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Super Bowl Preview: Everything you need to know about the Seattle Seahawks Defense

 Seattle Seahawks Defensive Primer

 Overview:The evolution of the NFL into a passing league has forced defensive architects to build front lines around explosive athletes with exceptional first-step quickness, speed and movement skills. The idea is to find a way to create constant pressure on the quarterback, forcing poor decisions and errant throws from the pocket.

In breaking down the Seahawks' lineup, it's obvious that Carroll has stockpiled "urgent" athletes to create a fierce pass rush capable of overwhelming opponents with speed and quickness. Pete Carrol simply asks his players to do what they do well. If you're a speed rusher, you get after the QB, if you can't play in coverage Caroll adapts and doesn't ask his players to do that. What you get is one of the most effective and versatile defenses in the NFL. 

 Strengths

•   Physicality: The Seahawks take on the passion and energy of their coach, no teams plays with as much passion and fury. Defenders fly to the ball and are in constant motion. what separates Seattle defense from others is its physicality in the secondary. 

• Ball Hawks:Carroll is quick to tell anyone within earshot that defensive football is all about creating turnovers. Carroll believes that takeaways are the deciding factor in most games, and he preaches going after the ball at every opportunity.

  From defensive linemen/linebackers attempting strips while gang-tackling to the aggressive play in the secondary, the Seahawks swarm to the ball with every intention of taking it away. Against the pass, in particular, Seattle does a great job of keeping vision on the quarterback and anticipating the direction of the throw. By keeping eyes on the ball, the Seahawks break quicker on throws, leading to more interceptions.(NFL.com)
  
   

Defensive Schemes 

The best place to start with the Seattle defense is its base defensive alignment. It’s essentially a 4-3 under. That means the defensive front four is shaded on the offense’s weak side and the Sam linebacker is walked up on the line of scrimmage. It’s a classic front that every team has in its playbook somewhere. Seattle lined up in this base alignment, the very first play of the season.(SB Nation)

 Seattle’s defense is talented, but it’s also rather eclectic: Tall and skinny, short and stout, Seattle’s defenders come in all shapes and sizes. As just one example, the Seahawks start 254-pound Chris Clemons at one defensive end spot and 323-pound Red Bryant at the other. But Bryant is a perfect two-gapper, and Carroll often places him directly across from an offensive guard or tackle to blow up running plays to the offense’s strong side.(Grantland)

Cover 3

 Cover 3 is traditionally a conservative defensive, but the cover ablity of the Sehawks corners allow them to be more aggressive. Both corners walk up to the LOS and press the outside receivers, while the underneath defenders play zone.

 

 

Weaknesses

Overly aggressive: The Seahawks lead the league in pass interference/defensive holding calls with 20. Their defense is also the most penalized overall in the NFL. The aggressiveness of the unit is also its greatest strength but its greatest weakness as well.

Run defense: 

In the first half of the season, Seattle’s generally formidable front seven encountered a recurring problem when opponents discovered that they could run against those fronts, especially in more obvious passing situations. The Seahawks have a deep and versatile line rotation, and the team’s interior linemen create consistent pressure up the middle by sliding against offensive linemen and shooting through gaps. However, the downside of this approach became apparent when those same lines started pushing Seattle’s defenders around — a task made easier when the Seahawks overpursued and forgot about their gaps.(SI.com)

In Week 9, Seattle gave up a season-high 205 rushing yards to a Tampa Bay team that had not yet won a game, and 158 of those yards to sixth-round rookie backup Mike James — whose single-game high outside of that game is 45 yards.

The Seahawks get caught and knocked off the ball on a 1st and 10.

The defense has no real shot to get this as the Rams' line just steamrolls into the second level. This is the first of the big runs by the Rams. One note here is that Brandon Mebane is not in the game on this play. Clinton McDaniel is at nose and McDonald is lined up as 3-tech. Mebane has definitely had his struggles over these last two seasons but Seattle doesn't appear to have his replacement on the roster. The big blocks wind up being the compressing of Red Bryant and McDonald together, opening a huge gap up the middle of the field.

Overall: Seattle's defense is obviously and elite defensive unit, however it will be interesting to see how they match up with the Broncos. Manning gets all the publicity but Knowshon Moreno and the Broncos' O-line may be the key.