There's plenty of blame to go around for the Seattle Seahawks' loss to the Commanders in Week 3. One place it doesn't belong is on Seattle's interior defensive line. In fact, that may be one of the few areas where the team played well.
The defense failed in key moments all too often. Yes, they were put in tough situations too often. Washington scored two of their touchdowns after Seattle turnovers, both on short fields. That's always going to be a tall order, but it usually isn't for the Seahawks' defenders. This time, they clearly weren't up to the task.
Yes, if Sam Darnold hadn't thrown that ill-advised pass in the fourth quarter, the Seahawks could very well have come home with a 31-27 win. But that doesn't change the fact that surrendering 27 points was a poor performance by this unit. Seattle's defensive tackles are exempt from the blame.
The Seattle Seahawks interior defenders came through
That's more than I can say for the defense as a whole. But there were a few notable standouts. Ernest Jones IV had another outstanding game, as did Drake Thomas. Nehemiah Pritchett had a quiet game, but it's hard to do much when you're only targeted once. Devon Witherspoon was definitely off his game, though. Which leads me to the fact that...
The defensive backfield was a mess, and there's an obvious scapegoat. But the blame can't rest solely on AJ Finley's shoulders. Stepping in for Julian Love isn't exactly an easy task, especially when you've only had two snaps on defense coming into the game. Finley missed all of last season too. The last time he got more than 10 snaps on defense was September 29th, 2024.
The Seahawks' edge rushers basically did alright. Uchenna Nwosu had three hurries but no hits or sacks. And dropped a sure interception. But Derick Hall got a sack and a QB hit, while DeMarcus Lawrence came to life with three QB hits and another pressure. They could have been better, but they didn't exactly fail. Well, other than Dante Fowler, who continues to be a cipher on the stat sheet.
Okay, let's be real here. They should have been much better against a makeshift Washington offensive line. Left tackle Laremy Tunsil and right guard Sam Cosmi were both out for the contest. Lucas Patrick filled in at guard, while Brandon Coleman continued in his role as Tunsil's replacement. With Marcus Mariota starting for Jayden Daniels, the Seahawks' edge rushers needed to be better.
But on the interior, Seattle saw excellent play. Byron Murphy had his best game of an already solid season. He may have had only one QB hit and another hurry, but he routinely tied up two blockers, giving his teammates a free pass to the quarterback. Jarran Reed had two hurries and, like Murphy, was instrumental in controlling Washington's running game. The duo combined for 14 tackles.
As for Leonard Williams, all 12s already know the Big Cat is gonna eat, and eat well. He had three hurries, two QB hits, and a sack. That's his third straight game with a sack. That would be solid production for a defensive end/Edge rusher. For a guy with 80 percent of his snaps coming on the interior, that's phenomenal.
There's no way around it. The Dark Side wasn't at their best this past Sunday. Head coach Mike Macdonald pulled no punches in his breakdown of the game. 12s can rest assured that the atmosphere at VMAC will look a little different heading into Week 4.
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