Bumpus: How Seahawks limited explosive plays vs Eagles

Dec 19, 2023, 2:59 PM

Julian Love of the Seattle Seahawks celebrates with teammates after an interception on Dec. 18, 2023. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

(Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

BY BRANDON GUSTAFSON

Seattle Sports

In the Seattle Seahawks’ last loss to the San Francisco 49ers, explosive plays were prevalent when the Hawks’ defense was on the field.

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The 49ers were able to find huge gains, especially in the passing game, for touchdowns and chunk yardage.

Facing a tough Philadelphia Eagles team on Monday, that wasn’t the case as Seattle did enough on both sides of the ball to come away with a 20-17 comeback win on Monday.

The defense after giving up two long touchdown drives early kept Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts in check, limiting him to just 143 passing yards on the day.

So how were the Seahawks able to prevent explosive plays on Monday? Michael Bumpus shared his takeaways during Tuesday’s Bump and Stacy on Seattle Sports.

“Man, you know what they were able to do? They were able to stay on top of things,” Bumpus said. “And staying on top means there’s no one getting behind you. And we saw that with those Julian Love picks.”

Love, a safety, was the star of the game for the Seahawks’ defense.

The veteran had two interceptions on the day, which were the only takeaways of the game for either team.

The first was when he defended a deep shot and wound up with the ball in the end zone.

The second was at the end of the game, a great snag along the sideline to seal the win for the Seahawks. That second one, Bumpus said, saw Love stay on top of Philly’s offense, and that was something the Seahawks did well all game long.

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— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) December 19, 2023

“There wasn’t a time where we saw somebody running down the field with their hand up (signaling that they’re open),” the former NFL receiver said. “When you played against the San Francisco 49ers, we saw a lot of that. So they contained the big plays.”

To put into perspective how the Seahawks did in terms of limiting explosive plays, Bumpus pointed to a stat from last week’s loss compared to this week’s win.

“The Eagles on their 10 biggest plays, they had 144 (total) yards,” he said. “Now, last week when you playing against the Niners, those 10 biggest plays (went for) 365 yards. Different personnel, obviously. The Niners are a bit better in that category.”

That 144-yard mark for the Eagles is made even more impressive when you consider that the Seahawks, who struggled to move the ball on Monday, totaled 182 yards on their 10 biggest plays.

“So they were able to stay on top on defense,” Bumpus said. “The Philly offense did run for like a 170 (yards). That was their MO and that’s how they move the ball. But you’re not going to get (40-plus yard) gains when you run the football like that. Passing the football is where you get consistency in those huge gains. I love the way they stayed on top. They did not allow guys to get behind them and limited the big plays.”

Listen to the full second hour of Tuesday’s Bump and Stacy at this link or in the player near the top of this story.