Seahawks’ success with 3 safeties + Devon Witherspoon at nickel suggests a new norm
This latest Seahawks win? It tells more about their future than than it did about this single Sunday in October.
More than in any of its first five games before it, Seattle’s 20-10 victory over the Arizona Cardinals showed a scheme coach Pete Carroll and defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt have been waiting to use: three safeties and Devon Witherspoon at nickel defensive back.
Judging by the results Sunday, they are likely to use it as almost a base scheme going forward: Jamal Adams and Witherspoon among as many as six defensive backs, with Bobby Wagner as the only off-ball linebacker on the field.
Seattle struggled against the Rams and Lions to begin the season with Witherspoon hurt one of those games, Adams out for both and Coby Bryant the nickel.
Since Adams made his season debut from a torn quadriceps tendon and Witherspoon became the nickel, the Seahawks’ defense has allowed three, 17 and 10 points with fewer than 250 yards in each of its last three games.
“Early on, we were re still meshing, learning how to grow. And now, we’re vibing,” safety Julian Love said. “We know where each other is going to be.
“So we have to keep stacking.”
Carroll and Hurtt began the Cardinals game with Adams, Pro Bowl veteran Quandre Diggs and Love on the field together. They played together in three safeties for 91% of defensive snaps. That’s far more than they had been together the previous game at Cincinnati Oct. 15. Love played a season-low 24 snaps in Seattle’s 17-13 loss at the Bengals, the Seahawks’ only defeat in the last five games.
Love had been an every-down player for Adams. Then Adams made his season debut Oct. 2 at the New York Giants.
Seattle using 3 safeties
Against Arizona, the three safeties stayed on the field for most third downs. That’s when Witherspoon, the fifth pick in this year’s draft, again moved from starting left cornerback inside to nickel, slot cornerback. Tre Brown was the left cornerback in nickel, opposite right cornerback Riq Woolen.
Witherspoon also played all 66 defensive snaps.
That scheme of nickel with three safeties had Wagner as the only cover linebacker. Outside linebackers Uchenna Nwosu (until he sustained a pectoral injury), Boye Mafe and Darrell Taylor stayed in their roles as primary edge rushers on the line.
Nickel with three safeties took linebacker Jordyn Brooks off the field 30% of the time. That was his lowest share of snaps since the opening game, his first game back from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in January.
The result: The Seahawks only touchdown allowed was Arizona quarterback Joshua Dobbs’ 25-yard touchdown run on a bad pinch too far inside by Taylor, missed tackles by Woolen and Brooks and an overrun by Diggs. That was one play after Witherspoon had an interception in the end zone negated by a dubious rougher-the-passer penalty on Mafe for his hand coming down and touching the face mask and shoulder pad of Dobbs after the throw.
Otherwise, it was business as is becoming usual for Seattle’s surging defense that was among the NFL’s worst last season.
“I feel really good,” Wagner said. “I feel like, obviously, there were some plays that we could have executed better. But overall to hold a team to 10 points and under 250 yards, we’re moving in the right direction.”
The Seahawks continue to shut down opponents’ rushing attacks and limit big plays while improving on third downs. Seattle’s last two opponents have gone 8 for 36 trying to convert third downs (30..8%). The Seahawks defense was allowing a conversion rate of 61% through the first two games.
To Brooks, the difference in the defense against offenses lately is: “Dudes’ been gettin’ hit.”
The Dobbs’ touchdown run on what Carroll said was poor execution of a scheme was one of just four plays Sunday by Arizona that gained more than 15 yards. Cincinnati had just one play gain more than 11 yards against Seattle. The Giants had only two offensive plays of more than 12 yards against the Seahawks.
“We’ve been taking away the big plays,” Diggs said. “I think that’s been the biggest part. We are taking away big plays and you got to earn your big plays. Any time you do that to take away the big plays and try to make teams one-dimensional.
“You make teams one dimensional and you win a lot of football games.”
Jordyn Brooks’ new role
Brooks came into the locker room at halftime Sunday. He wasn’t happy.
The team’s signal caller on defense last year when Wagner spent a year away with the Rams, Brooks had played 94% of snaps last season and 77% entering Sunday. Seattle’s first-round pick in 2020 has been remarkable in his return from the torn ACL.
He didn’t grind and attack his rehabilitation all winter, spring and summer with Adams in suburban Dallas to come off the field as much as he did in the first half Sunday against the Cardinals.
“He was a little down at halftime,” Adams said. “Obviously, he wasn’t playing his game, his brand of football. Everybody was keeping him positive, keeping him happy. hat’s what we do.”
“I went up to him and just reminded him of the past of all the sacrifices him and I had to go through. Just out there grinding 24 hours just to get our knee back to normal somewhat and just all the sacrifice we had to put in. I just reminded him from things of the past that we went through.
“He got his mind right. He came out there, he was flying, hitting everybody.”
Brooks acknowledged, with something of a wry smile, that he wasn’t thrilled with how he was being used in the first half Sunday.
“It’s the worst thing in the world,” he said after the game. “It definitely motivated me today.
“In the first half I kept coming in and coming out, coming in and coming out. I wanted to make up for that.
“And I think I did that.”
He did.
He had seven of his nine tackles, a shared sack with Taylor, both his tackles for losses and his pass defensed all after halftime.
The Cardinals had zero points and 88 total yards in the second half. Game over.
Brooks’ best play of Sunday — and perhaps the season — came in the third quarter after the Seahawks had increased their lead to 17-10 on a field goal by Jason Myers. On third and 2, Brooks was aligned to the left side of the defense, to Wagner’s left in his usual spot as the weakside linebacker.
Dobbs took off running to the other side of the field on a bootleg left, into open turf for the first down. Brooks sprinted across the field to the opposite yard-line numbers. He stopped suddenly on that reconstructed knee when Dobbs tried to cut inside him. Brooks dumped Dobbs short of the line to gain.
“I was on the backside,” Brooks said. “I dropped into coverage and I was like, ‘Forget that’ and took off (after Dobbs).
“Like I’ve been telling you guys, I’ve been feeling good, post-injury. So, I showed that.”
This may be Brooks’ new role continuing Sunday when the Cleveland Browns (4-2) come to Lumen Field and then Nov. 5 when the Seahawks go to Baltimore to play the Ravens (5-2). Off the field in long yardage when Seattle goes nickel with three safeties. On it for shorter third downs when its three safeties with base defense.
That’s what the Seahawks’ win over Arizona suggested.
“Where the consistency showed up was with our defense. They did a fantastic job again today,” Carroll said.
“To answer the bell — we had three horrible turnovers in this game. It’s so hard to win it, minus-3 in a game. So the game stays close because of that, but the defensive guys did a great job going out answering the bell. I think they got three points out of the three turnovers. That’s huge.
“It’s a big source of pride to us that we do that well.”
This story was originally published October 23, 2023 at 5:45 AM with the headline "Seahawks’ success with 3 safeties + Devon Witherspoon at nickel suggests a new norm."
