Throughout its ups and downs, the 2020 Seahawks defense made saves the game

The Seattle Seahawks’ defense came under heavy criticism and criticism for its ineptitude during the first half of the 2020 NFL season. Well, to be more precise, the pass defense has been destroyed while the run defense has generally held its end of the bargain.

What you can’t deny is that thanks to poor defensive play and the current improvement we are seeing, Seattle has always been able to survive tough times. Just think how this season would have gone differently if Cam Newton had scored from the one-yard line here …

And then a week later, Ryan Neal walks in for Jamal Adams and intercepts Dak Prescott’s prayer that could have forced overtime.

Two weeks later, Alexander Mattison gets 4th and 1st and the Seahawks are able to make 94 yards and win it on Russell Wilson’s touchdown at DK Metcalf. Should the Vikings have just thrown the basket to go up 8? Well, they can think of anything in the offseason, but it turned out to be an absolute dagger for Minnesota’s playoff prospects, as Seattle improved to 5-0.

Now, admittedly, the Seahawks’ defense spat out a 34-24 lead in the first meeting with the Arizona Cardinals. The ease with which Kyler Murray and his company secured the equalizer was disappointing at best and infuriating at worst. So when the rematch took place at Lumen Field in what was a must win for Seattle, Carlos Dunlap showed why the Seahawks traded for him.

Exactly a month later, Dunlap’s services were needed again despite limited shots due to injury.

And while I don’t see it as a game-saving save, it was a game-changing goal line support the Rams never recovered from.

This is the performance of the clutch for you. And I didn’t even include the fact that the Patriots and Washington both missed two-point conversions that would have provided them with a safety net to throw a tie basket had they not got the winning touchdown.

As usual, Seattle played a ton of tight games, but unlike 2019, Russell Wilson didn’t have to lead as many fourth-quarter comebacks. This year’s team often had to keep leads late and they were more than ready to take on the task. It has been one of the highlights for this Seahawks squad and it’s one of the main reasons they will finish this year as NFC West champions for the first time since 2016.