Seahawks Run Defense Needs Confidence Booster vs. Rams

A rough past few games have once again shaken the confidence of the Seattle Seahawks' run defense. The Los Angeles Rams could provide a bounce-back opportunity.

Sep 10, 2023; Seattle, Washington, USA; Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) hands the ball off to running back Kyren Williams (23) during the first half against the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field. / Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

The Seattle Seahawks have the fourth-worst run defense in the league entering Week 9. Luckily, for a team trying to sort out their woes in that area, they are arranged with an opponent who hasn’t been great running the football.

These kinds of matchups, regardless of the previous struggles with a certain area of the game, generally end with one unit continuing to underachieve while another gets on track. When the Los Angeles Rams come to town on Sunday, the Seahawks hope to be the team that turns it around.

Seattle has allowed 148.4 rushing yards per game this season, most recently allowing 164 yards to James Cook and the Buffalo Bills offense and topping out at 228 yards versus a decimated San Francisco 49ers running back room in Week 6.

On the other side, the Rams are averaging just over 100 yards rushing per game, clocking in at 26th in the league. Seattle’s last three opponents — the Bills, Falcons and Niners — are each in the top half of the league in rush yards per game.

Like Seattle, which is 29th in the league in rush yards per game (89.3), that doesn’t mean Los Angeles’ running back room isn’t talented. Kyren Williams is 12th in the NFL in rushing yards, piling up 533 on 139 carries in seven games. He’s been inefficient on a per-carry basis (3.8 yards per carry) but has eight touchdowns on the year — a testament to his goal-line threat.

Rookie Blake Corum (20 carries for 73 yards) hasn’t had much impact in the run game so far, but he’s still a talented back.

“Kyren [Williams] is going to run tough,” said linebacker Ernest Jones IV, who spent the first three seasons of his career with the Rams. “Kyren is going to be patient, Kyren is going to hit the hole and when he sees something, he’s going to hit it. I’ve never seen him back down from a challenge when I was there, so I think it’s going to be electric, it’s going to be fireworks. We meet each other in the hole and let’s see what happens.”

The Seahawks have had outlier games this season where the run defense has been good. In Week 1, Seattle held the Denver Broncos running backs to just 64 yards on 20 carries. Two weeks later, the Miami Dolphins rushers were limited to 59 yards on 18 carries.

“We showed that we could stop the run. We showed that we can stand up in the red zone. We showed that we can pass rush when it’s third down,” defensive lineman Leonard Williams said on Thursday. “To me, it’s all about just making it consistent, and I think that comes with just the mindset.”

Williams said their gap discipline has been the team’s biggest issue during games where they’ve been gashed consistently. Much of that boils down to communication, Williams added, but it’s also a result of the players trying to do teammates’ jobs when the game gets out of hand.

That stems from the team's leaders trying to take over. Williams used himself and his responsibilities as an example: If he’s assigned to the B-gap, but consistently sees the opponent cutting back inside to the A-gap, he ends up trying to play two gaps at once. That lack of dedication to an assignment gets the defensive line out of position and allows the offensive line to command the point of attack.

“There’s a lot of competitors on this team,” Williams said. “There are guys who feel like they want to put it on their shoulders, which is respectable. Everyone’s a competitor, they want to feel like they can be the guy to make the play. But I think in times like that, we end up trying to do other people’s jobs, and that kind of affects the rest of the defense.”

Sep 8, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks defensive end Leonard Williams (99) and Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Byron Murphy II (91) tackle Denver Broncos running back Javonte Williams (33) for a loss during the fourth quarter at Lumen Field. / Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

Seattle has a golden opportunity to set the tone versus the Rams. The Seahawks’ run defense was flat from the jump against the Bills, even at home, so they will need to reverse that trend on Sunday.

“I think this defense does require a lot more communication than others who would just say this is the call, get in it,” Williams said. “We have like two or three calls in one that can change depending on what the offense is giving us. I think that requires a lot more discipline and communication amongst the players, especially in Lumen Field when it’s loud out there. We have to figure out nonverbal ways of communication.”

Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald has faith the run defense will get on track. They need to force offenses into passing situations so their once-effective pass rush can tee off on opposing quarterbacks. Seattle had a season-low 28.9 percent pressure rate versus the Bills, as Buffalo’s balanced offense kept them guessing.

Even though Matthew Stafford remains one of the league’s premier quarterbacks, and the Rams have thrived via their passing game, getting him in straight dropback situations would open up far more pass-rush opportunities. That can only happen by stopping the run early.

“Right now, we’re not executing at the highest level and I just feel really confident in our guys and having another week at the linebacker position with Ernest [Jones IV] in here, having a full week of preparation, being healthy upfront,” Macdonald said Wednesday. “We’re going to get it figured out, at some point, it’s going to start to click. It’s kind of like a puzzle and it all fits together.”

More Seahawks News

Seahawks, Rams Dealing With WR Uncertainty Entering Week 9 Matchup

Anthony Bradford Earned Seahawks RG Job With 'Better Execution'

By The Numbers: Seattle Seahawks vs. Los Angeles Rams