former starting cornerback for Philadelphia and last season Jacksonville, is entering his third full week with the Seahawks. Seattle acquired the former Washington Huskies cornerback in a trade from Jacksonville.
Bless Austin, a former starter with the New York Jets, is entering his second full week with the Seahawks. Seattle signed Austin to the active roster Sept. 7.
Before, Carroll had said there would be an acclimation period for Jones and Austin to learn Seattle’s defensive system.
How are their acclimation going?
“It’s all practice stuff and a little bit of special-teams stuff, so far,” Carroll said. “It’s a little bit of a challenge for us to get (Jones) and, really, Bless, too, to get those guys really enough good reps to see them on our field with us. ...
“Both those guys look good. They look like they can help us.”
Now? As in, Sunday against Kirk Cousins and a Vikings team that has lost their first two games by a field goal in overtime (by Cincinnati) and a missed field goal on the final play (at Arizona)?
“We’ve just have to kind of make the call when it’s time to give them a chance to play,” Carroll said.
He said when he decides that it’s time, it will be time. It’s unlikely to be a back and forth at cornerback, as the Seahawks have been doing with ends and tackles in their new five defensive-linemen schemes against the Colts’ and Titans’ running games the first two games.
“It’s not a position that we have rotated guys, regularly, over the years,” Carroll said. “So we have to wait and see how that fits.”
Tre Brown could become another option before the Seahawks play at San Francisco on Oct. 3. Carroll said Monday morning on his weekly day-after radio show on KIRO AM the rookie and second of the team’s three draft picks this spring is likely to be coming off injured reserve next week. That’s the first time Brown is eligible to return.
The coach didn’t say anything about Niguel Warrior. The cornerback the Seahawks claimed off waivers from Baltimore late last month is also on injured reserve.
Metcalf “fine”
DK Metcalf limped off the field Sunday following his sixth and final catch, after he struggled short of the line to gain on third down with 5 minutes left in regulation. He played on, but didn’t run when Russell Wilson threw to him on second down during Seattle’s only possession of overtime, up against its goal line.
Carroll said after the game Metcalf “banged his knee” or something.
Monday, Carroll saw Metcalf at the team facility “and he said he felt fine.”
The coach said he didn’t have Metcalf on the daily report he gets on injury concerns from the team trainer.
Metcalf had three penalties against him, two for holding outside on screen passes and one for blocking before that pass arrived, offensive pass interference. He also spent much of the first half jawing and gesturing with Titans defensive backs, as he did some with Colts defenders in the season opener.
In the fourth quarter on third and 2 from the Seattle 33, the Seahawks went to an empty backfield behind Wilson and spread out the Titans defense. Wilson threw to Metcalf, who was one on one with Kristian Fulton. As he did for much of the game, Tennessee’s cornerback covered Metcalf tightly and broke up Wilson’s throw that Metcalf tried to catch with one hand over Fulton along the left sideline.
“I think he was trying really hard early. It happened in both games, where he was really trying to find the tempo and the competitive makeup of the game,” Carroll said. “And he needed to calm down a little bit. He was, a little, trying too hard. He was just REALLY working hard. I mean, really working hard. And sometimes, it goes too hard.”
