Deebo Samuel, Trey Lance, 49ers will test an early weakness in the Seahawks’ new defense
It was so loud for the Seahawks’ opener, Jordyn Brooks couldn’t hear the play calls he was supposed to relay to teammates.
Not even ones being transmitted next to his ear, through his helmet speaker from defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt during Seattle’s wildly loud win over Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos Monday night.
“Yeah, I had to put my hands over my ears a couple times during the game,” Brooks said. “But it got through, for sure.
“Turned the walkie-talkie all the way up.”
The booing and yelling against Wilson when the Broncos were on offense (and the Seahawks were on defense) were so incessantly loud, the successor to departed Bobby Wagner as the team’s inside linebacker and signal caller also had trouble getting Hurtt’s calls to his teammates.
“The crowd was going crazy, so I know it was hard for the guys to hear me,” Brooks said. “So, we just started going to hand signals and all that so we can get good communication.
“But I thought the communication during the whole game was good. for how loud it was.”
49ers’ run vs. possible Seahawks weakness
Crowd noise while on defense — or any time — is not going to be an issue Sunday when the Seahawks (1-0) play their first NFC West game of the season at the San Francisco 49ers (0-1).
Crowds at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, have historically been relatively docile compared to what was going on inside Lumen Field Monday night. Many fans in the lower deck closest to the visiting bench area often aren’t even there during games. They are upstairs inside luxury lounges and bar areas, instead.
Yet that doesn’t mean Brooks and the Seahawks’ defense is worry-free entering Sunday. Far from it.
Their new, varied, 3-4 defense showed alarming gaps and weaknesses in containing running plays in week one. Denver averaged 5.2 yards per carry while rushing for 103 yards and rolling up 433 total yards in the opener.
It took new Seahawks outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu using the crowd noise to his advantage getting head starts at the snap on slower Broncos offensive tackles awaiting Wilson’s silent counts to blow up two running plays into fumbles at the goal line. Seattle cornerback Michael Jackson recovered both of those fumbles in the second half. That kept Denver from scoring far more than its 16 points, and the Seahawks held on for a remarkable, one-point win.
Now here comes 49ers running quarterback Trey Lance, rushing wide receiver Deebo Samuel and coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense that is committed to running the ball directly at Seattle. As usual.
“It’s a slug-fest,” Hurtt said of Niners-Seahawks games. “Both teams love to run the football, play hard, fly around and want to hit you. So you know that is going to be like that for 60 minutes.
“It’s always a super competitive game, so I enjoy these ones playing against them. I have a lot of respect for this organization and what they do.”
What they do most and best is run the ball. That’s not about to change, even with lead 49ers running back Elijah Mitchell injured and out indefinitely.
Samuel, the dynamic, fourth-year wide receiver, equaled his career high with eight rushes for 52 yards last weekend in a Chicago monsoon that left standing water on the field.
This will be Lance’s second game replacing Jimmy Garoppolo as San Francisco’s full-time starting quarterback. Lance rushed 13 times in that 19-10 loss at the Bears last weekend.
He rushed 16 times in a game last season as a rookie, against Arizona last Oct. 10. That was one week after Seahawks safety Ryan Neal knocked Garoppolo out of a game in Santa Clara with a hit. Lance entered. In his first extensive action of his career, the third-overall pick in the 2021 draft completed 9 of 18 passes with two touchdowns while rushing seven times for 41 yards and a two-point conversion in San Francisco’s 28-21 home loss to Seattle.
With Mitchell out, the 49ers’ top running backs are former practice-squad player Jeff Wilson plus two rookies: undrafted Jordan Mason and third-round pick Ty Davis-Price. Davis-Price was inactive for the Niners’ game last week.
With that lineup, Samuel and Lance may each set career highs for rushes Sunday. They may carry more than 20 times combined to keep Shanahan’s run game going against the Seahawks — especially given the weather forecast for Santa Clara Sunday is an 80% chance for rare rain.
Plus, fullback extraordinaire Kyle Juszczyk, a six-time Pro Bowl selection, will still be in the backfield against Seattle.
“They have a running quarterback with all of the read options and the things of that nature, so it’s old-school, option football,” Hurtt said. “It forces you to be really, really disciplined.
“But the one thing about San Francisco is that they are a really physical team. Not only do you have to match the schematic part of it and be responsible for your job in the run game, but also you have to match the physicality.
“I always love playing the 49ers for that reason, that it’s a physical match up.”
What Denver’s run did against Seattle
Seahawks defense-first coach Pete Carroll promoted Hurtt from line coach to defensive coordinator to replace fired Ken Norton Jr. this winter to remake Carroll’s old 4-3 defense into a younger, faster 3-4. The new scheme with varied coverages and blitzes is designed to counter most of the NFL: the wide-open passing offenses.
San Francisco is not most of the NFL. The 49ers will test what so far appears to be a weakness with the Seahawks’ new defensive schemes and players.
Seattle has two inside linebackers, Brooks and Cody Barton, new to their jobs. Outside linebackers Nwosu and Darrell Taylor are pass rush-minded speedsters off the edges.
The Seahawks lost their best close-to-the-line, run-stopping defensive back this week; Jamal Adams went on injured reserve Thursday. He is likely out for the year facing surgery for a torn quadriceps tendon.
The Broncos did what many teams will do this season against the Seahawks’ new 3-4: They targeted running lanes away from Seattle’s three biggest run stuffers on the defensive line. They sought to run outside, on the edges, outside Seahawks tackles-turned-ends Poona Ford and Shelby Harris and nose tackle Al Woods.
“They wanted to run it to the perimeter a lot more,” Brooks said. “We got a lot of big bodies inside with a tight front. We got two 3-technique (tackles, over the guard), and a big nose guard with Al Woods. So, can’t run the ball inside. There’s no gaps to open up.
“So, a lot of perimeter runs with this front.”
Five offensive linemen against three defensive linemen is a bad equation for Seattle’s run defense. That’s why the linebackers have to be disciplined, as Hurtt said, to fit the remaining rushing lanes and not get blocked. They are schemed to be the play-makers in the Seahawks’ new defense, in more ways than one.
The difference for Brooks from his first two Seattle seasons in the NFL as an outside, weakside linebacker to this season is now he must control the center-guard gap against the run instead of off tackle.
“More so me being in the middle in the A gap behind Al,” Brooks said. “As before, we ran a tight front. It was called a ‘stick front’ here where I would be on the outside and more in the C gap where it would be the tackle and the tight end.”
The problem of guys not manning their assigned run gaps across the defense against the Broncos has the Seahawks’ attention this week more than holding Wilson’s offense to only one touchdown.
“Obviously, the thing that I’m proud about is the 16 points. If you do that (over an entire season) you’ll lead the NFL, and it will take you a long way,” Hurtt said. “I’m proud of how hard we played, how physical we played, the energy, the juice. All of those things were outstanding.
“The big thing is that we need to clean up some details coverage-wise and also with our run fits. We gave up too many yards. Like I said, we are not going to be soft, mushy...
“That’s our responsibilities as coaches to get that stuff fixed. And the players will be accountable to that, too. We have already made those corrections, so we push on and we clean that stuff up.”
This story was originally published September 15, 2022 at 6:09 PM.
