Seattle Seahawks: 5 takeaways from Week 16 victory over Rams

Defense leads the way once again

The turnaround of this Seattle Seahawk defense has been remarkable. In the first half of the season, they ranked nearly at the bottom of every statistic except for rushing defense. They weren’t able to apply any pressure and as a result, they couldn’t guard anyone in the secondary, because opposing quarterbacks had ample time to go through reads and progressions.

After the embarrassing Week 9 loss to the Buffalo Bills, many questioned whether or not this Seahawks team could win a playoff game. Their defense was historically bad and it even led some to believe that Jamal Adams didn’t fit in well with this defensive scheme. This always seemed odd to me because shortly after, Adams broke the record for most sacks by a safety in NFL history and was the leading pass rusher for this Seattle team. He always was the right fit. The problem for this Seattle team was the glaring hole on the defensive line. They were missing a playmaker.

That was until Carlos Dunlap came along. In fact, Dunlap made his debut against the Bills in that horrendous Week 9 loss. Ever since that Week 9 loss, this Seattle defense has reached new heights of success.

What’s not mentioned in that tweet is their stellar run defense that ranks number 1 in the league since Week 9. Against the Rams, the defense was once again impressive. There were two aspects that really impressed me in the win.

1. Jamal Adams’ relentless pursuit.

On every single down, it appears as if Jamal Adams ends up near the ball. Last week, we saw him display his sideline-to-sideline speed tracking down Dwayne Haskins for a sack. Against the Rams, he made a touchdown-saving play on Darrell Henderson in the third quarter that resulted in a goal-line stand by the defense. Those are the kind of plays that this Seattle defense was missing early on in the season. Granted, they made some big stops that allowed the Seahawks to win games, but they were also the reason why the games were so close. Jamal Adams provides a unique aspect to this defense because he is damn near good at everything. As we have seen this defense develop more chemistry, we see Adams having more of an effect on games because it is becoming easier for him.

2. Setting the edge on the bootleg

This was perhaps the most impressive thing I’ve seen from this defense all year long. DE Carlos Dunlap set the edge well and LB K.J. Wright did a great job in coverage to force Goff to keep the ball. The Seahawks defense has always struggled against the Rams bootleg plays, which has allowed their TE’s to get open and have big games.

But, not in Week 16. The Seahawks sniffed it out damn near every time and they really slowed down this Rams offense. It was an impressive outing from this Seattle defense as they consistently put a stamp on the league. Each and every week, they are becoming more confident and playing with more swagger.