Seahawks believe in Geno Smith for Russell Wilson at Steelers. But he needs help to win
The cards haven’t been stacked this tall against the Seahawks since Barack Obama was in his first presidential term. The New York Giants were actually winning the Super Bowl. People were camping out at stores clamoring for the new iPhone 4.
Heck, Instagram and Snapchat weren’t even things yet the last time the Seahawks were this up against it.
That was 2011. That was the last time, 165 regular-season and playoff games ago, Seattle played without Russell Wilson as its quarterback.
The late Tarvaris Jackson was the quarterback for the Seahawks’ in the final game of the 2011 season. A few months later, coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider drafted Wilson in the third round.
Their Super Bowl-winning quarterback who owns 26 team records and this season became the fastest to 100 career wins in league history won’t be the Seahawks’ QB Sunday night in Pittsburgh. He had surgery last week to repair the torn tendon and dislocation on the middle finger of his throwing hand he injured in Seattle’s last game, its home loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
The sixth-longest streak of consecutive games played by a quarterback in league history is ending. Wilson is sidelined indefinitely, with three missed games on the optimistic end of expectations for how long he’ll be out.
“It’s definitely foreign territory,” Bobby Wagner said.
Wilson’s team co-captain and 10-year veteran middle linebacker has never played an NFL game without Wilson as his quarterback.
Geno Smith will start for Seattle (2-3) against the Steelers (2-3). The last time the 31-year-old Smith started an NFL game, his opponent was a team called the Oakland Raiders.
“We need him now to come through and play great football,” Carroll said. “He knows that, and this is what he has been preparing for.”
No Wilson. Four-years-cold Smith. Plus, lead running back Chris Carson’s ongoing neck injury. Seattle’s last-ranked defense that has allowed at least 450 yards in four consecutive games — that’s only happened four other times in NFL history.
No wonder the Seahawks are roughly a touchdown underdog at Pittsburgh — even with the Steelers having their own problems: diminished, 39-year-old quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, an entirely new offensive line, a less-aggressive defense and mistakes galore this season.
This is the least oddsmakers have believed in Seattle for a game since the undefeated 49ers were favored by 6 1/2 points in Santa Clara on Nov. 11, 2019. The Seahawks won that game 27-24 in overtime. They went on to finish 11-5 that season, won a playoff game at Philadelphia, then lost at Green Bay in the NFC divisional playoffs.
“We understand the task at hand. We understand there’s a lot of people who are counting us out, a lot of people that believe we can’t do it,” Wagner said.
“We’ve proved people wrong in the past before, and I don’t see why the future doesn’t turn out the exact same way.”
Wagner is correct.
This time last season his defense was again the league’s worst, and was threatening to derail the team. The Carlos Dunlap arrived in a trade to resurrect the broken pass rush, Seattle got to face a string of mediocre quarterbacks late in the season to aid the defense’s revival, and the Seahawks finished 12-4 and won the NFC West before a first-round playoff face-plant against the Rams.
But that was with Wilson, as its been for the last 10 years.
For Smith to have a chance to save this Seahawks season from oblivion before Halloween, things must change. Pronto.
Defense needed
Getting pressure on Roethlisberger from Dunlap (no sacks) and fellow rush end Kerry Hyder (8 1/2 sacks last year with San Francisco, zero this year with Seattle) while playing Darrell Taylor (four sacks on only 36% of defensive snaps this season) more would help.
But it’s often difficult to get to “Big Ben.” The Steelers, behind their all-new offensive line, have been getting the ball out of Roethlisberger’s hand on pass plays in an average of 2.34 seconds, per NFL Next Gen Stats. Those are the quickest passes in the league.
As much as getting sacks, this week’s task for Dunlap, Hyder, Taylor and Seattle’s pass rushers is to jump into the 6-foot-5 Roethlisberger’s face, to disrupt and knock down his quick throws in lieu of getting to him.
“When you rush, a lot time you won’t win on first contact,” Taylor, the Seahawks’ second-round pick from 2020 who missed all last season after leg surgery, said. “So when the ball comes out fast, you have to win on first contact so you can get to the ball quicker.
“If you don’t, you have to have to get your hands up. We need to do a better job of that and be more effective with that.”
With everything.
The Titans, Vikings and Rams all attacked safety Jamal Adams deep in coverage for game-turning pass plays in the Seahawks’ three losses in the last month. That has renewed calls for Adams to get back to blitzing and playing closer to the line of scrimmage.
That wasn’t the plan coming into this Seattle season. Carroll has intended to rely on Dunlap, Hyder, Taylor, Benson Mayowa (one sack in five games) and the defensive line to pressure with four, blitz Adams, Wagner and out of the back seven less and have numerical advantages in coverage, with seven on four or five receivers.
Adams is blitzing an average of five times per game through five games. He blitzed more than 10 times per game last season while setting an NFL record for defensive backs with 9 1/2 sacks and then getting a $70 million contract extension from the Seahawks this summer.
But 10 sacks in five games from not blitzing as often hasn’t been enough pressure to keep opposing quarterbacks from exploiting acres-wide spaces in the Seahawks’ pillow-soft zone coverages from fears of getting beaten deep for huge plays, such as those made by Tennessee receivers A.J. Brown and Julio Jones at Seattle in week two.
Thing is, Roethlisberger has been sacked just 11 times this season. He’s been blitzed only 38 times on 206 drop backs (18% of the time) through five games.
What about Neal?
Even if Adams’ doesn’t blitz as much, Seattle has proven scheme options to get him closer to the line of scrimmage to stop foes’ incessantly successful crossing and quick out routes underneath the Seahawks’ coverage. Going with two extra defensive backs, six total, would get play-making dime back Ryan Neal on the field more than the mere six snaps he had last week while the Rams were rolling to 476 yards total and 23 of their 26 points after halftime.
Carroll said Neal and dime wasn’t in the game plan for Los Angeles, as it was for Seattle against tight end George Kittle at San Francisco in the Seahawks’ previous game.
Neal had four stops on third downs in the Seahawks’ last victory, at the 49ers to begin this month. That’s as many as the entire defense had at Minnesota while allowing 23 unanswered points and losing to the Vikings late last month. His 26 snaps against San Francisco were his first plays on defense this season.
He needs more.
Having Neal in as a sixth defensive back would free Adams from as many deep-coverage responsibilities in the back of the defense. He could blitz more and play closer to the line of scrimmage, as a run-stopping, linebacker-like strong safety in the likely event the Steelers decided to run against Seattle’s six defensive-back looks.
Najee Harris, Pittsburgh’s rookie first-round pick, has two 100-yard games the last three weeks as the Steelers have been slowly getting back to the physical, run-first mentality that’s been their franchise’s championship hallmark for 50 years yet has gone away the last couple seasons.
Asked on a conference call with Seattle reporters this week if Harris’ romping, including in last week’s home win over previously 3-1 Denver, shows his Steelers are closer to the way he wants to play offense, coach Mike Tomlin said in his characteristic, deadpan tone: “Where I want the offense to be is an interesting place.”
The physical, charging Adams could be a key to the Seahawks blunting Harris’ and Pittsburgh’s progress with the running game, while getting Neal on the field more than in the cameo role he had last week.
A rookie’s debut?
There may be other changes.
Carroll has been hinting this week the time may be now for rookie Tre Brown, the team’s second of three picks in this spring’s draft, to make his NFL debut at cornerback. He’s coming off injured reserve. Carroll wouldn’t say which side Brown has been working this week, only that he’s been working. It’s likely the left side, where Sidney Jones has failed to seize the job in his two games replacing the benched and since-waived Tre Flowers.
Carroll and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. like D.J. Reed at right cornerback. They moved him from to right side two games ago, back to where Reed flourished as a starter at the end of last season.
Whether Brown is on the field with the starting defense, and on which side, is something to watch for during pregame drills Sunday night. Carroll has started only Richard Sherman, Shaquill Griffin and Flowers as rookies at cornerback in his 12 years running the Seahawks.
“I don’t have any apprehension,” Carroll said of Brown. “We just need to get him back on the field. ...
“We drafted him to let him compete for the job and we would see what would happen. We are sticking to that, and it’s what is happening now.”
Several players have cited communication as another problem for Seattle’s defense. Guys not relaying the correct calls before plays. Guys not receiving the calls and being in wrong coverages. Guys not in the assigned running lanes while surrendering 145.2 yards rushing per game, 31st in the 32-team NFL.
Things that professional players should not have happening week upon week, game upon game.
Carroll cites execution: players doing what they are tasked to do on each play.
“They’re not even coverage busts,” the head coach said. “It’s just execution. It’s just reading it right, staying where your supposed to stay in your fits and coverages, and the fits in runs on defense. It’s just being more precise about it.
“I’m surprised we haven’t cleaned it up, because we have experienced guys that understand and coaches understand. So, I’m not getting it done. Ultimately, I have to do a better job. And that’s what I’m saying: I have to make sure we make these corrections come to life, because we are addressing them.
“It’s a couple of the same issues we had a couple of weeks ago. If you are looking for a falter, it’s not that. It’s the process that we have to get better at so that it shows up on game day.”
‘We need him to come through’
So as you can see, Wilson being out for the first time in his Seahawks life and Smith starting for the first time in four years are just the beginning of the issues this team faces. Seattle is trying to avoid falling to 2-4 and perhaps four games behind unbeaten Arizona (which plays earlier Sunday at Cleveland) in the NFC West only six weeks into the season.
Yet all the focus is on Smith entering this test in Pittsburgh — and for the Seahawks’ foreseeable future.
“We need him to come through when Russ is out. We don’t have any thought that he’s not going to,” Carroll said. “Everybody believes that he’s going to come through and do a great job. ...
“We need to support him and give him the help he needs by playing good ball around him and coach well around him.
“We will be really excited to what the outcome is.”
