Why’s Seattle Seahawks Defense Rising? Inside Devon Witherspoon Changes

While it would be premature to start conjuring up comparisons to the heralded Legion of Boom from a decade ago, after locking down the Bengals in a tight loss in Cincinnati, the secondary has reemerged as the backbone of an ascending Seattle Seahawks defense.

RENTON, Wash. - There's no such thing as a moral victory in the NFL and in the aftermath of a 17-13 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll expectedly lamented squandering multiple chances to steal a road win against a talented opponent.

But while Carroll understandably wasn't happy about Seattle falling to 3-2 after failing to score points on three different red zone trips in the second half on Sunday, optimism is ingrained in his DNA. After his resurgent defense held Joe Burrow. Ja'Marr Chase, and a potent Cincinnati attack to 214 net yards in a dominant effort, it wasn't hard for him to find positives thanks to a rapidly improving unit rounding into top-five form.

"Seeing the defense play such a solid football game against such a good offense and a good group of receivers, the QB, the play caller and the whole thing, to see us play against that style we have a lot of respect for and play so well and we got better as the game went on. Those are really good characteristics," Carroll told reporters on Monday. "Unfortunately, we didn’t win the game."

Out of the gate, things didn't quite go as planned defensively for the Seahawks. With Burrow firing darts from the pocket, the Bengals offensive line doing a quality job picking up blitzes, and a trio of penalties helping extend possessions, the home team drove 65 and 73 yards on back-to-back touchdown drives to begin the game, giving them a 14-7 advantage early in the second quarter.

After rookie receiver Andrei Iosivas caught a three-yard touchdown to give Cincinnati its first lead, however, defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt went back to the drawing board to make schematic adjustments and pushed the right buttons. Pivoting away from blitzing defensive backs off the edge, he started to attack a susceptible interior offensive line sprinkling in pressure looks from the middle with linebackers Bobby Wagner and Jordyn Brooks shooting A gaps.

Though Wagner and Brooks didn't generate any quarterback hits or pressures off their blitz attempts, the adaptations proved fruitful for Hurtt's defense as the front line started to collapse the pocket and rattle Burrow late in the first half. Increasing pressure turned into sack production coming out of halftime with Dre'Mont Jones, Jarran Reed, and Boye Mafe all bringing the quarterback down for big losses.

But ultimately, while the Seahawks found a rhythm harassing Burrow in the second half, Carroll was most impressed by the performance of his talented secondary, which finally is close to full strength. After yielding a few explosive pass plays on the first two drives, they went into lockdown mode, limiting Burrow to a mere 42 passing yards and bottling up Chase with one reception for 13 yards on five targets in the final two quarters.

Rebounding from two tough drives, the Seahawks held the Bengals high-octane passing game to under 50 yards in the second half, showcasing their immense potential in the process / © Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports

In the slot, cornerback Devon Witherspoon continued to stake his claim to Defensive Rookie of the Year consideration, producing a pair of pass breakups and allowing only one reception for three yards when targeted in coverage against Chase. When Burrow tried to get the ball to his star receiver early in the third quarter on a vertical route, Tre Brown did a phenomenal job playing the ball along the sideline and reeled in his second interception of the season.

Late in the fourth quarter, "Big Play Tre" lived up to his nickname again, this time swiping upward to punch the ball out of Tee Higgins' hands on a crucial third down for an incompletion. Stopping the clock without a timeout and forcing Cincinnati to punt, Seattle got the ball back one last time to try to pull of the comeback, but unfortunately couldn't capitalize on the opportunity in the closing seconds.

“They were up for the challenge, they went about it with a really good mentality across the board, everybody played well, everybody contributed," Carroll remarked. "We matched up fine, we were able to hold those guys down and hold them under a couple hundred yards passing. That’s pretty unusual that you could do that. We tackled them well, we held on to the deep ball stuff that they threw at us and we did a nice job in a lot of areas. I thought everyone contributed, I think they were well aware of the challenge they were up against, and they met it with a good performance.”

Away from the stellar efforts from Brown and Witherspoon, Hurtt also had his full complement of safeties in Quandre Diggs, Jamal Adams, and Julian Love at his disposal, masterfully mixing and matching the versatile trio at multiple positions and alignments to lead the charge.

With Love able to play free safety in a pinch as well as lining up in the slot or in the box, Diggs logged nine combined snaps either in the box or in the slot and showed off his underrated physicality, dishing frequent punishment to ball carriers while racking up a team-high eight tackles and only allowing one catch in coverage. Though he played less than 50 percent of the defensive snaps, Love contributed three tackles and allowed one catch for 11 yards.

Jamal Adams flying downhill to make tackles remains appointment viewing. Nice to see him moving well coming off a significant injury and he's clearly having a blast being back on the field. pic.twitter.com/ExBcgZVu1J

— Corbin K. Smith (@CorbinSmithNFL) October 17, 2023

Most notably, in his first full game back from a torn quad tendon, Adams looked like his former All-Pro self rocketing all over the field to make plays. Playing 85 percent of the defensive snaps and seeing at least 10 snaps in the box, at free safety, and in the slot, he played a key role in limiting the Bengals to just 3.1 yards per carry on the day and also came through with two critical third down stops.

Though he wasn't initially blitzing on the third down play late in the second quarter, after Burrow rolled out to his right to escape the pocket, Adams chased down the quarterback towards the sideline and delivered a hit on him as he threw. With the throw rushed, the completion went well short of the sticks, forcing Cincinnati to punt.

Then in the fourth quarter, with the Seahawks trailing by four inside eight minutes to play, Adams flew out of his zone drop to smack running back Trayveon Williams after he caught a swing route for a two-yard tackle for loss on 3rd and 12, leading to one of the Bengals six punts in their final nine offensive possessions. After his 2023 debut was limited to just nine plays because of a concussion, Carroll couldn't have been more thrilled for the veteran to play a full game and return to his playmaking ways.

“I think it meant a lot and I made a point about it in team meetings today just to kind of congratulate him because he’s been waiting to get back into action," Carroll said of Adams. "Two weeks in a row he’s playing, but this full game and comes out in good shape and all that, that’s an accomplishment. We recognized it and we’re really excited for him and for us because he played well. We moved him around quite a bit and he handled all of that well, now we’re getting going and we’ll start building on it.”

For those who view glasses half empty, Seattle still ranks 17th in the NFL in passing defense and 30th in third down conversion rate, two categories used to evaluate secondary play. Following Sunday's game, the team has also given up 21 explosive pass plays, the sixth-most in the NFL through Week 6, while only producing four interceptions thus far.

But now that Witherspoon has arrived as one of the league's most exciting young phenoms across from Riq Woolen and Adams has rebounded from a severe injury to bring his unique set of skills to the equation next to Diggs and Love, there's no question the Seahawks have one of the most talented secondary groups in the NFL and the results have started to show on the field. After giving up 328 passing yards and allowing 5.6 explosive pass plays per game in the first three weeks, they have cut those numbers in half to 152 passing yards and two explosive plays per game since.

Considering Adams has only been back for a couple weeks and the secondary as constructed just played their first full game together, Carroll anticipates the group only getting better as they develop on-field chemistry and the coaching staff continues to tweak how to get the most out of their players. After a statement performance thwarting the Bengals passing attack, while they may not yet be the Legion of Boom, he's eager to see what the Seahawks can accomplish once the ball truly gets rolling with the defensive backfield playing a starring role.

"We had so many ways to win the football game. We had so many ways to score and opportunities that got squandered. [But] there were a lot of positives moving forward. I wasn’t thinking positive thoughts in my head, I was just pleased that we made it so hard on them because we played so tough.”