Seahawks now ranked 15th in defense

Isn't that what Seahawks' fans were wishing for by the end of the season?

https://www.lineups.com/nfl-team-rankings/defense

DomeHawk":1s1wod6a said:

Isn't that what Seahawks' fans were wishing for by the end of the season?

https://www.lineups.com/nfl-team-rankings/defense

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It depends on which fans.

The sad/pessimistic/negative posters on this site will view that number as suspect due to recent victories over bad teams. Such wins do nothing to counterbalance the historic awfulness of the first 1/2 of the season for these posters.

Others were only hoping we'd reach average, while some brave ones predicted it. Even Schein on NFL.com finds our defense concerning, in spite of the fact that we haven't had a bad game on that side of the ball in a few games now.

The team had the pieces, and the defensive prowess is strong with PC, even if KNJ isn't the best D-Cord in the league. If this team plays better than average D and our offense uses all of it's weapons, we can go far in the post-season.

Bring on the Rams and 49ers. We'll see if this trend continues.

15th is a huge, HUGE deal. Yes, many of us said if we can just get our D to middle of the road (15th), we will be nearly unstoppable.

Well, of course, that was before Russ decided to be allergic to the MVP title, throwing 10 INTs. Before then, we had the #1 offense, Russ was cookin', MVP leader, throwing TDs like candy. Now, our offense has come down to earth...Ranked #6, which by no means is a problem...Still dangerous, just not the juggernaut they were in September/October.

Imagine the #1 Seahawks offense in September/October married with this #15 ranked D? Super. Bowl.

#6 offense with the #15 defense? I shall say we still have a great chance at making it to February. No NFC team scares me. None. We can beat ANY NFC team, period. Saints, Packers, Rams, Bucs, Cardinals...You name it. We can beat 'em.

But back to the point of this thread. It's a hell of an accomplishment to turn this around from what was a HISTORICALLY BAD defense to now 15th ranked. That's coaching, that's will power, that's talent, that's WANT TO.

Aros":kxx0k5kr said:

15th is a huge, HUGE deal. Yes, many of us said if we can just get our D to middle of the road (15th), we will be nearly unstoppable.

Well, of course, that was before Russ decided to be allergic to the MVP title, throwing 10 INTs. Before then, we had the #1 offense, Russ was cookin', MVP leader, throwing TDs like candy. Now, our offense has come down to earth...Ranked #6, which by no means is a problem...Still dangerous, just not the juggernaut they were in September/October.

Imagine the #1 Seahawks offense in September/October married with this #15 ranked D? Super. Bowl.

#6 offense with the #15 defense? I shall say we still have a great chance at making it to February. No NFC team scares me. None. We can beat ANY NFC team, period. Saints, Packers, Rams, Bucs, Cardinals...You name it. We can beat 'em.

But back to the point of this thread. It's a hell of an accomplishment to turn this around from what was a HISTORICALLY BAD defense to now 15th ranked. That's coaching, that's will power, that's talent, that's WANT TO.

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Good post, you make some great points.

6th in sacks too! Had Adams not missed time he would be on pace to lead the league in sacks which is crazy to think about.

getnasty":220j78so said:

6th in sacks too! Had Adams not missed time he would be on pace to lead the league in sacks which is crazy to think about.

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He's like 7th in sacks, the next DB is like 63 or something.

Good stuff. Middle of the pack to go along with this offense, when clicking? This team is a contender.
I notice the "historically worst defense" crowd hasn't had much to say. If so, it's just "look who they played"
Oh well, the Defense is steadily improving, that's actually a GOOD thing. It doesn't matter who's right or wrong, it's just nice to see. And YES, I do realize is was pretty brutal the first half of the season.

Have I been hard on the Defense all season? Yes! However I’ll certainly give credit where credit is due. I’m extremely happy with their performance and turn around from almost going down as a historically bad defense to now looking decent and at times even good. Sadly the offense has now started to look worse and worse and that’s my concern now moving forward.

See, that's not hard to do. You want to be wrong when it means the team is getting better :irishdrinkers:

The link in the OP points to info geared toward fantasy football. "If you are looking for fantasy points scored by defenses, we have them in order for you. Some teams are betting scoring in the fantasy department because they force more turnovers, while some teams like the Patriots play bend don’t break, which isn’t exactly fun for fantasy at times. If you're researching for your fantasy football draft, see our fantasy team defense rankings and all the Lineups.com Fantasy Football Rankings."

According to ESPN, they are still #26 ranked defense (total) -
https://www.espn.com/nfl/stats/team/_/view/defense/table/passing/sort/netYardsPerGame/dir/asc

It is an improvement from being #32, for sure.

I contribute this to a few things, some obvious some not so obvious;

Jamal Adams returning and becoming a real force on the line (I noticed Washington was running a lot of spread formations to keep him in coverage)

The communication in the secondary is MUCH improved compared to earlier in the season

Trey Flowers and Quinton Dunbar staying off the field while DJ Reed and Ugo Amadi continue to flourish; The young talent in the secondary has impressed me more than the veteran talent-

Carlos Dunlap being signed at just the right time; 2 game saving sacks on the final drive, incredible.

The emergence of Jordyn Brooks; I think it's safe to say the Seahawks made the right choice with selecting him over Patrick Queen

KJ Wright playing out of his mind; I think this may be his best season to date

-Thoughts??

Fair enough, but still improving, and that's what matters imo.

Haskins, Darnold, McCoy, Wentz the last 4 weeks certainly helps. I still think if the Seahawks played one of the top offenses right now they would get steamrolled. The Rams should be a good test, let's hope I am wrong.

Last time they played the Rams, they held them to 6 total points their final 7 drives.

hawkfan68":1j0xyc15 said:

The link in the OP points to info geared toward fantasy football. "If you are looking for fantasy points scored by defenses, we have them in order for you. Some teams are betting scoring in the fantasy department because they force more turnovers, while some teams like the Patriots play bend don’t break, which isn’t exactly fun for fantasy at times. If you're researching for your fantasy football draft, see our fantasy team defense rankings and all the Lineups.com Fantasy Football Rankings."

According to ESPN, they are still #26 ranked defense (total) -
https://www.espn.com/nfl/stats/team/_/view/defense/table/passing/sort/netYardsPerGame/dir/asc

It is an improvement from being #32, for sure.

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If you're looking at yards against, we are indeed still #26. But when do yards ever count for anything? We are #15 in points against. #15 at points against is a huge accomplishment considering we were on pace to break that NFL season record easily. However, since we gave up 44 to Buffalo, we haven't given up more than 23. We are averaging 23.8 ppg on the season, but haven't given up that many in 6 straight games.

So here's how I look at it. We started out the season historically bad on defense in virtually all stat categories (except rushing YPG). But now we're either in the upper 1/3 or middle 1/3 of the majority of defensive stats, as a team. If we started out historically bad for 5 games, but now we're actually middle of the pack in stat categories that INCLUDE those games, then at present we must be playing upper 1/3 style defense.

last 4 games:
#1 in points against (52 points in 4 games!)
#2 in total yards allowed (1078 yards in 4 games!)
#2 in tackles for losses
#3 in sacks
#4 in 3-and-outs
#6 in 4th down stops

None of this includes the Arizona game from week 11- a game in which we played arguably our best game overall as a team and our defense looked "the part" of a championship contender.

Using a yards-against stat from the entire season sits us at #26. Whoopty-frickin-doo.

Right now, in real time, we are playing with a top10 defense.

Would very interesting to see the defensive numbers thru 3 quarters vs. just the 4th quarter when they seem to let up on the gas a bit. I'm sure the difference is staggering.
They are playing better and more disciplined. I don't care who they are playing against, that just sounds like an argument for people who refuse to ever actually acknowledge that they are getting better.

LoneHawkFan":1kr7r9ff said:

If you're looking at yards against, we are indeed still #26. But when do yards ever count for anything? We are #15 in points against. #15 at points against is a huge accomplishment considering we were on pace to break that NFL season record easily. However, since we gave up 44 to Buffalo, we haven't given up more than 23. We are averaging 23.8 ppg on the season, but haven't given up that many in 6 straight games.

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After the Buffalo game (eight games total), this defense was next to last in points allowed (only Dallas was worse) and was averaging over 30 PPG. The yards were even more abysmal than the points, and it's harder to make up ground on the season average.

This defense has allowed 16 PPG over the last six games; that's really good. If someone wants to make the argument about bad offenses, they've actually been doing what they've supposed to for several weeks now and limiting those teams pretty well, instead of letting them just score all the points like they did any offense through the first eight weeks.

The First Eight Weeks
-------------------------------

Atlanta - 25.2 PPG // Seahawks Allowed 25
New England - 20.6 PPG // Seahawks Allowed 30
Dallas - 24.2 PPG // Seahawks Allowed 31
Miami - 25.1 PPG // Seahawks Allowed 23
Minnesota - 25.7 PPG // Seahawks Allowed 26
Arizona - 24.4 PPG // Seahawks Allowed 37
San Francisco - 23.8 PPG // Seahawks Allowed 27
Buffalo - 25.4 PPG // Seahawks Allowed 44

Average PPG of Opponents This Season - 24.3
Average PPG Seahawks Gave Up - 30.4

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The Last Six Weeks
-------------------------------
Los Angeles - 24.6 PPG // Seahawks Allowed 23
Arizona - 24.4 PPG // Seahawks Allowed 21
Philadelphia - 21.6 PPG // Seahawks Allowed 17
New York Giants - 17.4 PPG // Seahawks Allowed 17
New York Jets - 14.7 PPG // Seahawks Allowed 3
Washington - 21.6 PPG // Seahawks Allowed 15

Average PPG of Opponents This Season - 20.7
Average PPG Seahawks Gave Up - 16 PPG

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They went from giving up 6.1 points more than teams' offensive average to giving up 4.7 points less than teams' averages; they've essentially flipped a ten point differential in defense. They've held bad offenses below their own averages.

This is the same team that let Cam Newton throw for almost 400 yards when they gave up 30 points to the bad Patriots offense earlier this year. This is the same team that let Mullens come in during the fourth quarter and throw like 200 yards and score 3 TDs. Everybody walked all over this defense earlier in the year.

Over the last four weeks they haven't given up 20+ points. In the previous 10 weeks they achieved this feat exactly zero times, and they allowed 30+ points in four games. The Buffalo game was a dead ringer for what happens when the defense plays like crap and "Let Russ Cook" is the offensive strategy and he turns the ball over.

This could go south, but we've seen a massive, MASSIVE improvement from this defense over the last six weeks. They're playing at least average defense, and that's good enough going into the playoffs to be very competitive with what the offense can do.

SoulfishHawk":130qc0pb said:

Would very interesting to see the defensive numbers thru 3 quarters vs. just the 4th quarter when they seem to let up on the gas a bit. I'm sure the difference is staggering.
They are playing better and more disciplined. I don't care who they are playing against, that just sounds like an argument for people who refuse to ever actually acknowledge that they are getting better.

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From a points perspective, the difference between the first 8 games vs last six:

Points Allowed in 4Q // Total Points Allowed
ATL - 13 // 25
NWE - 13 // 30
DAL - 9 // 31
MIA - 11 // 23
MIN - 7 // 26
ARI - 10 // 37 (3 in OT)
SF - 20 // 27
BUF - 17 // 44

100 / 243 ~ 41% of Points Allowed in 4Q

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LAR - 0 // 23
ARI - 7 // 21
PHI - 8 // 17
NYG - 3 // 17
NYJ - 0 // 3
WSH - 12 // 15

30 / 96 ~ 31% of Points Allowed in 4Q

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Another point of massive improvement.

Aros":2opbf31y said:

15th is a huge, HUGE deal. Yes, many of us said if we can just get our D to middle of the road (15th), we will be nearly unstoppable.

Well, of course, that was before Russ decided to be allergic to the MVP title, throwing 10 INTs. Before then, we had the #1 offense, Russ was cookin', MVP leader, throwing TDs like candy. Now, our offense has come down to earth...Ranked #6, which by no means is a problem...Still dangerous, just not the juggernaut they were in September/October.

Imagine the #1 Seahawks offense in September/October married with this #15 ranked D? Super. Bowl.

#6 offense with the #15 defense? I shall say we still have a great chance at making it to February. No NFC team scares me. None. We can beat ANY NFC team, period. Saints, Packers, Rams, Bucs, Cardinals...You name it. We can beat 'em.

But back to the point of this thread. It's a hell of an accomplishment to turn this around from what was a HISTORICALLY BAD defense to now 15th ranked. That's coaching, that's will power, that's talent, that's WANT TO.

Click to expand...

The defense HAS to get better. That's what Seattle Seahawks are known for. Vicious defense and clock managment...

Like a constrictor.

Not sure how accurate this assessment really is as an indicative of our defense. We've played some really bad QBs recently. That being said, I've seen some improvement immediately when two things happened regardless of competition:

1. Flowers replaced by D.J Reed and Amadi

2. Carlos Dunlap. Dunlap alone has won us two games, he has completely changed the dynamic on our defense. Without him I think we still are near the bottom. My god was this a steal.