{"id":5191,"date":"2017-01-06T09:01:44","date_gmt":"2017-01-06T17:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/without-thomas-seahawks-vaunted-defense-looking-vulnerable\/"},"modified":"2017-01-06T09:01:44","modified_gmt":"2017-01-06T17:01:44","slug":"without-thomas-seahawks-vaunted-defense-looking-vulnerable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/without-thomas-seahawks-vaunted-defense-looking-vulnerable\/","title":{"rendered":"Without Thomas, Seahawks’ vaunted defense looking vulnerable"},"content":{"rendered":"

RENTON, Wash. \u2014<\/strong> Until a month ago, the Seattle Seahawks never knew what it was like without Earl Thomas on the field.<\/p>\n

Now they\u2019re finding out how much Thomas means to everything they try and accomplish defensively.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarl\u2019s a unique player. He\u2019s an extraordinary player, he\u2019s proven that,\u201d coach Pete Carroll said. \u201cNo matter what position a guy plays, you miss that unique quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Thomas was injured early in Seattle\u2019s Week 13 win over Carolina, the Seahawks have become vulnerable against the pass.<\/p>\n

In the final four games of the regular season, the opponent passer rating against the Seahawks was 105.0. In the first 12 games, it was 77.9. And while that final four-game stretch included stellar games by Aaron Rodgers and Carson Palmer in a pair of Seattle losses, it also included performances by Jared Goff, Case Keenum and Colin Kaepernick that didn\u2019t lead to wins against Seattle but were probably better than most expected.<\/p>\n

Now come the pass-happy Detroit Lions in the NFC wild-card round on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say vulnerable, you know, they\u2019re a heck of a defense,\u201d Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford said. \u201cThey do a great job. Obviously, Earl brings a mentality to them. He\u2019s an extremely aggressive player. Trusts his eyes probably more than any safety I\u2019ve ever seen and you know, the young guy they\u2019ve got filling in for him doesn\u2019t as much, but I mean they\u2019ve got a great defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steven Terrell has been the one asked to step in for Thomas, even if there is no way to properly replace one of the best free safeties in the NFL. It\u2019s the most Terrell has played in his brief NFL career. Before this season, Terrell had one career defensive tackle in his two seasons with the Seahawks.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust the experience, learning through the good, the bad, the indifferent, whatever. It\u2019s just getting better and seeing where I\u2019m at,\u201d Terrell said. \u201cYou kind of see where you\u2019re at in the preseason but playing this year in the regular season it\u2019s been a good opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The experience Terrell is getting appears to be coming at a cost to Seattle\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n

In the first 11 games of the season, the Seahawks allowed 10 passing touchdowns. In the final five games, including the Carolina game when Thomas was injured early in the second quarter, they allowed six. Perhaps more telling is the lack of interceptions. Seattle\u2019s last interception came on the first play of its 40-7 win over Carolina. Since Thomas was hurt, the Seahawks have zero picks.<\/p>\n

The breakdowns have been noticeable: Ted Ginn Jr. getting deep for a 55-yard touchdown in the minutes after Thomas was injured; Davante Adams getting open for a 66-yard TD; J.J. Nelson running free through Seattle\u2019s secondary, once for an 80-yard touchdown. They\u2019re the kinds of big plays the Seahawks secondary simply has not allowed in the past.<\/p>\n

Not all those plays are on Terrell. He\u2019s made mistakes, but at the same time quarterbacks have appeared more aggressive in challenging Seattle\u2019s secondary with Thomas not there.<\/p>\n

If anything, the past month has highlighted how much Thomas\u2019 presence has impacted Seattle\u2019s defensive success.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I\u2019ve been focused on is not trying to be Earl because I can\u2019t be Earl. I can only be the best version of me,\u201d Terrell said. \u201cThat part hasn\u2019t been too hard because I\u2019ve been who I am and my teammates have been giving me good feedback. Just be you, be the best you that you can be and that helped out a lot. When you replace an All-Pro player it\u2019s definitely something you don\u2019t do every day. It\u2019s a great opportunity though.\u201d<\/p>\n

The challenge for Seattle may not be so much this week, but what lies ahead should it get past the Lions. Detroit averages 37 pass attempts per game but only 7.3 yards per attempt. But a Seattle victory sets up a matchup with Atlanta and the third-best pass game in the NFL.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s down the road. The Seahawks have enough to worry about with Detroit.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarl is Earl, and now it\u2019s Steve\u2019s opportunity,\u201d Seattle cornerback DeShawn Shead said. \u201cAnd Steve is a great player as well but you can\u2019t ask Steve to be Earl. Steve is Steve and he does a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RENTON, Wash. \u2014 Until a month ago, the Seattle Seahawks never knew what it was like without Earl Thomas on the field. Now they\u2019re finding out how much Thomas means to everything they try and accomplish defensively. \u201cEarl\u2019s a unique player. He\u2019s an extraordinary player, he\u2019s proven that,\u201d coach Pete Carroll said. \u201cNo matter what […]<\/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-5191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5191","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=5191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5191"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=5191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}