If the Seahawks are going to be a true contender this year, it will be because of their defense. For the most part this season, they’ve held up their end of the bargain.
But Week 5 against the Buccaneers was not their finest performance. They allowed over 400 yards and 38 points, ultimately losing 38-35. They needed a bounce-back game against the Jaguars.
And that’s exactly what they got.
Seattle held the Jags to just 12 points and a paltry 4.0 yards per play in a 20-12 win. The key was the constant pressure they were able to get on Trevor Lawrence. In fact, they sacked him 7 times and pressured him on 25 of his 50 dropbacks according to NFL Next Gen Stats.
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But it wasn’t just Seattle’s front-4 dominating in the trenches that led to the consistent pressure. The Seahawks’ coverage and use of disguise were also major contributors to Lawrence holding the ball, which enabled the pass rush to get to him.
Seattle consistently mixed in 2-shell rotations to cover-3 Buzz, spun out into Tampa-2 from 1-shell looks, played Non-Traditional-Tampa’s, and mixed in a few other coverage looks that forced hesitation in Lawrence.
The disguises were effective enough that the Seahawks didn’t really miss the 3 regulars in their secondary who didn’t suit up for this one (Julian Love, Devon Witherspoon, and Riq Woolen).
This first example was a 3rd-and-8 from Jacksonville’s 14-yard line. Notice Seattle’s initial alignment. It looked like a relatively standard 2-shell coverage, perhaps with a blitz in front of it:
But at the snap, the boundary safety quickly dropped down to help double-team slot receiver Dyami Brown:
The Seahawks would play man across the board with the double on the slot and Josh Jobe matched up on Brian Thomas on the outside:
Lawrence looked to the slot first. It was taken away. Then he peaked outside where Jobe played Thomas’s release perfectly, squeezing him to the sideline. Lawrence had no time to look elsewhere and ended up taking a sack:
From the end zone angle, we can see that Seattle used a tilted front with 3 pass rushers to one side of the center:
The two edge rushers, Leonard Williams (#99) and Uchenna Nwosu (#7), squeezed the pocket, making sure to stay outside with their pass rushes and not get further upfield than Lawrence’s drop:
They also brought a stunt in the middle to create some chaos in front of the quarterback.
Knowing Lawrence might be forced to hold the ball as a result of the coverage disguise, Mike Macdonald did not want to give him any escape lanes and allow him to use his legs like he did the week before against the Chiefs. The combination of the edge rushers hemming Lawrence in and the stunt inside achieved that.
Then Leonard Williams fought through a chip and left tackle Walker Little to get the sack:
Great design and execution by the Seahawks there.
This next play, a 3rd-and-9 with a little over a minute remaining in the first half, proved to be an inflection point in the game. The Jaguars had the ball at Seattle’s 23-yard line and trailed 10-6.