Jordyn Brooks, Pete Carroll perturbed at repeated issues in Seahawks run defense, tackling
Jordyn Brooks stood in front of his locker, almost scowling. He was a huge, proud, embarrassed man in a locker room full of huge, proud, embarrassed Seahawks.
Brooks is replacing Bobby Wagner’s leadership and his signal-calling role in the middle of Seattle’s defense this season. Late Sunday afternoon, Brooks sounded like a mother hen of his new defense.
“We laid an egg today, as far as stopping the run,” Brooks said.
It was moments after the San Francisco 49ers — without their starting running back, without their starting quarterback — finished romping for 189 yards on 45 rushes with two touchdowns to steamroll the Seahawks 27-7 at Levi’s Stadium.
“Didn’t tackle well. Didn’t get off blocks well,” Brooks said. “So, we have just have to go back to the drawing board and get better.”
The defense tried to do that last week. That was after Denver averaged more than 5 yards per carry in the opener. Brooks talked this past week of poor “run fits,” guys not getting to and staying in their assigned lanes to stop the opponent’s runs through them. The Seahawks also missed tackles on all three levels of the defense against the Broncos: along the new, three-man line, among the four linebackers and in the secondary.
Both problems continued at Santa Clara.
Asked Sunday if it was poor tackling or bad run fits that hurt Seattle most, Brooks said: “It was just an issue of everything out there, on all phases of ball.
“Turnovers. Not getting turnovers. Missing tackles. Not being where you need to be in fits. Not getting off blocks.
“Everything.”
Seattle wasn’t much better against the pass — even after linebacker Cody Barton knocked 49ers quarterback Trey Lance from the game with a hit on a power run inside in the first quarter. The Seahawks allowed game-turning plays in the secondary.
Rookie nickel defensive back Coby Bryant played for injured veteran Justin Coleman. Bryant was called for defensive pass interference, a 16-yard foul, then illegal contact on wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk on third down for another first down by Seattle penalty.
Starting left cornerback Michael Jackson also had two penalties, both for pass interference to extend 49ers drives. San Francisco had drives of 11 plays, 12 plays and 13 plays Sunday.
As if not to be left out, Seattle’s special-teams missed tackles, too.
Tackling issue persists
The tackling has been an issue since the shoulder pads came in early August at the start of training camp. To protect his players from injuries and to preserve them during the 17-game seasons, coach Pete Carroll never has the Seahawks practice tackling players to the ground. Not in training camp. Not in regular-season practices. For most of Seattle’s veteran starters, not in preseason games last month, either. They didn’t play in them.
This August and September, Carroll also hasn’t used the big, foam landing pads the players have used in previous years’ practices to drill form tackling teammates to the ground.
Last month when the tackling issues surfaced, Carroll said it was happening mainly to reserves because starters weren’t playing in the preseason games. He said he was looking at using the pads in practices, at new teaching techniques, at everything.
So far, nothing they’ve tried have worked.
The Seahawks’ issues trying to slow down the stampeding 49ers began on the first play Sunday. That’s about the last time the NFC West contest at soggy Levi’s Stadium felt competitive.
San Francisco came out doing what the Seahawks knew it would: running right at them. That was even though lead running back Elijah Mitchell was out injured. His replacement Jeff Wilson took a hand-off off right tackle to begin the game.
Brooks “scraped,” moved laterally behind blockers into a run gap from his right to his left. He didn’t scrape far enough outside to hit Wilson, who got past him. When Wilson got to Jackson, who is starting over Sidney Jones partly because of Jackson’s tackling, Wilson ran through the cornerback’s whiffing arm tackle.
The play gained 6 yards. Not game-changing, but trend-setting.
On the game’s third play, Jackson missed another tackle, from behind after Aiyuk caught Lane’s first pass short. That turned into a 25-yard gain. A 20-yard romp through limbs by rookie Tyrion Davis-Price put the 49ers inside the 10. The opening, 11-play, 73-yard drive ended with the 49ers in the lead.
That was the closest the Seahawks got to winning.
“We just got to tackle,” Pro Bowl safety Quandre Diggs said. “Everybody has to be in their gaps and be responsible for what they have. It’s one of those where there was a lot of ‘leaky yardage’ (by the 49ers), which leads to short distance on third downs.
“When you’ve got a team that can run the ball well, you get them to third and 2 and 3, they can continue to run the ball.”
Indeed, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan called runs on 13 of his offense’s first 16 plays Sunday. By the time the Seahawks’ offense ran 16 plays, only eight of them were runs, it was the middle of the second quarter and Seattle trailed 13-0.
“We’ve got to do better. We need more guys around the ball, so that guys don’t get stuck in the one one ones so much,” Carroll said of the tackling issues.
“We’ve just got to do better.”
This story was originally published September 19, 2022 at 10:48 AM.
