JOHN CLAYTON

Clayton: After most complete win, Seahawks are righting earlier wrongs

Dec 14, 2020, 2:44 PM

Seahawks WR David Moore...

The Seahawks had a lopsided 40-3 win over the New York Jets in Week 14. (Getty)

(Getty)

The Seahawks righted a lot of wrongs in Sunday’s 40-3 win over the New York Jets.

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Russell Wilson took what the Jets’ defense gave him. He threw more checkdowns. He got screen passes over to Chris Carson. The running game ran the ball more between the tackles than the previous week when they had too many outside runs. The offensive line did a good job protecting Wilson.

On defense, everything worked. The pass rush got three more sacks. Seattle now has 36 sacks for the season and there are three games left. They were able to get the sacks even though Carlos Dunlap missed the game with a lingering foot injury. Shaquill Griffin was great at cornerback. The Jets tried to test him on two deep routes and he responded with tight coverage and didn’t let the receiver catch the ball. D.J. Reed continues to do good things at cornerback and they should get Quinton Dunbar back next week.

The game became historic when Jamal Adams got the sack that gave him the NFL record for a defensive back of 8.5 in a season. Sure, it wasn’t a spectacular record-breaking play in the sense that he didn’t make a big hit. He chased Sam Darnold to the sideline and got him as he was stepping out of bounds for a 1-yard loss. He didn’t even know that it was a sack, but Pete Carroll and the officiating crew knew it. Adams came close early in the game getting pressure on Darnold and almost had more sacks. The only disappointment is he had a clear interception but he dropped it.

The biggest thing on defense is the Seahawks played a complete game for the first time this year. Despite the Jets being as bad as they are as a team, you could see things coming together the past few weeks. Getting Adams back was huge. Shaquill Griffin has played well in the last month. There is more production along the defensive line.

Overall, the Seahawks gave up only 185 yards and only 20 in the second half. After having the worst defensive starts in NFL history, the Seahawks’ defense is rising in the ranks. Last week they went from 32 to 31, and they are now 27th in yards allowed at 390.3 a game. They are ahead of Atlanta, Detroit, the Jets, Houston and Jacksonville, and are just 2.8 yards behind the Tennessee Titans.

What makes that interesting is the Titans spent over $22 million before the season to add Jadeveon Clowney and Vic Beasley. They were supposed to be mainstays for the pass rush. It didn’t happen. Beasley was released while Clowney is on injured reserve and getting knee surgery. They combined for zero sacks.

Here’s another weird stat: Adams is tied for eighth in the league with 8.5 sacks. He’s up there with the league’s best pass-rushing linebackers, defensive ends and tackles – and he missed four games.

In fact, the Titans have only 14 sacks for the season, averaging one per game. As mentioned, the Seahawks are at 36.

Early in the season, the Seahawks were giving up around 30 points a game. They are down to 24.9 after 14 weeks.

What the Seahawks need to do is not get too overconfident about their win over a winless team. They were pretty focused in the past week.

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Clayton: After most complete win, Seahawks are righting earlier wrongs