Rost: Seahawks’ defense may have played its best game in years

I asked a simple question during the Seattle Seahawks’ Week 12 performance against the Arizona Cardinals: Is this the Seahawks’ best defensive game this season?

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The most popular answer?

“It’s their best in years.”

Seattle’s defense has had its moments. A few games here and there when they seemed to get on the same page, a few highlight plays, a few draft hits. But this defense has overwhelmingly been underwhelming, which is a shame considering Seahawks fans were treated to one of the best modern defenses we’ve ever seen about a decade ago.

For several seasons now, this team has known exactly where it needs to improve.

No one expects a replica of historically great units, but they do expect that improvement. And Seattle’s struggles with tackling and in defending against the run have felt like a bad song on repeat.

It’s worth noting then that they’ve paused that, and not just with Sunday’s win over the Arizona Cardinals. Seattle’s defense was solid in a Week 9 loss to the Rams, limiting LA to 68 yards on the ground. Last week in the Seahawks’ second meeting this year with the 49ers, they held San Francisco to 131 on the ground, with the single longest run being a 13-yard scramble from quarterback Brock Purdy – a marked improvement from an earlier Thursday night meeting that saw Seattle give up over 200 yards to 49ers running backs.

Against a top-five Cardinals rushing team – one averaging over five yards per carry this season – the Seahawks limited the Arizona offense to a season-low 49 rushing yards.

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There’s plenty of credit to go around, but it surely starts with personnel improvements at the second level, with Ernest Jones IV and Tyrice Knight having replaced Jerome Baker and Tyrel Dodson at linebacker. On Sunday, it certainly felt like the defensive line stole the spotlight. Leonard Williams played his best game as a Seahawk with 2.5 sacks, three tackles for loss, and two passes defensed. That includes a tackle for loss and a sack to force a three-and-out on an Arizona third-quarter drive.

There’s plenty to prove, but with three weeks to look back on, Seattle’s defense seems to be taking real steps forward.

Not taking a step forward? Seattle’s run game. You hate to critique too much after a win that puts a team in first place in the NFC West, but if there’s one area of concern, it’s the 2.6 yards per carry from the Seahawks’ offense. Running back Kenneth Walker III had a few highlights of his own, but offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb will need to find a way to get some of Seattle’s fourth-quarter production there popping up sooner in games – or else risk more pressure on quarterback Geno Smith and mind-numbing struggles in short-yardage conversion attempts.

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