Quandre Diggs appreciates Bobby Wagner captaining Seahawks this week. Roaring Lions await
Professional athletes who’ve been around more than a day don’t see their work in a vacuum.
They don’t define themselves by what just happened, by the game they just played. In particular, the NFL season is too long, with too many peaks, valleys, turns and twists over 17 games, for one performance in September to affect a veteran player’s approach to the next game.
That fact is coming in mighty handy for the Seahawks this week.
“Got to come to work. We’re grown men,” defensive co-captain Quandre Diggs said Thursday of the Seahawks’ attitude.
That was four days after their 30-13 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, the worst defeat in a Seattle home opener in 15 years.
“If you can’t come do your job after something tough like that,” Diggs said, “maybe this work is not cut out for you.”
Last season, the 30-year-old Pro Bowl safety took the lead in giving his Seahawks teammates stern talking-tos when necessary.
This week, he let Bobby Wagner do that.
As described in The News Tribune, the 33-year-old Wagner, back with the team as its co-captain after a year away with the Rams, gave a fiery, impassioned talk to about 70 Seahawks at the start of Wednesday’s practice.
His talk was brief. It wasn’t G-rated.
Wagner ordered his teammates to rededicate themselves to bouncing back strongly this week. He made it clear he expects them to adhere to one standard: the one he had a large part in setting in his first 10 years winning a Super Bowl and becoming a six-time Seahawks All-Pro middle linebacker.
He can’t recall having given such a talk on the field at the start of a practice in any of his first 10 years leading Seattle’s defense.
“That’s who he is. That’s what he does. That’s why I lobbied to get him back here,” Diggs said Thursday.
“It was great that he did that. And it’s always appreciated by me. It just takes some of the stress and pressure off me to just go play ball.
“I think it’s dope.”
Yes, there is earlier-than-normal urgency around the Seahawks this week.
Geno Smith: We need to execute
The team with high expectations for a “special” season, in the word of coach Pete Carroll before Seattle’s pratfall last week, is in rally, rebound mode entering its test Sunday at the recently roaring Detroit Lions at sold-out Ford Field.
Quarterback and offensive captain Geno Smith was asked Thursday what his Seahawks’ psyche is preparing for the Lions (1-0). They are 9-2 in their last 11 games and beat the Super Bowl-champion Chiefs in Kansas City last week.
“It’s good,” Smith said. “Obviously, 0-1 is not the way we wanted to start. But no one is hanging their head. Everyone is looking at ways to improve, and really looking forward to going on the road in a tough environment and going out there trying to get a win.
“I think everyone is really focused. Huge sense of urgency. We’ve been practicing like it.”
The Seahawks let a 13-7 halftime lead become a 30-13 loss last weekend by gaining just 12 total yards on offense with one first down — and that was by a pass-interference penalty by the Rams. Down two scores in the fourth quarter, Seattle had a third and 26 and fourth and 34. That was after consecutive sacks of Smith through an offensive line down both injured starting tackles Charles Cross and Abe Lucas (a situation likely to repeat in Detroit, with Lucas on injured reserve and Cross’ big toe still hurting). There was also a 15-yard taunting penalty between plays on wide receiver DK Metcalf that backwards drive.
“Three possessions. Went three-and-out twice and, obviously, got the penalty on one,” Smith said, summarizing the lost second half against L.A. “It just came down to execution, which we didn’t do a great job of.
“But really looking forward to getting this next opportunity. I think we’ll be better moving forward. Obviously, we have to execute and do better. It just comes down to us being connected and making the plays when they come.”
Seahawks’ defense needs a pass rush
The Seahawks’ defense needs to improve in Detroit as much as the offense.
It allowed Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford all Sunday to stand comfortably and throw to receivers roaming free through the middle of Seattle’s defense on crossing route after crossing route. Seattle had no sacks and just two hits on Stafford in his 39 drop backs.
“Frustrated,” Carroll said of his Seahawks pass rush. “We need to be more pointed on some of the stuff we’re trying to do. We didn’t get the game plan carried out the way we would like it, as well. Communication is always part of that.
“We weren’t as clean as we could be and we will be when we get better.”
With Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp out injured, Stafford targeted Puka Nacua 15 times in his first NFL game. That target rate of 44.1% of all Stafford’s throws was the most frequent targeting of a rookie receiver in week one in the last eight years.
Six of Nacua’s 10 catches (for 119 yards) came underneath Seattle’s soft zone coverage and across the middle, at zero to nine yards from the line. From there, Stafford continued shredding the Seahawks with progressively deeper routes across the middle, including to Tutu Atwell. He had another six catches, also for 119 yards.
Lions quarterback Jared Goff connected with a bevy of crossing patterns against the Chiefs last week, including to Pro Bowl wide receiver Amon St. Brown (seven catches, 71 yards with a touchdown).
To hear Seahawks defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt tell it, his unit may be better in covering the crossing routes in Detroit simply because of the crowd noise. Sunday, Lions fans will be relatively quieter when Goff and his offense have the ball. In Lumen Field for the opener, fans were roaring at the Rams’ offense — while Seahawks defenders, some of them new such as safety Julian Love, were trying to communicate passing off crossing receivers through zone coverage.
“There’s a lot to it. Obviously, guys have to talk and communicate,” Hurtt said. “You have to be very boisterous in your communication, because we play in a loud stadium — which we love, no complaints about that, we want to keep the 12s going nuts.
“There’s definitely areas that we’ve got to continue to work on ...especially guys who are new to this environment, it’s a great learning lesson.”
Diggs, a former Lions captain, expects Detroit to bring even more crossing routes at the middle of the Seahawks’ defense Sunday.
Crossers were aplenty in Detroit’s rally last season with 22 points in the fourth quarter before Seattle held on for a wild, 48-45 win at Ford Field last Oct. 2. Goff threw for 378 yards on the Seahawks last season, but cornerback Riq Woolen returned one of his 39 throws for a touchdown to put Seattle ahead 31-15 in the third quarter.
“I mean, they’ve been doing that before. They did that before the Rams. Maybe the Rams stole that from them,” Diggs said of the Lions’ crossing routes.
Here’s something else the Seahawks need to stop: the run.
Publicly, the Seahawks (30th in the NFL in rushing defense last season) have been rallying around holding Los Angeles to 92 yards on 40 carries. But fact is, when the Rams needed yards and first downs (converting 8 of it first 10 and 11 for 17 in all), they thew. And succeeded, hugely.
The Lions will run David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs at Seattle.
“Their run game is really special. I wouldn’t be surprised if they run it 30, 40 times,” Wagner said.
Diggs’ Lions reunion
Diggs played his first 4 1/2 NFL seasons with Detroit, which drafted him in 2015 out of Texas in the sixth round. He is all love talking about the Lions, and says he will always root for them.
“I’m always connected to that city and to those fans,” Diggs said.
“Those guys helped make me who I am today. I’m always, forever grateful and indebted to that city.”
He expects a off-the-hook environment inside his former domed home field Sunday. Not exactly the easiest setting for the Seahawks to avoid going 0-2 for the second time in six Septembers.
“It’s going to be crazy,” Diggs said. “I told the guys: ‘Be ready.’ It’s going to be loud. It’s going to be a freakin’ mad house.
“So, enjoy the moment.”
This story was originally published September 14, 2023 at 3:27 PM.
