{"id":2040,"date":"2016-11-11T09:01:25","date_gmt":"2016-11-11T17:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/seahawks-defense-struggling-to-get-rest\/"},"modified":"2016-11-11T09:01:25","modified_gmt":"2016-11-11T17:01:25","slug":"seahawks-defense-struggling-to-get-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/seahawks-defense-struggling-to-get-rest\/","title":{"rendered":"Seahawks’ defense struggling to get rest"},"content":{"rendered":"

RENTON, Wash.<\/strong> \u2014 Just as the Seattle Seahawks are evolving offensively and appearing to find success, they have another problem emerging.<\/p>\n

In the last few weeks, Seattle can\u2019t get off the field on defense. And it\u2019s not the best time to be struggling on that side of the ball about to go on the road, on a short week and face Tom Brady and New England on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

In the past two weeks, Seattle has started to display signs that maybe the wear of its overtime tie with Arizona on Oct. 23 is starting to impact its defense. Combined with an offense that seems to be abandoning their attempt at running the ball and controlling time of possession, the Seahawks defense has been asked to be on the field for an inordinate amount of time lately.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re playing a little bit more ball but at the same time I think we\u2019re doing some good things,\u201d Seattle defensive end Cliff Avril said.<\/p>\n

While the players say this is not an issue and Seattle coach Pete Carroll is almost defiant that the amount of time the defense has spent on the field is a benefit, the statistics are telling a different story.<\/p>\n

And the biggest indicator is on third downs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had 13 third-and-2 or less in the last two weeks. That\u2019s really hard to win like you would like to on third down,\u201d Carroll said. \u201cWe have to play better ball on earlier downs and then we have to get off when we have our chances. But it has been kind of a theme here allowing these third-and-shorts and not getting out of those. That\u2019s really the focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past three weeks \u2014 games against Arizona, New Orleans and Buffalo \u2014 the Seahawks have allowed 31 of 53 third downs to be converted, a conversion rate of 58.4 percent. Buffalo was 12 of 17 against Seattle on Monday night and had 30 first downs, tied for the seventh-most ever against the Seahawks in the regular season. The inability to get off the field on third down, combined with the Seahawks own struggling to run the ball and sustain drives has led to three straight teams with 36 or more minutes of possession against the Seahawks.<\/p>\n

Arizona got it started when it dominated possession in the 6-6 overtime tie. The Cardinals held the ball for 46:21 and ran 90 offensive plays. New Orleans followed up a week later with 72 plays and 36 minutes of possession and on Monday night, Buffalo ran 82 offensive plays and held the ball for 40 minutes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a recipe for exhaustion, even if Carroll doesn\u2019t view it that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re getting stronger,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we\u2019ve endured it, I think we\u2019re in pretty good shape. If we can get a game of 60 or 70 plays, it\u2019s going to seem like a lark. We\u2019ll see if we can change it a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The timing of the struggles on defense is troubling because the Seahawks appear to be morphing offensively and potentially exposing their defenders to even more time on the field. Seattle enters this week 30th in the NFL averaging just 75.4 yards per game rushing and in Monday\u2019s win had 26 passes and just 12 runs. No matter who is in the backfield, Seattle has been unable to establish the run and keep drives moving on the ground. Seattle has one offensive drive of longer than 6 minutes in the past five games and rank 25th in the league in time of possession.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of improvement to make and we\u2019re just going to keep banging away at it,\u201d Carroll said. \u201cWe know where we\u2019re going, we\u2019re just not quite getting on that track yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

NOTES: <\/strong>SS Kam Chancellor (groin) was a full participant in practice and is expected to play Sunday as long as he doesn\u2019t have any setbacks. Chancellor has missed the past four games. … RB Thomas Rawls (leg) was a limited participant in practice Wednesday but won\u2019t play this week. Rawls, who has been out since Week 2, is targeting next week\u2019s game against Philadelphia for his return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RENTON, Wash. \u2014 Just as the Seattle Seahawks are evolving offensively and appearing to find success, they have another problem emerging. In the last few weeks, Seattle can\u2019t get off the field on defense. And it\u2019s not the best time to be struggling on that side of the ball about to go on the road, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-2040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2040"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}