Seahawks return to man press coverage and the win.

This hasn't been talked about much but it was obvious to me the man coverage in the second half really locked down the Rams offense and was the key to Seattle winning the game. Zone has it's place but you can't play it all the time against a good offense and expect to win. Seattle ditched the zone in the second half and the Rams couldn't adjust in time . I really hope to see press coverage mixed in with the zone in order to keep the opposing teams offense off balance going forward.

Northwest Seahawk":dyungns0 said:

This hasn't been talked about much but it was obvious to me the man coverage in the second half really locked down the Rams offense and was the key to Seattle winning the game. Zone has it's place but you can't play it all the time against a good offense and expect to win. Seattle ditched the zone in the second half and the Rams couldn't adjust in time . I really hope to see press coverage mixed in with the zone in order to keep the opposing teams offense off balance going forward.

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I think it also depends on the quarterback. When you have a top tier QB it would seem to me man coverage could be a recipe for some deep dimes. They still pick you apart in zone but at least the plays are contained better.

Overall PFF has the Seahawks running cover 1 man at the 4th highest rate in the league — almost half their total snaps.

Popeyejones":66gh85ig said:

Overall PFF has the Seahawks running cover 1 man at the 4th highest rate in the league — almost half their total snaps.

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And I'm fine with this, I just wish we'd mix it up on 3rd down. Because teams have figured out how to easily convert 3rd and short, long and intermediate on us.............just send everyone long and there will be 10 yards of open space to check down or throw a shallow crossing route to convert.

Drives me crazy. Too many easy 3rd down conversions given up with a checkdown back running for 7 yards before he's touched because the LB's in middle zone are 10-12 yards deep.

Sgt. Largent":2iitp4pt said:

Popeyejones":2iitp4pt said:

Overall PFF has the Seahawks running cover 1 man at the 4th highest rate in the league — almost half their total snaps.

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And I'm fine with this, I just wish we'd mix it up on 3rd down. Because teams have figured out how to easily convert 3rd and short, long and intermediate on us.............just send everyone long and there will be 10 yards of open space to check down or throw a shallow crossing route to convert.

Drives me crazy. Too many easy 3rd down conversions given up with a checkdown back running for 7 yards before he's touched because the LB's in middle zone are 10-12 yards deep.

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Agreed, it's been one of the most maddening things to watch last season and through 5 weeks this year. Clear zones, check down, get the 1st, rinse and repeat.

We need to start mixing up the coverages, especially on 3rd down, to stop the easy conversions. There's a reason our defense is getting tired and it's not entirely on the offense not being able to stay on the field. When opposing offenses can string you out and consistently convert the 3rd downs it's going to cause both physical and mental exhaustion. The saving grace for our defense is that we've generally been pretty good at limiting TDs once the field shortens. "Bend but don't break" and all that jazz.

JGfromtheNW":1lwgodnm said:

. The saving grace for our defense is that we've generally been pretty good at limiting TDs once the field shortens. "Bend but don't break" and all that jazz.

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I think Pete and Richard lean too much on this though don't you?

I get it, scoring defense is all that matters at the end of the game. But allowing teams to march up and down the field with lopsided time of possession seemingly EVERY game not only wears out the defense, but it doesn't give our offense enough snaps to get into their tempo and rhythm. Obviously something we DESPERATELY need.

Sgt. Largent":3rqbzc6z said:

JGfromtheNW":3rqbzc6z said:

. The saving grace for our defense is that we've generally been pretty good at limiting TDs once the field shortens. "Bend but don't break" and all that jazz.

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I think Pete and Richard lean too much on this though don't you?

I get it, scoring defense is all that matters at the end of the game. But allowing teams to march up and down the field with lopsided time of possession seemingly EVERY game not only wears out the defense, but it doesn't give our offense enough snaps to get into their tempo and rhythm. Obviously something we DESPERATELY need.

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It definitely does feel like they lean too much on it. Even if we are holding teams to low PPG and it's statistically successful, it becomes a factor in playing complimentary football (or not playing in this case). As you said, it doesn't allow as many possessions for our offense to get into a rhythm and it wears our defense out - not only in individual games, but at the end of the season as well, when we want our guys to be playing the best ball of the entire year.

I guess it makes me miss DQ a lot, the guy seemed to dial up blitzes perfectly. Granted, Bennett/Avril were wreaking havoc and applying pressure earlier back then. It just seems like our defensive playcalling is too predictable to really confuse or challenge QBs who aren't completely miffed by zone coverages and a little pressure.

Football schemes and personnel need to evolve throughout individual games, seasons and over multiple seasons otherwise they get stale and teams begin to figure out what they can exploit. Our weaknesses in pass defense have been seam routes, wheel routes (usually based off a pick play/rub route) and check-downs/underneath passes after clearing zones.

I've been to three of the five games so far this season with limited rewatching, so I don't claim to be breaking our play down via all-22 like some people do, but it seems we've been consistently sticking with vanilla cover-3, press cover-3 and press cover-1. The vast majority of experienced QBs can identify what we're using by motioning one player across the formation and eyeing where our DBs are lining up pre-snap - it's that easy to predict where and how they're going to attack our defense on obvious passing downs. I don't know what the percentages are, but it seems like we need to get a little more creative with the zones and blitzes. I don't recall seeing our nickel CBs, Kam or Earl going after the QB on 3rd downs, I don't recall Bobby/KJ being blitzed with any type of regularity (we don't want to get TOO blitz happy). It just seems like, and this goes for the entire team and team philosophy, we don't play with the pedal to the metal in the way that can bury our opponents and cause the "snowball" effect that we got used to seeing 2012-2014. It's always going to be risk/reward, but so rarely does our defense actually get burned from taking a risk like sending an extra pass rusher.

It's the offense's own responsibility to earn itself more plays to find a rhythm. More possessions at 3-5 per isn't going to help much. The talented Bucs offense struggled against the crappy Pats D because they were too stubborn to take what was easy and kept trying to do what they wanted without regards to the opponent. That's what frustrates me most about the Hawks; refusing to admit that no one system or style is going to consistently be the best way against every opponent over time.
I absolutely agree that the defense needs to adapt and also show variation based on the opponent. This plan to almost only worry about the pass in clear "pass situations" makes it easier for teams who can avoid run/pass predictability than the Hawks' defensive talent should allow. The defense has looked like it needs all of its (and most of the team's) talent to be good, suggesting that the system isn't what we used to think it was.