Ken Norton Jr and the destruction of something good

Without editorializing, below you will find a series of tweets meant to illustrate just how bad the Seattle Seahawks defense has been.

As John Gilbert pointed out this week, the Seahawks’ offense was among the top ten in three games. The sad fact of the matter is this: Seattle may have really found an exceptional coordinator in Shane Waldron, but at this point we really have no idea, and it’s not for lack of sample size. . On the contrary, Waldron has spent the past two weeks calling games with his back against the wall, knowing full well that if the attack doesn’t score they will lose. And even if they score, they could still lose. It is not sustainable football; a team cannot consistently win games with a defense that has looked like this over the past six quarterbacks:

• Touchdown (8 plays, 80 yards)
• FG missed (12 games, 66 yards)
• Touchdown (2 plays, 75 yards)
• TO on the downs (10 games, 53 yards)
• Touchdown (12 plays, 68 yards)
• Punt (5 games, 16 yards)
• Field Goal – OT (5 games, 21 yards)
• Touchdown (7 plays, 70 yards)
• Punt (3 games, 3 yards)
• Touchdown (9 games, 85 yards)
• Touchdown (12 plays, 66 yards)
• Field Goal (16 games, 50 yards)
• Field Goal (11 games, 70 yards)
• Field Goal (12 games, 88 yards)
• Punt (the game was well over at this point)

Seattle allowed a touchdown on six of fifteen discs and allowed a score on ten of fifteen. If you knock out the last punt (which nearly expired over time in a two-point game against the Vikings), things look even worse. If you consider that the defense had little influence on Randy Bullock missing a 44-yard field goal attempt in Week 2, things get even more fragile. On fourteen significant discs, Seattle forced two punts and a turnover on the downs. The remaining eleven discs resulted in either points or a legitimate point attempt.

I could go on and on about the merits of Ken Norton’s sacking, but Mookie has already established it pretty firmly after Sunday’s disaster against a team and quarterback Seattle has owned for nearly a decade. To find the last time Kirk Cousins ​​beat Russell Wilson, you have to go back to 2017, when he was with the Washington football team, a game in which the Seahawks offense did not score any touchdowns until. ‘in the 4th quarter. So far, it was Russ’s only victory in five clashes. Do two out of six now.

And I am for rivalries and shootings and confrontations. Football is much more fun with them. But it was none of that. Statistically speaking, Seattle is getting its collective ass kicked not only by its opponents, but also by its coach and defensive coordinator. Over the last two games, here is the statistical comparison between Seattle and their opponents:

• Passage of the first tests: 24 to 36
• Effectiveness of the third down: 7 out of 20 to 15 out of 28
• Total reads: 104 to 155
• Possession hour: 46:49 to 78:26

The Seattle offense has played 52 games in each of the last two games. You can say that third-try efficiency and possession time don’t matter, but the point is this: these stats help complete a picture we’ve all seen unfold on our screens over the years. last two weeks; Seattle’s offense is once again asked to play essentially both sides of the ball, and unlike at the start of last season, they don’t get the breaks and big plays in the second half to keep them in place. I don’t think the solution is to simply reverse the possession time battle, as this team absolutely cannot afford to sit and play so as not to lose (in reality, no team can or should do that. in 2021). But when the defense is allowing an average of 9 plays for 58 yards per possession over the last six quarters, something has to give.

What makes me particularly sad about this is that – until we see at least one substitute performance of a defense that has talent in every group of positions – we really won’t know what kind of attack Shane Waldron is able to run. But we do know one thing for sure: We know what kind of defense Ken Norton, Jr. is capable of running, and he’s not the one who can be successful in the NFL. I cannot guarantee that ending his relationship with the Seahawks will fix their team this season. But I know when it’s enough, and whatever loyalty there is that still binds this team to their defensive coordinator needs to be taken away. What if that “shred” is Pete Carroll, so be it.