Here’s one thing Seahawks’ Dark Side defense regrets this season
SEATTLE – It says something about the collective demeanor of who the Seattle Seahawks were as a defense this season that there was a twinge of disappointment after winning the Super Bowl.
They really wanted to make history as the first team to pitch a shutout in the championship game.
“We think about it. I think we were a little upset that they scored at all in the Super Bowl to be honest. We were trying to make history and having the first goose egg in the Super Bowl,” defensive tackle Leonard Williams said. “We took them all the way to the fourth quarter which I think is still a great feat. Just the type of season we had as a defense, the type of season we had as a team and I think we capped it off the right way.”
Back in August, the Seahawks were a team filled with potential on the defensive side of the ball. They had the pieces to be pretty good, but it also came with some questions. What did Williams have left? Why was DeMarcus Lawrence signed to that contract coming off an injury and at his age? Who would play alongside Ernest Jones IV? Is there enough depth in the secondary?
They were valid questions that over the course of 20 games were answered emphatically by a defense that proved to be the best in the league and by the end of the year deservedly had their own nickname.
The Dark Side defense might morph and change in the future. It’s inevitable in the world of the NFL. But for at least one season, they were the best in the game and likely to be regarded as one of the best in this era of pro football.
“That’s honestly the saddest part about this thing, is that everybody’s not going to be able to be back, but we know what it takes to play football and play defense for a Seattle defense, so we’ll carry that on,” Jones said after the Super Bowl win over New England. “Man, it’s been rough. This didn’t start this year, it started last year. We couldn’t stop the run to save our lives early on, and then I came in and we were able to make some changes. I noticed then that we were getting better.
We were a team that, if you had let us in the playoffs last year, we were going to cause damage, too. But I knew coming into this year, we were special; we just had to go do it.”
And they did. During the regular season, the Seahawks led the NFL in scoring defense. They led the league in third-down defense. They led the league in yards per attempt rushing the ball. They were third in rushing yards allowed and sixth in turnovers.
Lawrence proved to be one of the best free-agent signings of last offseason by any team across football. Williams was a second-team All-Pro. Byron Murphy II developed into a young star at nose tackle. Drake Thomas went from journeyman to starter alongside Jones. And the secondary was so talented that despite Devon Witherspoon, Nick Emmanwori and Julian Love all missing time with injuries there was almost no falloff.
The Seahawks became just the seventh team since 2000 to lead the league in scoring defense in the regular season and then go on to win the Super Bowl. That list included the 2000 Ravens – perhaps the best defense in the modern era of the NFL – the 2002 Buccaneers, the 2003 Patriots, the 2008 Steelers, the Legion of Boom Seahawks in 2013 and the 2016 Patriots.
Even as the game has become more offensively based, there is still significant importance and value in being exceptional defensively.
“I will say this: My defense – I’ll match us up against anybody. I like us versus anyone and whoever,” Jones said. “Whatever offense you throw out there, whatever great offense you can put us there.”
This was not a group that had the same personalities that made the last Seahawks championship defense famous beyond the football field. Those players in 2013 knew they were good and made sure the rest of the world knew it as well.
The group a dozen years later was more understated. A few guys had personalities that were demonstrative or outgoing, but it was a group that for the most part didn’t need to say more than what their play on the field showed.
And the catalyst was a run defense that limited opponents to 91.9 yards per game rushing and just 3.7 yards per attempt. Both of those are ranked in the top half when compared against the previous 59 Super Bowl champions.
But that ability to stop the run also created long down-and-distance situations and made converting on third downs extremely difficult. While some data is missing for the early Super Bowl champions leaving the list incomplete, the Seahawks did have one of the best third-down defenses of all Super Bowl champs. The Seahawks allowed just 32.1% of third downs to be converted in the regular season, which is seventh-best of all Super Bowl champions since 1972.
Combine that formula – stop the run, force teams into long third downs – with the scheme of head coach Mike Macdonald and his defensive mind and you end up with a season like this one where the best defense in the NFL was again the last one standing at the end.
“I know it’s going to go down as one of the best defenses in football history so I’m grateful to be part of something like that,” defensive end Uchenna Nwosu said.