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Seattle Seahawks safety guard Jamal Adams said after Sunday’s victory over the Los Angeles Rams that he believes they have the best NFL defense.
Such a comment would have been unfathomable and evidently absurd for the team in the middle of the season, after a 44-34 loss to Buffalo Bills. And while for the season as a whole, the Seahawks have no chance of coming out of the bottom position of the defensive ranking statistically, they completely changed their defense performance in the second half of the year.
In the seven games since the defeat in Buffalo, Seahawks Defense is allowing the best 15 league points per game. His 24 bags over that period are tied in the league with the Rams and Arizona Cardinals. They are also third in yards per game, and sixth in yards per game.
“We were so atypical, so disconnected and everything. That was like the last straw, ”said coach Pete Carroll on Monday. “We had to make sure that we adjusted, we discovered and adjusted and all that.”
Did they look bad after the Bills game? The 44 points awarded to Bills were the highest in the Pete Carroll era in Seattle. The Seahawks were allowing 362.1 passing yards per game and at a pace to allow 5,794 passing yards throughout the season. No team in NFL history has allowed more passing yards than the 4,796 yards provided by the 2011 Green Bay Packers. This year’s Seattle team was on track to break that milestone by almost 1,000 meters.
“There were times during the season here when everyone had enough statistics to go ahead and surprise us as if we were worthless in defense,” said Carroll after Sunday’s victory. “This defense is good and they showed it, and they declared it and this is the type of defense we played in previous years, when we were really a good team at the end of the stretch.
Over the seven games since losing to Buffalo, the Seahawks are only allowing 203 yards per game and are no longer at record pace. Carlos Dunlap’s mid-season acquisition of Cincinnati Bengals, a return to health for Jamal Adams, Shaquill Griffin and others, and the time to enter the same page with a series of changeable parts finally allowed the unit to come together.
The schedule also softened to the point of a series of games against the Philadelphia Eagles, the New York Giants, the New York Jets and the Washington Football Team also influenced. That is why Sunday’s performance against Rams – the team that beat them five of the last six times they have faced – was a benchmark match for the unit.
“We found out and the guys are just being responsible,” said linebacker KJ Wright. “We are communicating like no other. just to hear the boys’ voices, each piece is truly special. The defense wins championships. We know that going down the straight is going to be some tough battles. Playoff time is coming and the defense always wins championships. “
The Seahawks may still end up as the league’s worst pass defense statistically. They are still last in the league, just behind the Atlanta Falcons. But they are no longer playing as that type of defense. The turnaround on that side of the ball may be the biggest reason the Seahawks will be a difficult team to dispatch in the playoffs.