RENTON — So now the Seahawks have shown they can play defense, can they keep it going?
As you might expect, coach Pete Carroll gave an emphatic yes to that question Monday in the wake of the Seahawks’ 19-9 win over Arizona at Lumen Field in which the defense did not allow a touchdown and gave up no points on the Cardinals’ final 10 drives.
It was a stark turnaround from the first five games in which the Seahawks had allowed an average of 30.8 points per game, more than any team other than the Detroit Lions.
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Seahawks 19, Cardinals 9
Asked what he saw in the film that made him believe that how the defense played Sunday is “sustainable,” Carroll responded: “Everything. Really, everything.”
And one reason is that he felt a significant change in philosophy the team made — to let the defense be more aggressive instead of being asked to read-and-react as much — should continue to pay dividends.
Carroll was vague about the changes in the defense when asked after the game Sunday.
But several players spoke openly about how the linemen, in particular, had been given a more freedom to attack at the snap.
“They just cut us loose,” defensive lineman Quinton Jefferson said. “And that’s less reading, more getting off. And I feel like the guys we’ve got, it benefits us. We can get off and cause havoc. I’m not really built to read nothing. I’m built to attack. So it was just a fun game. We got to go just cause havoc, and I think that’s what happened.”
On Monday, Carroll said: “I’m glad that they said that because that was part of what we did. That was part of a big adjustment that we thought to make sure that they could utilize their strengths. And I think our guys, really after assessing it, I think our guys are better in that mode. … That was kind of one part of the adjustments that we did this week. I thought the coaches did a great job of recognizing it in the players. It was good communication to make sense of it, and they took full advantage of it.”
A defense centered more on reading and reacting was part of the changes implemented this year by first-year coordinator Clint Hurtt, who replaced the fired Ken Norton Jr. Hurtt, along with associate head coach for defense Sean Desai, has installed a defense tailored on that of former Denver head coach Vic Fangio, which also features more 3-4 fronts.
But while Carroll had steadfastly defended the new scheme the past few weeks even as the points against piled up, he acknowledged Monday the Seahawks needed to change.
Asked if the changes will stay, Carroll laughed and said: “No, we’re going to go back to screwing it up. … Yeah, we’re gonna keep growing and keep getting better. This was a stage for us right now that we needed to adjust a bit, and we’ll look forward to continuing to grow.”
Carroll said players were enthusiastic about the change, as their play Sunday illustrated with the Seahawks sacking Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray six times — only two fewer than Seattle had in the first five games — and holding Arizona’s running backs to 44 yards on 18 carries.
“We made a plea to them of what we were thinking and they were totally in favor of it, too,” Carroll said. “So it’s worked out great. We can’t do everything in one week’s time but we certainly made progress and they really responded well and we had a good game I think because of that. And I think it all started right there.”
Or, as Jefferson said, “We got the green light.”
Carroll said it was a change a few weeks in the making: “We’ve been tweaking some stuff and we finally just made the declaration in a particular direction that everybody took to. And they wanted it to work out. They want to play the way we played yesterday and they did it, so that’s a big accomplishment for us.”
But the Seahawks know that in the NFL, what works one week doesn’t always work the next, based on the opponent and its strengths. And Seattle’s next foe, the Los Angeles Chargers, will now have the film of the Arizona game to base its own plan for next week.
In the locker room Sunday, though, there was a definite feeling that a corner had been turned.
“We’ve just got to use this as momentum and not be satisfied with this,” Jefferson said. “Because we’ve got a lot of football left.”
Nick Bellore ‘a stud’ for taking blame for punt error
It wasn’t immediately obvious to most who was to blame for the botched punt that resulted in a Michael Dickson fumble and a touchdown for Arizona in the third quarter.
And when asked after the game, Carroll said simply, “We missed a pick up miserably,” without elaborating.
That apparently helped compel special teams captain Nick Bellore to contact the team and release a quote to the team’s website taking the blame for not making the right call at the line of scrimmage of which blocking alignment to use. which is one of his responsibilities.
Bellore knew that many might blame Cullen Gillaspia, who has been with the Seahawks since just Sept. 28 and was lined up as the personal protector, or even Dickson.
Carroll called Bellore “a stud” for volunteering to take the blame, saying: “I love that Nick would step up because it would look like, ‘How come the personal protector [wasn’t to blame]?’ But that wasn’t his job.”
Bellore said of setting the protection for Arizona’s rush: “I saw it a way I shouldn’t have, and it worked against us. I don’t want anyone else taking the heat for that.”
Carroll called it an “in-game, in-moment choice to make a call and we just didn’t handle it well. … Whenever you make stuff up and you do stuff outside the preparation, you’re really vulnerable and susceptible to something bad happening. And that was one of them.”
The miscue was the fourth on special teams this year that has led to an opponent touchdown.
Carroll said “it’s bugging the hell out of all of us” because otherwise he has felt the special teams has played well.
“But man those are big plays so we’re going to do everything in our power to fix it,” Carroll said.
Notes
— Carroll said that nose tackle Al Woods, who missed the game with a knee injury suffered against New Orleans, was “close’’ to being able to play against Arizona, but that it was decided to hold him out and try to give him another week to recover. Carroll said Woods wants to practice Wednesday and they’ll take it from there.
— Carroll said it’s unclear if guard Gabe Jackson, who sat out with hip and knee issues, will be able to play this week. “We’ll have to see how the days go this week,” Carroll said.
— Carroll said defensive end L.J. Collier suffered a thumb injury in practice last week. Collier is on the injured reserve with an elbow injury but returned to practice two weeks ago. Seattle will have until next week to activate Collier to the 53-man roster or leave him on IR for the rest of the season. The team was optimistic Collier would return soon, but the thumb injury now complicates things.