Hawks Defense Finally Put Clamps On Jaguars Seattle Coaches Chewed Ears And Kicked Some Rears At Halftime

Burned all season by mistakes, missed tackles and mental breakdowns, the Seahawks defense imploded in the first half of Sunday’s 47-30 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The nasty curse words spoken in the locker room at the half weren’t audible to the Jacksonville Stadium family section, where swearing is prohibited.

Coach Dennis Erickson labeled the Seahawks’ first-half defensive performance as ridiculous. They allowed 134 rushing yards to an offense whose leading rusher is a quarterback (Mark Brunell). The Jags scored 27 points, almost a point a minute. Seahawk defenders were called for five penalties that accounted for 73 yards, including two interference calls against cornerback Corey Harris for 62 yards.

“You mean, how many chairs were thrown?” free safety Eugene Robinson said of the 12-minute tirade.

“We were real upset. We had a couple of penalties that put that team in the ball game. Instead of leading 14-3, we were tied. They only had one legitimate drive in the first half. As defensive players, we were peeved.”

“Peeved” is mild compared to what the defensive coaches were.

Middle linebacker Dean Wells said it was the first time he ever saw linebacker coach Mike Murphy upset. Murphy said he was calm compared to defensive coordinator Greg McMackin, who verbally lit into the defense.

“It was like we came out in the first half worried about what the refs were doing,” defensive end Antonio Edwards said. “Everybody was chipping in at halftime. The coaches said to pick our heads up.”

McMackin also stressed to the defenders to go back to fundamentals. In the first half, the Seahawks alternated between linebackers and defensive backs “spying” on quarterback Brunell, who burned them for 60 first-half rushing yards.

In the second half, the “spies” followed their man. With less time to run, Brunell made mistakes. He fired a low pass that Harris intercepted three plays into the second half. The Seahawks held the Jaguars to one first down and 32 yards in the third quarter.

The big thing was that McMackin didn’t make any dramatic changes in the game plan.

“In the first half, we weren’t making plays,” McMackin said. “We had some penalties. When things get tough, I really believe in going back to basic, fundamental stuff.”

Ironically, the Jaguar total of 266 yards of offense - only 73 in the second half - was the lowest of the season. Defenders forced two turnovers and defensive tackle Sam Adams tackled Brunell for a safety.

“We just stopped them,” Robinson said.

“We started playing much more cohesively. Once we did that, stuff was not happening.”

And the coaches stopped yelling, too.