Seahawks' Run Defense Regression: Legitimate Concern Or Blip On Map?

By the time the dust settled in the second-worst loss in the Carroll era, the Seahawks had surrendered 298 yards on the ground, equaling 40 percent of their combined total allowed in the first seven games, along with three touchdowns. Taking the blame for his contributions to the poor performance, a frustrated Reed said the team must learn from their self-inflicted mistakes and flush this debacle down the drain.

“We had a lot of missed tackles. I had like one myself, you know, I think just stuff like that is why we beat ourselves," Reed remarked. "Fitting into gaps the right way, staying in the backside of the play, and staying in the front side of plays. Things you know we can’t do to beat ourselves, we’ve got to hone in on that. We will look at the film and we will be very critical of ourselves, and you know, we will sit on this for 24 hours and we move on to the next one.”

While Reed, Carroll, and others have the right mindset to review the film and quickly forget about Sunday's laugher, the beatdown in Baltimore continued a troubling trend over the past three games for Seattle. Since Week 7, the team has yielded at least 127 rushing yards in each game with the Cardinals, Browns, and Ravens establishing new season-highs for yards allowed in three consecutive weeks.

During that span, which coincided with the loss of starting outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu to a season-ending pectoral injury, the Seahawks have let opposing offenses rush for 193 yards per game, 5.5 yards per carry, and five touchdowns on the ground. Most concerningly, after giving up only eight runs of 10 or more yards in the first five games, Carroll's defense has given up 12 such runs in the past 12 quarters of play, functioning like a sieve.

For optimists who like to view problems with a glass half full approach, as pointed out by linebacker Bobby Wagner after the game on Sunday, the Seahawks have faced two of the best running teams in the Browns and Ravens over the past two weeks. They also had to deal with Jackson, arguably the most dangerous running threat at the quarterback position in NFL history, further complicating efforts executing run fits and gap responsibilities.

“We have to learn from it and move on from this game. Watch the film. We hold ourselves accountable," Wagner said.

Though the results weren't acceptable, Wagner sees a growing opportunity with hopes the Seahawks can right the ship and round back into a top-five run defense moving forward. It would certainly help if the defense wasn't on the field for over 40 minutes as they were on Sunday too, with plenty of pressure on Geno Smith and the offense to step up their game after going AWOL in Baltimore.

At the same time, however, the reality is that it has been a month since Seattle held an opponent under 100 rushing yards and with each passing week, teams continue to achieve greater and greater success employing a ground-heavy assault against Carroll's defense. Even with Leonard Williams coming to town at the trade deadline, Nwosu's absence looms large with coordinators scheming to take advantage of soft edge play without him in the lineup.

While it isn't time to hit the panic button just yet and the Seahawks remain tied for first place even after getting smacked around by the Ravens, from scheme to personnel usage, significant adjustments must be made to get back on track stopping the run. With a grueling schedule featuring games against the 49ers, Cowboys, and Eagles coming soon, if things don't improve in quick order, NFC West title aspirations could vanish in a flash.