Snap Reactions: Seahawks defense continues to thrive going DB-heavy

Sunday the Seattle Seahawks took down the New York Giants and put a second blemish on the record of a team that had previously sported one of the best records in a weak conference. The win kept the Hawks atop the NFC West, one game ahead of the rival San Francisco 49ers, who defeated the Los Angeles Rams for the second time in the month of October.

Seattle put 27 points on the scoreboard in spite of both DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett playing through injury, which explains why Will Dissly and Noah Fant both saw the field more than either receiver. In addition, Phil Haynes and Gabe Jackson rotated at right guard after both were listed as questionable on the Friday injury report, and Kyle Fuller played his first offense snaps of the year after Austin Blythe left the game with a knee injury.

On defense, the Hawks continued the trend they had established the last three weeks of using nickel and dime packages extensively. Coby Bryant was on the field for nearly three quarters of the defensive snaps, while Cody Barton recorded his second lowest snap count of the season. With Darrell Taylor leaving the game due to a hip injury early, Bruce Irvin and Uchenna Nwosu were the mainstays at outside linebacker, though Boye Mafe did continue to see the field on a rotational basis. In any case, the defense ended the day Sunday averaging 4.97 defensive backs per snap, a metric that might have been a tiny bit higher had Ryan Neal not had to leave the game with cramps late.

As for special teams in the absence of the ever dangerous special teams captain Nick Bellore, Tanner Muse led the way playing 25 snaps on special teams, with Cullen Gillaspia, Joey Blount and Travis Homer all logging 22 special teams snaps.

And now it’s on to Week 9 and the second installment of Beak Week, as the Seahawks head to Glendale to face the Arizona Cardinals.