Let's talk about the Defense

I'm happy about the win. Don't get me wrong. But I am a little worried about the Defense still after last night.

"We only gave up 3 points!" you say. But I think the Seahawks were a bit fortunate to only give up 3.

1) Rams throw deep to a wide open WR who drops the ball. Terrell has not convinced me he can be relied on in single coverage deep. Very fortunate the Rams didn't get a TD out of that.

2) Wide open Rams player in the end zone. You should all remember this one, as my heart skipped a beat. Thankfully Goff makes a terrible throw and the receiver falls down trying to get back to it. Easy TD with a more competent QB.

3) Some wide open receivers on 3rd down for the Rams. Like, no defenders within 5 yards kind of open. It's how Rodgers was able to shred the Hawks last week and I saw the same breakdowns in coverage last night.

The Defense made some great plays. The D-line pressure was back, the stop on 4th down when the Rams could have taken an easy 3 was fantastic. I'm not saying the Defense sucks.

I am just saying I am concerned that the final score made it look like the Defense had a dominant effort, when in reality they were fortunate on a few key plays that could have made this game much different. This could have been a different game if the Rams had executed better, and teams that we are going to face in the playoffs will execute better.

Would love to hear some thoughts on the Defense. Am I overreacting or did you have similar thoughts?

The D was handed a gift at 3 points. Any average QB scores minimum 17 last night.
They are playing OK this year, but not the same level as the 3 years prior IMO. Depth hurts us from time to time, and Earl out prob. will cost us a couple points per game on average.

Perhaps they were fortunate, but in the end, lucky or not, they did only give up 3 points.

Sometimes even when you are good you need a bit of luck at times.

Seymour":1eyon8ck said:

The D was handed a gift at 3 points. Any average QB scores minimum 17 last night.
They are playing OK this year, but not the same level as the 3 years prior IMO. Depth hurts us from time to time, and Earl out prob. will cost us a couple points per game on average.

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I'd agree w/that.

Our D is "good" but far from great.

Our offense is OK, with potential for horrible.

semiahmoo":1yyp04ej said:

Our D is "good" but far from great..

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Bingo.

This D is like last year's D, still good, but nowhere near the 2012-2013 level of depth and nastiness.

If our offense can pick it up just a little more? I think we'll be OK. But if they continue to sputter and look out of sync struggling to move the ball and score for long stretches of the game? This D doesn't have the capability of bailing them out like they did 2-3 years ago.

Probably what Sherman knows, and why he freaked out on Bevell.

Wagner and Wright are having their best years.

Terrell is the weak link right now. Luckily Goff is terrible, except one pass to another wide open receiver was dropped into his hands, which fortunately he dropped.

Great pass rush last night that was totally missing 4 days earlier, so it's hard to figure this out from week to week.

How's Reed doing?

I don't like Richards defense, it's been lame since he took over for Quinn..Well, certainly not up to the same level.

Largent80":989lfsyf said:

Wagner and Wright are having their best years.

Terrell is the weak link right now. Luckily Goff is terrible, except one pass to another wide open receiver was dropped into his hands, which fortunately he dropped.

Great pass rush last night that was totally missing 4 days earlier, so it's hard to figure this out from week to week.

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Yeah but Manning, Rodgers, Prescott (well maybe), Cousins, Winston, etc won't be terrible in the playoffs.

If there's one unit that needs to bring it for us to go far in the playoffs, it's the D-line.

Sgt. Largent":2g3mpy40 said:

Largent80":2g3mpy40 said:

Wagner and Wright are having their best years.

Terrell is the weak link right now. Luckily Goff is terrible, except one pass to another wide open receiver was dropped into his hands, which fortunately he dropped.

Great pass rush last night that was totally missing 4 days earlier, so it's hard to figure this out from week to week.

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Yeah but Manning, Rodgers, Prescott (well maybe), Cousins, Winston, etc won't be terrible in the playoffs.

If there's one unit that needs to bring it for us to go far in the playoffs, it's the D-line.

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Spoken for truth. Hopefully we get Moore back too.

Over the last 5 games we've:

Completely stifled the Eagles
Shut out the Bucs for 3 quarters (who are in the midst of a 5 game win streak and 7 of last 9)
Completely dominated the Panthers
Allowed 38 points to the Packers - yes one TD came from an unfortunate 66yd TD pass and the other 31 points came off of drives which ALL started in Seattle territory due to turnovers
Completely shut down the Rams

Don't get me wrong, the defense is not flawless - but you're asking for something that no other team is doing. Then you say "it's not quite as good as 3 years ago" as if the benchmark should be one of the all time greatest defenses ever.

Despite the pressure the defense has been put under with poor offensive play and injuries, we're still allowing the fewest PPG in the league. So yes, I think you're overreacting

themunn":nh602b8h said:

Over the last 5 games we've:

Completely stifled the Eagles
Shut out the Bucs for 3 quarters (who are in the midst of a 5 game win streak and 7 of last 9)
Completely dominated the Panthers
Allowed 38 points to the Packers - yes one TD came from an unfortunate 66yd TD pass and the other 31 points came off of drives which ALL started in Seattle territory due to turnovers
Completely shut down the Rams

Don't get me wrong, the defense is not flawless - but you're asking for something that no other team is doing. Then you say "it's not quite as good as 3 years ago" as if the benchmark should be one of the all time greatest defenses ever.

Despite the pressure the defense has been put under with poor offensive play and injuries, we're still allowing the fewest PPG in the league. So yes, I think you're overreacting

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Yeah, your exactly right, I am over reacting.

Largent80":1tuihmod said:

Wagner and Wright are having their best years.

Terrell is the weak link right now. Luckily Goff is terrible, except one pass to another wide open receiver was dropped into his hands, which fortunately he dropped.

Great pass rush last night that was totally missing 4 days earlier, so it's hard to figure this out from week to week.

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Much of that difference can be pointed to we actually blitzed Goff, where as Rodgers they did not, and could not put pressure on him with the front 4. Rodgers can make you pay big time, but getting no pressure was even worse since he could camp out, gimpy leg and all.

I can't imagine any team repeating how vicious the '13 Hawks D was, that was truly historic.

I thought the rams receivers were to blame more than Goff. How many times do you have to hit a guy in his hands before he comes up with one. At least 2 of those dropped passes were to a wide open guy with nothing but green between him and the end zone. That game was not as big as a drubbing as the score let's on. I was telling at my TV quite a bit during that first half.

We are very fortunate nobody can catch on the rams, or at least they couldn't Thursday.

When you think back to 2013 that defense really benefited from a great running game chewing up clock. Don't get me wrong I don't think we're as good as we were then but part of that d's success was the offense holding the ball a lot longer. Also doesn't seem like were generating near as many TO as we used to. Pretty darn good though.

Largent80":17p4r4s0 said:

Wagner and Wright are having their best years.

Terrell is the weak link right now. Luckily Goff is terrible, except one pass to another wide open receiver was dropped into his hands, which fortunately he dropped.

Great pass rush last night that was totally missing 4 days earlier, so it's hard to figure this out from week to week.

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I'd say Terrell, Lane and at times Shead are the weaker links in the secondary.

LB corps is looking good. Morgan had a good game last night.

We lack consistent interior pass rush. I'm hoping with Clark, Avril and Marsh, we can slide Bennett inside more and alleviate this. Clark also had a really good move from the inside last night.

Biggest thing this team needs is interior pressure. We get some crazy outside pressure but QBs generally have the ability to step up and away from it. Bennett moving inside definitely helps but we need something on earlier downs.

Shead is good, tends to give free releases on routes into the middle of the field. Lane is a mess this year. Missed tackles, missing jams at the line, beat across the middle. Field Gulls had a good write up on his struggles recently.

LeftHandSmoke":15f4rel0 said:

I can't imagine any team repeating how vicious the '13 Hawks D was, that was truly historic.

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Yes, yes it was, and when combined with Beast Mode, a truly formidable 1-2 punch against opposing teams.

The pinnacle of the Carroll era.

I wonder if part of the problem is keeping things simple, while only sending 4, makes it easier for the qb to figure out where to put the ball. Maybe they need to change the scheme a little more, at least against some teams to attack their weaknesses. The gameplan against greenbay was stupid, we would have lost without the turnovers. Their strategy was to contain a hobbled rogers in the pocket....what? No wonder he shredded them

cymatica":3eirnm8n said:

I wonder if part of the problem is keeping things simple, while only sending 4, makes it easier for the qb to figure out where to put the ball. Maybe they need to change the scheme a little more, at least against some teams to attack their weaknesses. The gameplan against greenbay was stupid, we would have lost without the turnovers. Their strategy was to contain a hobbled rogers in the pocket....what? No wonder he shredded them

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Agreed. The second they saw Rogers limping they should have opened the blitz flood gates.