'Fix This S***!': Coach Pete Carroll, Seahawks Sound Off - With 49ers' Christian McCaffrey Next
During Weeks 7 and 8, the Seattle Seahawks limited their opponents to 53 and 78 rushing yards, respectively. The two-game stretch provided significant hope that the team's run defense was improving ... but at this point, it merely looks like an outlier of a season-long struggle.
In the six games prior, Seattle allowed at least 100 rushing yards to all of its opponents, with five cresting 140. And now, with five games removed between them and that stout run, the Seahawks' run defense has crumbled, giving up at least 120 rushing yards in each contest, including an astonishing 283 to the Las Vegas Raiders ... and 223 to the Carolina Panthers in Sunday's back-breaking home defeat.
Time and time again, when Seattle desperately needed a stop on defense, Carolina broke through with a crushing run. Perhaps even more concerning, the attack came from a variety of sources, rather than just one hot hand; Chuba Hubbard and D'Onta Foreman each had 74 yards apiece, while undrafted rookie Raheem Blackshear averaged eight yards per carry on his four touches.
It was an all-around dominant effort by the Panthers offensive line, one that Seahawks safety Ryan Neal stressed cannot happen again.
“We’ve got to fix this s---," Neal said. "Because, you saw what happened, and it’s been the same thing the past two weeks, and teams see it, and they’re going to attack it, and they’re probably going to give us the same thing. When it comes to stuff like that, all you can do is just look at the film, and we’ve got to fix it.
"It’s gotta get fixed. Point blank, period.”
So, what can Seattle do to suddenly improve its run defense in Week 15? Coach Pete Carroll instantly ruled out was effort, noting his team is putting in all of the work necessary. The same is true for the game plans being built throughout the week, as Neal proclaimed the unit was "not one bit" surprised by anything the Panthers did.
Instead, the root cause is much deeper - and perhaps more difficult to fix.
"Our guys are trying," Carroll began. "They're working hard to get it done. We went through all of the process during the week to line it up, so we knew what they were doing. We were not fooled by anything today. We were on it. But you have to play the line of scrimmage and get off the blocks and play together. Everybody has to fit together. It's always about those fits. It wasn't good enough. It was just plain old wasn't good enough."
Neal, who was Seattle's second-leading tackler against Carolina with 11, reiterated Carroll's message, adding that the biggest issues center around scheme and tackling, with some coming from his teammates' lack of physicality in run support.
“It seems to be a combination of all of it, and that’s never a good thing," Neal said, bluntly. "Things just keep popping out in places where they shouldn’t be popping out. Guys got to make the hits. Guys got to get the ball carrier on the ground and when it comes to the back end of the season, it turns into, ‘All right, we’re going to out physical you, and if you’re not going to stop it, we’re just going to keep doing that.'
"You see it across the league with teams that keep pounding the football, guys turning stuff down, or missed hits are happening because it’s late in the season."
Another key concern is that Carolina wasn't exactly spicing up their runs; it was just 46 punches right into the heart of Seattle's defense - and the unit simply failed "take a stand," per safety Quandre Diggs.
"They ran the same play over and over and over," said Diggs. "At some point, you have to take a stand and know that, ‘I’m going to take my shot here.’ That’s what it has to be. Like I said, it’s tough to see. It’s not that guys don’t want to, we just have to do it consistently.”
The consistency aspect, particularly when fitting the run, has been a common point of discussion from Carroll ... and he's not alone. Veteran outside linebacker Bruce Irvin, who was a part of several strong defenses during his previous stint in Seattle, blended bits and pieces of both Diggs and Neal's response, reaching the overall conclusion that the team could be in for a long closing stretch unless its run defense improves.
“Guys have to make tackles," Irvin asserted. "When we fit it right, guys aren’t making the tackles, and when we don’t fit it right, the ball gets through. It’s a combination of missed fits and guys not making tackles. Until we get this figured out, we are going to have four weeks of guys pounding the ball on us.”
Now two games back in the race for the NFC West crown, the Seahawks will welcome the division-leading San Francisco 49ers and their ninth-ranked rushing attack into town for a Thursday Night Football showdown.
And while on paper, the quick turnaround isn't what Seattle needs as it searches for improvements, the contest provides a direct opportunity to make a statement ... or succumb to the same flaws that have the team time and again of late.
"At the end of the day, we have to fix this, and we’ve got to bring it," Neal said. "We know that, and everybody knows that. We got a team coming in here Thursday who likes to play like that, and we know that, so it’s got to get fixed. Point blank, period.”
Seattle's defense, with help from Neal, Diggs and Irvin, will look to slow San Francisco's running attack - featuring Christian McCaffrey and more - starting at 5:15 Thursday night inside Lumen Field.
You can follow Daniel Flick on Twitter @DFlickDraft
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