Large Men Bashing Things

If you've read any Seahawks articles lately, you'll notice that the buzz around the defense this year has to do with creating more turnovers. The camps so far have involved a good bit of instruction and more intensity than usual (so says Lofa).

The defense works on strip drills at the beginning of each practice, which includes station drills focused on stripping the ball from in front of the ball carrier, from behind the ball carrier and rushing the quarterback.

Whether or not this makes a big difference in player mentality remains to be seen, but hopefully the team spends considerably more time on the other facets of defense. As has been noted around these parts, non-quarterback fumbles are nearly as much luck as anything else. Either a defender's helmet hits squarely on the ball or the convergence of two defenders rocks the ball out, but counting on running back fumbles as a consistent source of fumbles isn't prudent, especially if it comes at the expense of secure tackles. Getting to the quarterback consistently, however, leaves a greater opportunity for finding a loose football. Let the corners work on covering and playing the ball.

The coaches are certainly working the team hard:

Linebacker Lofa Tatupu also noted the amount of pursuit drills the defense is doing during practice.

“A little hard work never hurt anybody," he said. "Not to say we weren’t working hard before, but I feel the difference in the practices. And I tell you one thing, we’ll be one of the best conditioned teams in the league. So it won’t be for a lack of effort if we suffer any losses."

A lot of this sort of stuff is mainly fluffy, but take solace in the fact that the new staff has clear directions and is pushing the team hard to get there.

I'm not sure why, but I'm transfixed by the video of the sled drill. That's an awful lot of violence in short periods of time.