Seahawks Secondary Snake-Bit By 'Self Inflicted' Wounds in Loss to Rams

Dogged by missed tackles and communication woes, the Seattle Seahawks' secondary didn't live up to expectations with a sloppy outing against Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams in Sunday's opener and a rebound will be crucial to get back on track in Week 2 and beyond.

RENTON, Wash. - On an afternoon where nothing seemed to go as planned, nobody was exempt from criticism after the Seattle Seahawks coughed up a halftime lead and allowed 23 unanswered points in a disappointing 30-13 season-opening defeat to the Los Angeles Rams at Lumen Field.

While missing a pair of key players in safety Jamal Adams and rookie cornerback Devon Witherspoon, who both are working back from injuries, this included a talented secondary that entered Sunday's opener with as high of expectations as any positional unit on the roster. Even without the two injured projected starters, the team had free agent signee Julian Love and the combination of Tre Brown and Mike Jackson ready to step into the lineup without a hitch.

Unfortunately, Matthew Stafford, coach Sean McVay, and the Rams didn't get the memo, taking to the skies early and often to ambush the Seahawks defense to the tune of 326 passing yards. As coach Pete Carroll divulged after the game, the inability to put any pressure on the veteran quarterback played a pivotal role in the struggles slowing down the opposition and there was plenty of blame to go around.

"We’re disappointed that we didn’t get more activity from the guys on the edge," Carroll told reporters on Monday. "We got to get where we cause problems, we have to create the problems with our calls as well. We did a lot of different things in the rush, different types of pressures but we need to do more probably to get it going."

But at the end of the day, Seattle's ballyhooed secondary as a whole didn't step up to the plate with a quality performance either, as cornerbacks and safeties alike frequently whiffed on tackles, botched coverage assignments with poor communication on the back end, and committed penalties at untimely moments, contributing to an ugly second half collapse rarely seen in the Carroll era.

From the outset, Stafford diced up the Seahawks soft zone coverages attacking the middle and McVay put Riq Woolen, Brown, Jackson, Coby Bryant, and Artie Burns in a consistent bind defending against trips bunch formations all afternoon. Receivers such as Puka Nacua and Tutu Atwell as well as tight end Tyler Higbee had no issue getting open and creating separation, allowing the Rams to convert on a ridiculous 11 out of 17 third down opportunities, including nine out of their first 12.

With Seattle holding a 13-7 advantage to begin the second half, Stafford took advantage of a coverage bust when Brown and Love collided with one another in man coverage after the snap. Lacking the communication necessary to execute their coverage rules against a trips bunch set, Atwell exploded past them on a corner route and left Brown trailing in the dust for a 44-yard gain. Moments later, the Rams punched it in to retake the lead and never looked back.

The #Seahawks had a ton of trouble with coverage communication against the Rams' trips bunch sets.

As Pete Carroll noted, "self inflicted" wound here with Tre Brown and Julian Love bumping into each other, allowing speedy Tutu Atwell to get open for 44-yard gain.

Can't happen. pic.twitter.com/F29hZgaYeR

— Corbin K. Smith (@CorbinSmithNFL) September 12, 2023

Brown, who endured a difficult day at the office starting at left cornerback with a bad missed tackle on the Rams opening touchdown drive as well as a deflating hands to the face penalty that negated a third down stop in the third quarter, will have to show he can learn from the miscues after being limited to just six games a year ago recovering from a severe knee injury.

“He had a couple of plays that he’d like to get back," Carroll said of Brown's play. "He missed a tackle in a critical situation. It was not a difficult play, he just got into an awkward situation. He got bumped on the big man-to-man corner route that they caught. He bumped into our guy. That’s self-inflicted. We need to work together so that doesn’t happen. But other than that, he was battling.”

Of course, Brown was far from the only Seattle defensive back who made mistakes as Stafford, Nacua, and company torched the secondary. Making his first start with the team after signing a two-year deal in March, Love allowed Higbee to beat him for a 30-yard reception down the left sideline on the drive after Brown gave up his explosive to Atwell, setting up a Brett Maher field goal to extend Los Angeles' advantage to 17-13.

While Love did register a clutch pass breakup in the end zone in the fourth quarter, the Rams ended up scoring a touchdown on the very next play to push their lead to 11 points. For the game, he allowed four receptions for 63 yards on six targets and also missed a pair of tackles, but Carroll came to his defense considering all of the different hats he has to wear in Seattle's scheme and saw plenty of positives in his play during his weekly film rewatch.

Still adjusting to working alongside fellow safety Quandre Diggs, Carroll likes where their communication is at and while both players made mistakes on Sunday, including Diggs lucking out when Van Jefferson dropped a potential touchdown on a deep ball, he's confident they will get better as they gain experience and develop chemistry playing together.

“Julian has a lot of different situations that happen the way we’re playing him, so he has a lot of things that he has to do in coverage," Carroll explained. "He had tight ends, he had receivers, he had the back, he had a little bit of everything. He has to do all of that. He has a little bit more than Q-Diggs [Quandre Diggs]. Those guys are working it out and talking through it and making all of the decisions. I thought Julian did a nice job but they did get him on a play, on a really well executed tight end play. The quarterback threw a great ball too."

If there was a bright spot in Seattle's secondary play, though the second-year cornerback did allow seven receptions on 10 targets in coverage according to Pro Football Focus and had a bad missed tackle on the opening scoring drive, Carroll enjoyed what he saw from Bryant, who played most of his snaps in the slot while also seeing some action as a third safety in different packages.

Coby Bryant finished tied for second on the Seahawks in quarterback pressures on Sunday despite only blitzing five times, proving to be a bright spot on an otherwise rough defensive afternoon vs. the Rams

With nobody else generating heat on Stafford, Bryant successfully forced two incompletions on slot corner blitzes in the first half, producing a 40 percent pressure rate on five blitz attempts for the game. He also contributed nine tackles, including a pair of run stops netting two or fewer yards, showcasing physicality and toughness when asked to play in the box or off the edge in sub packages.

“Coby was pretty solid," Carroll remarked. "Did an okay job in all of his fits. He had a lot of things that he did that were different in this game, playing two different positions. He did a nice job in general. Coby has really taken a step forward... He feels more confident, more aggressive, which is a natural thing. He has benefitted from that. He’s a good ball player and makes a lot of things happen.”

As poorly as the Seahawks played on defense as a whole, the mistakes made by the secondary thankfully are correctable. Players and coaches will surely be prioritizing cleaning up communication problems in coverage to avoid plays such as the one where Brown and Love ran into each other to spring Atwell free for an explosive gain. Tackling also tends to improve as the season progresses after teams rarely practice the skill during training camp with the goal of self preservation.

Most importantly, help should be on the way soon for Seattle. After sitting out the season opener with a hamstring injury, Carroll indicated Witherspoon will be practicing in full this week with hopes of getting the talented rookie back onto the field to make his NFL debut against Detroit on Sunday. As for where the fifth overall pick will play, he spent most of his time in training camp in the slot, but after seeing Brown struggle, the team may put him opposite of Woolen on the boundary.

Assuming he's healthy and better prepared to play after missing the entire preseason, Witherspoon gives Carroll and his staff a ton of positional flexibility along with the physical demeanor and plus ball skills to immediately be a difference maker.

“That’s the way we’re approaching it. We’ll see if that works out, we have to get through the days. He’s anxious to go," Carroll said. "He practiced really hard last week. If you watched him, you would’ve thought he could play, we wanted to make sure we got through another week of preparation, so that’s where we are.”

Additionally, while he likely will miss at least one more game as the team slowly progresses him back into action, Carroll confirmed Adams would begin practicing this week after participating in walkthroughs last week. After struggling to get after Stafford, his return would pay dividends as a blitzing weapon while also further fortifying the team's run defense and coverage against tight ends.

With Witherspoon and Adams close to coming back, the Seahawks should be at full strength in the next few weeks, leaving no room for excuses. Even with all of the new pieces in place such as Love and players like Bryant playing multiple positions, there's far too much talent at cornerback and safety for the unit to play as poorly as it did against the Rams on Sunday.

After investing an immense amount of cap space and draft picks at both positions over the past few years, the group needs to play to expectations and step up as a catalyst for defensive improvements to give the Seahawks a chance to bounce back from a disheartening performance in Week 1.