Seattle Seahawks Dominate First Defensive Series with Execution Away from the Ball

by John Morgan on Aug 30, 2009 1:10 PM PDT

If a team plays within the rules of the NFL, but because of its fast, attacking style hurts more skill-position players than typical, can we classify that as a skill? It's something I wondered since Seattle left a trail of broken running backs in its wake in 2007.

3. The failure occurred within the interior line. Colin Cole failed to hold his double team and that allowed Rudy Niswanger to pull into the second level and interrupt Lofa Tatupu and Leroy Hill's line to Larry Johnson.

This drive was all about conditional relationships. On Kansas City's second play from scrimmage, Brandon Mebane schooled his assignment, Mike Goff, and flushed Johnson outside-left. Aaron Curry drove back Mike Cox and left Johnson with a long angle to the outside and without a lead blocker. So far, so good. But Dwayne Bowe has Ken Lucas tied up and one of Tatupu or Hill must fly to the outside and tackle Johnson. Neither is able to because Cole, doubled by Niswanger and Brian Waters, cannot delay or force Niswanger to stay at home. He chips Cole and pulls into the second level. Niswanger doesn't block Tatupu or Hill, but he screens Hill and Hill screens Tatupu and both bubble and close on Johnson from an obtuse angle. They never arrive. Lucas sheds and tackles but only after the first.

2. Curry, in his own way, made the sack. With the Chiefs line in shreds and Matt Cassel scrabbling for space, Curry didn't close on Cassel and attempt the vainglorious sack, but instead picked up outlet receiver Johnson escaping into the right flat. Cassel's last hope was covered. A second later, Cassel was sacked and Johnson airborne after a wicked bump by Curry.

1. Brian Russell executed the blitz to perfection. Mercifully, Russell wasn't blitzing.

It's third and 11 from the Chiefs 45. Tyler Thigpen is in. Seattle is in a 4-1 dime. The Chiefs are spread four wide, two to a side, running back right, shotgun. Babineaux telegraphs blitz, almost timing it to perfection, but missing the snap and just a fraction off. He attacks from the offensive left and draws the running back. Babineaux's pre-blitz assignment was Bobby Engram in the left slot. Engram is open only briefly and well before the first down marker. Russell breaks from the deep middle and covers Engram to, through and after the marker.

That's when Thigpen tucks. Patrick Kerney has positioned himself to contain, but looks away when Goff charges at him from the left. Kerney loses contain and must track Thigpen down in the right flat.

Excellent execution by Brian Russell.

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"Excellent" and "Brian Russell" in the same sentence?

Where am I?

"Why is it every time I need to get somewhere, we get waylaid by jackassery?" - Dr. Venture

by Eegah on Aug 30, 2009 1:53 PM PDT reply actions

I have seen many excellent reads

by BR, but since they are accompanied by naive pursuit angles, too-quick jumps or over-pursuits, breakable-arm tackles, or tackles from behind, or tackles after 25 yards, they rarely help much.

by paul2 on Aug 30, 2009 2:20 PM PDT reply actions

This is great.

Curry didn’t attempt close on Cassel and attempt the vainglorious sack, but instead picked up outlet receiver Johnson escaping into the right flat.

That seems exactly like the sort of thing that Peterson would do the opposite of all the time (and allow completions for first downs while coming up short on the sack). Awesome.

by Strang on Aug 30, 2009 4:17 PM PDT reply actions

I have to admit our 3rd down defense

was pretty incredible yesterday. In fact we seem to have one of the better 3rd down defenses this preseason. I hope that isn’t a fluke. Be nice to be able to get off the field on 3rd down often. If Bradley can ensure a top 3rd down defense, that alone will improve our team defense immensely.

by ASeahawkfan on Aug 30, 2009 5:55 PM PDT up reply actions

Yea that boggled my mind.

Our defense actually got off the field on 3rd down with some frequency, or so it seemed.

by Fear on Aug 30, 2009 7:38 PM PDT up reply actions

Give props to the nickel and dime man on 3rd and medium-long

Josh Wilson.

Glenn Beck likes argument, but has a deap-seated hatred for logic.

by Cheddar28 on Aug 30, 2009 11:49 PM PDT up reply actions

Glad this was mentioned.

Everyone seems to be focusing on Curry’s run and blitz skills and not on his pass-coverage skills. From what I saw vs KC, he did awfully well. After all, wasn’t Hill’s deficiency (and Peterson’s) in that area exactly what Curry was supposed to counteract?

by Groundhog on Aug 30, 2009 11:46 PM PDT up reply actions

Nice to see that Russell executed

and factored. I hope to see more of it this season!

The demise of the Broncos in '09 is our future. Pray hard.

by Nick Andron on Aug 30, 2009 6:54 PM PDT reply actions

Russell has the brains

He just don’t have the brawn and athleticism. Let’s hope it isn’t too much of a liability again.

If you do some thinking on it, one of the major reasons we had trouble in 2006 is that our run defense went to garbage and we had to bring the safeties up to support the run which made them more vulnerable to the play action pass and being out of position to defense the pass.

If the run defense is solid, our zones will remain more assignment correct as the safeties won’t have to constantly shade towards the line . Having to bring the safety up in 2006 was a huge detriment to our pass defense considering our safeties weren’t particularly good at diagnosing run or pass.

And 2008 was just a garbage year. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. Worst case scenario.

I really have no idea how our defense will look this year. I’m hoping the front seven will handle the run so our secondary will not be expected to play run defense often. A key to zone defense is not having to use your secondary in run defense so much. Sure they should come up and support, but runs should rarely be making it to the secondary if your front seven are doing their job. That will be a key for a solid pass defense this year.

I don’t like how the run defense looked versus Denver. I hope that was an anomaly. We look tough up the middle still. But vulnerability to cutback runs and outside runs will hurt just as bad. If it happens once or twice a game, that’s understandable. But our run defense needs to diagnose and overcome better against runs to the outside.

And heck, as long as we harden in the end zone we’ll be good.

by ASeahawkfan on Aug 30, 2009 7:55 PM PDT up reply actions

You would get more replies if you worked on brevity.

He said he was happy Russell executed. You replied with a 305 word manifesto on the entire run defense. That makes someone feel not like they are having a conversation but that they are being lectured.

by John Morgan on Aug 30, 2009 8:38 PM PDT up reply actions

Just thinking out loud as far as the internet goes

I type 80 to 100 words a minute. I never looked at a response like the above as particularly long. I guess perspective’s differ.

Not particularly worried about responses. I was tossing out some thoughts I had about how this defense works that were sparked by the mention of Russell. I know full well the derision alot of fans show towards Russell. But I’ve never been sure if he is a primary reason for the poor defensive performance by the secondary or merely an enlarged factor due to the secondary being strung out because they have to support the run defense far more than they should.

I’m aware I’m prolix. But sometimes the thoughts jumble out as I’m typing.

by ASeahawkfan on Aug 30, 2009 9:21 PM PDT up reply actions

You need to remember that the average internet user has an attention span of about 20 seconds

Regular Field Gull readers/posters have even shorter attention spans. Seeing comments longer than a couple of sentences makes us confused and angry (and confused why we’re angry).

What were we talking about?

Brett Favre is the Kenny Powers of football.

by ninjasocks on Aug 30, 2009 9:25 PM PDT up reply actions

LOL

I’ll keep that in mind.

Typing fast is like being a motor mouth in real life. Hard to stop sometimes.

by ASeahawkfan on Aug 30, 2009 9:30 PM PDT up reply actions

by Cheddar28 on Aug 30, 2009 11:52 PM PDT up reply actions

I work on being more succinct

I tend to let my thoughts flow. It’s what I do when I write ficiton due to the way a story flows from the mind through the fingers. It bleeds onto message boards at times.

I’ll self-edit more from here on out.

by ASeahawkfan on Aug 31, 2009 12:05 AM PDT up reply actions