It wasn’t a good day for Seahawks cornerback Quinton Dunbar against the Bills

One thing I don’t want to do here is ruthlessly on Quinton Dunbar. I worked badly. Surviving change is enough to make you feel heroic. Dunbar to play as much as him was an organizational failure.

The Seattle Seahawks needed to add a corner corner this offseason and, realistically, maybe two or more. They added Dunbar. Once in five seasons in the league, Dunbar was able to play in over 50% of his team’s defensive shots. He performed in 54% of snaps last year. Starting wedges typically play in over 90% of their team’s defensive shots. In no other season has Dunbar exceeded 40%.

Until this season, that is. Dunbar starred in 64% of possible shots, adding 54 painful and humiliating shots against Buffalo. By the second set of the Bills, it was already evident that he didn’t feel capable of playing. Like I said, I’m not going to complain about it. I’m not going to criticize his coverage or his efforts. But I’m going to point out how obvious his struggles were and how they hurt Seattle’s chances of victory, because if Dunbar was perhaps a soldier in the organization. Playing Dunbar made Seattle a bankrupt organization.

I will not cover all the games on this disc. Instead, I’ll highlight the games and moments in the games that describe the Seahawks’ second training in defense and how and why it failed.

From the fire came a cup of ash tea

Gabriel Davis runs back and forth into the apartment and onto the straight sideline. The goal is to find the weak point between what looks like four deep areas and three shallow areas. DJ Reed makes it easy. He seems to read Josh Allen’s eyes. Jamal Adams, who crashes from deep midfield on the right offensive, also seems fooled. Allen looks at Cole Beasley. That doesn’t mean Allen will cast at Beasley. He looks straight, sees Davis wide open and shoots. Reed must be a lot wider to his left, obviously. He is fooled and evil.

Dunbar, defending the right-most deep quarterback, reacted fairly quickly to the pass. But instead of flying towards the ball, he closes a few steps, ignores the receiver’s untouched, and hovers while Reed does the tackle.

Zone defense depends on a fast, healthy tackle that limits yards after capture. Dunbar seemed very timid about making contact. It doesn’t really cost him here, but later on the ride we got this:

And that:

What was subtle in the first two plays becomes evident in the third. Dunbar is the deepest defensive back on the right. Although John Brown was 20 yards from Allen, Dunbar gave him 10 yards of cushion. Seeing Devin Singletary pull away, Dunbar slowly walks over to Brown. Before the two meet, he stops and allows Brown to start blocking him. Dunbar doesn’t want to anchor and in a flash Brown pushes him back another three meters. Dunbar doesn’t take on Singletary so much as he loses a collision.

You’ll notice who’s chasing Singletary. We’ll discuss that in a second.

Dunbar was unable to play. It should have been obvious in the first trimester. No stratagem could have protected him.

If I interpret the injury report correctly, it will play against the Rams. Like many fans, I laugh at Carroll’s optimistic unrealistic views on the health of his players and unrealistic projections of when they’ll play again. Nothing to do with Dunbar splashing around for 54 shots was the least funny.

The Bills added 17.05 points expected on offense against Seattle. In Dunbar’s snaps, the Bills added an expected 21.59 points on plays marked as occurring on the right side of the pitch. 83% of these pieces were successful. It’s a shame.

Incredibly bad blitz call on third and second

DJ Reed, nominally on the cover of Beasley, is going to do a blitz. He makes his intentions clear. At the snap, Reed must run three meters to reach the line of scrimmage. Allen is in a shotgun and will fall about another yard before he passes. Reed has to travel nine to ten yards to be on the same plane as Allen. If he was unlocked, he would likely need to walk around 15 yards in total to contact Allen. Beasley, of course, needs to travel three and not even three yards to convert the first. Wagner cannot hope to be close to him. Some chase after the capture is certain.

This is a gift. Seattle seemed absolutely certain that Allen couldn’t execute rudimentary quarterback skills. He hits his hot reading for nine yards and the first. Bets against Allen cost Seattle 1.3 EPA and 3.1 WPA.

A slow line to futility

Let’s take a look at Seattle’s fun and innovative staff combinations on the defensive line. From right to left, we get:

Dunlap-Reed-Ford-Collier: 2

Dunlap-Ford-Mone-Collier: 1

Ford-Mone-Collier-Dunlap: 2

Robinson-Vert-Mone-Bullard: 1

Robinson-Bullard-Mone-Vert: 1

Bullard-Mone-Green-Robinson: 2

Reed-Ford-Collier-Dunlap: 1

Dunlap-Collier-Ford-Reed: 1

Reed-Bullard-Mone-Ford-Collier: 1

If only Buffalo were running!

The best performance of these different groups was achieved by Bullard-Mone-Green-Robinson. They were there for back-to-back games. We have this. Which was almost a bag.

Rasheem Green seems to be rushing after a defensive tackle. Robinson is pushed towards the grass, but at least he shoots the left tackle wide and deep.

In the next play, Seattle sacks Allen and also forces a grab.

There is undeniably something heartwarming about the speed and explosion shown by Green and Alton Robinson on these pieces. We watched the Singletary reception for 22 partly twice. Now let’s see what Wagner and Adams contributed.

What the superstars were doing

This is the critical moment.

Allen is in Green’s hands but not down. Singletary is as open as a 24 hour bodega. Why?

The near circle contains Adams. He gets closer to Allen. It is a defensible decision. The far circle contains Bobby Wagner. He widens to his right in response to Zack Moss waving left out of backfield. But seconds before the throw, Moss is covered and Wagner idles in no man’s land, watching if Green is going to fire Allen. He’s too far away from Singletary and he has no help on his left because Adams is sucked into trying the sack.

Here I have to tell you that Devin Singletary ran a 4.66 at the NFL Combine.

Wagner doesn’t take a bad angle. Its five meters deep allow it to get closer. Once they’re on the same level, Wagner looks a bit faster than Singletary. Wagner is a great player, great for what he can do, but he’s 30 and his reach has shrunk. He can’t make up for the Seahawks’ slowness in so many other positions.

Where slowness and credulity are punished

Why the LJ Collier Allen horse collar? Because he had it too.

We certainly wouldn’t like Wilson to be approached like this. This is a good rule. It just means slower players are at a greater disadvantage.

This fake garbage pump by Allen freezes Quandre Diggs and “forces” Tre Flowers to withdraw from the quarterback to return to his original assignment, Stefon Diggs. This is a remarkably efficient fake POS pump.

We end with something that goes without saying. Tyler Kroft, a 28-year-old tackle who has previously run a 4.69 40, is just too fast for KJ Wright in men’s cover.

It is true. Wright is deceived by Kroft’s cut. And he’s lagging behind from that point on. But it is also true that for a short distance Kroft clearly flees from KJ