With Seahawks' Defense Setting Historic Marks For Wrong Reasons - Again - Buck Stops With Pete Carroll

Breaking in a new defensive scheme with several rookies and newcomers playing prominent roles, the Seattle Seahawks could be forgiven for struggling through growing pains early on defense this season. But continued struggles should put Pete Carroll and his staff under the microscope.

When the vaunted "Legion of Boom" roamed in their secondary in the early-to-mid 2010s, the Seahawks made history on defense for the right reasons. In four consecutive seasons from 2012 to 2015, they led the NFL in points allowed, joining only the Browns teams from the 1950s to accomplish the feat.

But with legends such as Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, and Bobby Wagner either out of the league or playing in another uniform these days, Seattle has become accustomed to setting historic marks that teams want to avoid in recent seasons. In the aftermath of those iconic, star-studded defenses, the franchise has developed a troubling habit of sluggish starts characterized by allowing historic yardage totals and that trend has continued into a new campaign.

In 2020, through eight games, the Seahawks were nearly on pace to break the record for most total yardage allowed in a single season. Yielding nearly 2,900 passing yards at that point, they were poised to shatter the NFL record in that category. One year later, they became just the fourth team since the AFL/NFL merger to give up 450 or more yards in four straight games and were on pace - again - to topple the league record for yards allowed.

Fast forwarding to the present, with the team struggling to implement a new 3-4 scheme under coordinator Clint Hurtt, Seattle once again finds itself in peril on defense establishing unwanted milestones. In a demoralizing 39-32 loss to New Orleans on Sunday, the unit allowed reserve quarterback Taysom Hill and star running back Alvin Kamara to each eclipse 100 rushing yards, marking the first time in franchise history two opponents hit the century mark in the same game against them.

When asked on Monday about Seattle's propensity for slow starts defensively, Carroll couldn't put a finger on why his team has been so prone to such prolonged slumps.

"I don't know why it's like that," Carroll responded. "I have no idea why it would start slow. But we're dealing with it again and I know we're going to come out of it."

Thriving as a wildcat quarterback, Hill rushed for 113 yards and three touchdowns on only nine carries, including a game-winning 60-yard scamper midway through the fourth quarter. After preparing for his presence as a rushing threat all week, Carroll lamented the fact that Seattle's defense couldn't execute the game plan effectively to slow him down.

"All in all, really Taysom Hill had a great football game against us," Carroll said in his post-game press conference. "We did not stop him, and our plan for the Wildcat did not work. He ran for over 100 yards on the day. That was truly the difference for them, I thought, in a lot of crucial situations he came through in a big way for them. It wasn’t new. They had done it. The things we tried to do, we couldn’t get it done.”

A chronic thorn in the Seahawks' side over the years, the slippery, surprisingly powerful Kamara continued his dominance against Carroll's defense as well, producing 199 all-purpose yards. He broke loose on a perfectly-timed screen call in the third quarter, racing 54 yards with blockers out in front of him to set up a touchdown pass from Hill to tight end Adam Trautman.

Not wanting to delve into what went wrong too specifically in his press conference, Carroll indicated linebackers Jordyn Brooks and Cody Barton missed the opportunity to pick up the versatile back while blitzing and as he has done countless times in the past, Kamara made them pay.

“It was full blitz, and we didn’t see him cross," Carroll explained. "We had a chance to pick him up, but we missed him. We went after him. Both the ‘backers were going after him. I won’t tell you much more about it, but we missed the chance to pick him up. That is as easy as it gets for them on that play.”

These days, as evidenced by his body language on Monday when asked about the persistent early season struggles, Carroll has to be growing tired of trying to spell out why the Seahawks can't right the ship defensively. Week in and week out, regardless of opponent, the same issues keep cropping up with few tangible signs of improvement. Through the first five weeks, run fits have been an unmitigated disaster and tackling at all three levels has been abysmal, leading to more undesirable historic "achievements."

After letting Hill and Kamara run wild on Sunday, Seattle became only the ninth team in NFL history and first in nearly two decades to allow at least 145 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns in three consecutive games. What makes that statistical oddity more maddening? It isn't like Carroll's defense has been playing against offensive juggernauts during that span.

Back in Week 3, the Falcons carved up the Seahawks on the ground with receiver-turned-running back Cordarrelle Patterson rushing for over 100 yards and 10 yards per carry in the second half. Then in Week 4, with starter D'Andre Swift on the shelf with an ankle injury and star receivers Amon-Ra St. Brown and DJ Chark also sidelined, Lions backup Jamaal Williams torched them with a 51-yard touchdown and 108 total yards.

What's more damning? That same Detroit team that put up 45 points on Seattle's hapless defense without Swift, St. Brown, and Chark didn't score a single point against New England this weekend. New Orleans had been one of the worst teams in the NFL scoring in the first half through the first four games and put up 17 in the first two quarters on Sunday.

In fairness, not all of that can be pinned on the defense. Punter Michael Dickson inexplicably chose not to punt on a play that wasn't a designed fake and took off, only to get blasted by Curtis Granderson inside the Seahawks' 20-yard line. A few plays later, Hill was in the end zone with his second touchdown after the Saints were gifted short field. At the start of the third quarter, a fumble by DK Metcalf created a similar situation and the home team promptly took advantage with a touchdown pass from Andy Dalton to Chris Olave.

But even considering those unideal circumstances on two drives that put Seattle's defense against the wall, the unit still surrendered 440 yards of total offense to a wounded New Orleans team missing starting quarterback Jameis Winston and two of its best receivers in Michael Thomas and Jarvis Landry. When Hill checked in, everyone in the building knew what he was going to do and Carroll's defense still couldn't stop him.

Put on a blindfold and throw a dart at any notable traditional or advanced statistic and the Seahawks likely rank near the bottom of the NFL. They're 31st in scoring defense (30.8 points per game), 32nd in total yardage, 26th in passing defense, 32nd in rushing defense, 32nd in opponent scoring percentage, and dead last in three-and-outs as well as yards per play. Per RBSDM.com, they also rank last in EPA per dropback and 25th in EPA per rush.

While growing pains were expected with Seattle switching to a new scheme with a revamped coaching staff and a number of newcomers playing key roles, such newness can only be used as an excuse for so long. With the calendar drawing closer to Halloween, the group should be showing signs of improvement and yet, Sunday's loss demonstrated how far they are from becoming even a marginal NFL defense.

Still, though frustrated by the lack of progress, Carroll isn't deterred and believes a breakthrough is around the corner similar to the past two seasons.

"We've just gotta make our moves and get our best guys in the right spots doing the right things as soon as possible," Carroll stated. "We're working at it."

If there's a silver lining, the Seahawks did figure things out each of the past two seasons, showing rapid progress in the second half transforming into a top-10 defense in many aspects. In 2020, the pass rush came to life after trading for Carlos Dunlap. Last year, the secondary found its footing with D.J. Reed and Sidney Jones as the two starting cornerbacks, cutting down on explosive pass plays.

But by any measure, whether defending the run or the pass, numbers don't lie. Right now, this defense reeks like cheese that has been sitting out on the hot sidewalk for two weeks and doesn't feel anywhere close to a resurgence similar to the previous two defenses. With Jamal Adams out for the season and no big trades on the horizon to serve as a panacea and bolster their unit, such a dramatic turnaround seems unlikely.

While others need to be held accountable for the poor results thus far, including the players themselves, with Carroll celebrated as one of the NFL's best defensive minds and the one in charge with choosing his new coaching staff this spring, the buck stops with him. With minimal personnel changes likely to happen, the onus falls on his shoulders to find answers for the Seahawks' defensive woes before its too late.

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