Earl is the real tone setter on defense

For a long time people have said kam is the most vital piece to the D and even i have. That without him they just arent the same and hes basically the enforcer. Dont get me wrong he is a beast and very important as a physical run stopper who can lay the wood on guys. But earl is the real tone setter and always has been.

Its been pretty much on full display each game he was out this year, when kam was out they had a little drop off but not as badly as now. The middle of the field is all of a sudden a wide open target and weakness and it never was. Earl is the reason hawks are able to play so much single high because earl has one of a kind instincts and can close distance like no other. He cant be beat over top because he is too fast , he closes in on seams and takes them away also.

This gif ^ sums up what he does in a nutshell. And without him the 3 deep basically becomes a weakness instead of a strength and its glaring now. They can still go without kam , they cant without ET plain and simple. Terell is gonna keep getting torched and pete will keep calling the cover 3 without the most important player. This sucks ass.

I agree, didn't think we would miss him quite as much. This guy is a complete baller

xStickybudz":1n8ub65k said:

I agree, didn't think we would miss him quite as much. This guy is a complete baller

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Just look at the gif bro. Kam gets beat and earl saves the whole play, its a TD is hes not back there. I too didnt think it would be this bad without him.

Earl is a special player. He is one of those rare guys that makes those around him better. The LOB became the LOB because of Earl. His versatility allowed others to play loose and that's what made guys like Sherman, Thurmond, Browner, Maxwell, Kam, Shead better. They had a safety net with Earl there. Now that he's not, that net has disappeared.

hawkfan68":1jnss6hw said:

Earl is a special player. He is one of those rare guys that makes those around him better. The LOB became the LOB because of Earl. His versatility allowed others to play loose and that's what made guys like Sherman, Thurmond, Browner, Maxwell, Kam, Shead better. They had a safety net with Earl there. Now that he's not, that net has disappeared.

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Exactly, though times for the LOB.

I think it is quite obvious what happens when either safety is not on the field. Many forget Earl had issues himself when Kam was sitting out or hurt, this year and last. With that said is obvious that the pass defense is more effected without Earl in there. Starting to believe if the LOB doesn't have all 3 cogs Seattle just has a decent defense.

RussB":1d9j6o8r said:

xStickybudz":1d9j6o8r said:

I agree, didn't think we would miss him quite as much. This guy is a complete baller

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Just look at the gif bro. Kam gets beat and earl saves the whole play, its a TD is hes not back there. I too didnt think it would be this bad without him.

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You do know that Kam isn't supposed to carry that route past his hook zone, right? What you see there is exactly how the cover 3 is supposed to work.

ET plays deep 3rd extremely well save for the early part of the season, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here. I never thought Terrel could judge a ball in the air very well, but these last couple games are his first real snaps on defense in what....3 years? People need to chill out.

seahawkfreak":2xbo3kzp said:

I think it is quite obvious what happens when either safety is not on the field. Many forget Earl had issues himself when Kam was sitting out or hurt, this year and last. With that said is obvious that the pass defense is more effected without Earl in there. Starting to believe if the LOB doesn't have all 3 cogs Seattle just has a decent defense.

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Communication and continuity is just a huge, huge part of it. It almost has to reboot when one is missing. That's neither here not there though. I heard a guy at the bar talk about how much we missed Earl when we missed the XP and then blame the kicker when AZ kicked a FG. Even after the game I see threads in this place blaming Hausch as if his missed one point could somehow be a greater number than 3 points.

Which is the larger number? Is it one.....or is it three? People in this forum are complete emotional whack jobs lacking any measure of logic and whatever is wrong is usually some one liner like a Governator movie.

"He'll be back"

vin.couve12":2fm2zlbe said:

some one liner like a Governator movie.

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This defense is set up the way it is because of Earl and without him, well the results speak for themselves.In the games since he has been out we have dropped to #28 in pass defense and dead last vs. the long pass.

Terrell is playing WAY too deep for his skill set which is nowhere near Earls.

When Kam was out people were saying Earl lost a step and forgot how to tackle. Now Earl's out and Kam doesn't look the same. Truth is, every piece of our defensive back field is an important part of the puzzle, one goes out and it just doesn't work! Imagine what our D would look like is Sherm went down!

Largent80":1zh507ul said:

This defense is set up the way it is because of Earl and without him, well the results speak for themselves.In the games since he has been out we have dropped to #28 in pass defense and dead last vs. the long pass.

Terrell is playing WAY too deep for his skill set which is nowhere near Earls.

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Exactly ... and I could have told you that is EXACTLY what would have happened if (and now that it's actually happened) Earl went down. Earl Thomas is what makes this defense truly go IMO. His ability to play single high safety -- his coverage skills ... his lateral quickness ... ability to read the QB ... and his ability to cover a lot of ground in a real hurry is THE central focal point (the cog) of what makes this defense work. Without him ... the results speak for themselves, as Seattle is vulnerable to the deep ball in a way that we haven't seen in 6 years since Earl's been back there. Unfortunately.

I wouldn't call Earl the tone setter, that's Kam.

But Earl is certainly the safety blanket or net that allows everyone to get into their comfort zone in order to not think and fly around making plays.

You're seeing with him out a LOT of hesitation, miscommunication and guys just not looking comfortable on the back two levels of the defense.

Saw the same thing with Kam out, but now we're getting burned over the top, not underneath.

I hope they use Johnson a lot more going forward.

seahawkfreak":3vyy0zp1 said:

I think it is quite obvious what happens when either safety is not on the field. Many forget Earl had issues himself when Kam was sitting out or hurt, this year and last. With that said is obvious that the pass defense is more effected without Earl in there. Starting to believe if the LOB doesn't have all 3 cogs Seattle just has a decent defense.

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There's just something about seeing an enforcer like Kam in there making those bone crushing hits that scares the bjeezus out of opposing Backs, Receivers & Tight Ends----BUT---- Earl Thomas has been the Seahawks last line of Defense.
With his sideline to sideline speed, read & recovery, and instincts like nobody else in the League that's playing his position.
Sherman & Chancellor are outstanding at their positions, but it's ET who is the integral key, the catalyst if you will, that makes the whole Seahawks secondary jive. IMHO.

This pretty much explains it all:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/wingoz/status/814890267211956224[/tweet]

Yeah it's my worst fear for the season when Earl went down coming true. One thing that I have read recently that I disagree with is that the drop off being due to JS and PC not restocking the depth. Not this bad, but this D did not look the same at various times when Kam or Wags for example were out. We've been lucky that key guys on the defense have been healthy for the most part since 2013, and any injuries were mostly mid season and we were healthy come playoff time.

Had we lost Earl for any length of time in the past few years we would have seen the same drop off, imo.

Blitzer88":1rp2tjz0 said:

This pretty much explains it all:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/wingoz/status/814890267211956224[/tweet]

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Pretty sobering stats.

What this proves is Earl is the linchpin of how Pete has designed this defense. His speed and insane quickness to cover the entire back end allowed the rest of the D to press and smother teams.

Now that's gone.

This is where I disagree with OP and a lot of other people. It isn't one guy that is the "most important." There are a bunch. Without one, the defense takes a step back. We've all seen what the defense has looked without Earl, Kam and Bobby. Who leaves the biggest void is up for debate, but it's pretty obvious that they are all really important.

There is a big drop-off any time a star goes down.

But it's possible that it will not be as precipitous as the stats above suggest, given that the games included GB (a disaster all the way around) and AZ, which were 38 points and 34 points given up.