Thursday, December 20, 2012

Seattle's Run Defense Puzzle

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As Mike Sando recently posted, the Seahawks were 2nd against the run (3.3 YPC) in weeks 1-6, but fell to 32nd against the run (5.3 YPC) from week 7 through 15. If you wonder why we're less comfortable with our defensive prowess recently, this is it. (Yes, we're not great on 3rd down either, but that's been true all year long.)

So... let's dig a little deeper. During our recent 8-game span we faced the number 1, 2, and 4 running teams (MIN, SF, BUF) and we won two of the three games. Of those, the Vikings game was an outlier.  They put up a whopping 9.0 YPC on us with 243 yards on 27 carries. Yes, it was Adrian Peterson. Yes, we missed some assignments - badly. And, yes, that led to some long runs, including a 74 yarder that Kam Browner ran down at the last moment. Hill KJ Wright was injured in concussed on the first play of that game, and our inexperience (Mike Morgan, 2nd year, USC) showed. Let's call it a "learning experience".

Looking at the other games, we held most teams near their average - some slightly above, some slightly below - except one. Miami. The Dolphins put up 6.8 YPC (189 yards on 28 carries) against us. On average, they gain 4.0 YPC which ranks 20th in the league. (Keep in mind that our bad defensive performance helped inflate that number!)

WeekTeamYPC RankOverall YPCYPC vs. SeahawksDifference
7SF25.25.5+0.3
8DET164.23.8-0.4
9MIN15.59.0+4.5
10NYJ233.93.8-0.1
12MIA204.06.8+2.8
13CHI194.24.0-0.2
14AZ313.52.7-0.8
15BUF45.15.6+0.6

It's not like we can chalk up the Miami game to one breakout run. Their longest gain was 22 yards. It also wasn't that one guy got hot. Tannehill averaged 8.25 YPC (33 yards on 4 carries). Bush got 6.21 YPC (87 yards on 14 runs). Thomas earned 6.67 YPC (60 yards on 9 runs). That tells me that this one was on us.

As I recall, Miami got many of their yards with speed to the outside. It was after this game that Carroll announced that Red Bryant had been suffering with plantar fasciitis. Maybe we were more banged up than we had expected. Maybe we were sluggish after the bye. Whatever the reason, this was a bad day for our run defense.

If you remove the Viking and Dolphin games (yeah, it's a cheat), we end up with 4.2 YPC from Week 7 on. It's still not the 3.3 YPC we started with, but it's a whole lot better than 5.3. In fact, it's right around the league average. We should be doing much better than this.

Fortunately, we don't face Adrian Peterson on Sunday night. Unfortunately, San Francisco's offense is #2 in YPC and Kaepernick adds the threat of speed to the edge to compliment Gore's power between the tackles.

We have to hope that our young players take their experience to heart and that Red's foot is on the mend. Mostly, we need to shut down explosive run plays to keep it close. Keep in mind that even with Minnesota's 9.0 YPC, we beat them. Against Miami's 6.75 YPC, we only lost by three. And even with San Francisco's trap game gashing us with 5.5 YPC, we were within a touchdown.

Finally, keep in mind that this game will be in Seattle. 9.0 YPC wasn't enough to beat us at home.

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Monday, December 10, 2012

58 Reasons that the Seahawks Beat the Cardinals


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Here are the 58 reasons that the Seahawks beat the Cardinals in Week 14 of the 2012 NFL season (in no particular order):

1 Wilson, Russell
2 Hauschka, Steven
3 Ryan, Jon
4 Kearse, Jermaine
5 Martin, Charly
6 Flynn, Matt
7 Rice, Sidney
8 Lane, Jeremy
9 Turbin, Robert
10 Trufant, Marcus
11 Lynch, Marshawn
12 Sherman, Richard
13 Robinson, Michael
14 Thurmond, Walter
15 Thomas, Earl
16 Chancellor, Kam
17 Johnson, Jeron
18 Washington, Leon
19 Shead, DeShawn
20 Parker, Ron
21 Maxwell, Byron
22 Maragos, Chris
23 Gresham, Clint
24 Wright, K.J.
25 Irvin, Bruce
26 Smith, Malcolm
27 Wagner, Bobby
28 Farwell, Heath
29 Hill, Leroy
30 Morgan, Mike
31 Unger, Max
32 Jeanpierre, Lemuel
33 Johnson, Rishaw
34 Sweezy, J.R
35 Omiyale, Frank
36 McQuistan, Paul
37 Giacomini, Breno
38 McDonald, Clinton
39 Moffitt, John
40 Person, Mike
41 Okung, Russell
42 Bryant, Red
43 Tate, Golden
44 Moore, Evan
45 McCoy, Anthony
46 Miller, Zach
47 Baldwin, Doug
48 Jones, Jason
49 Clemons, Chris
50 Mebane, Brandon
51 Howard, Jaye
52 Scruggs, Greg
53 Branch, Alan
54 Bradley, Gus
55 Cable, Tom
56 Bevell, Darrel
57 Schneider, John
58 Carroll, Pete

Note: We should have scored more so I could have listed all of the coaches, members of the front office, and our practice squad.