On the night after Christmas, the Seattle Seahawks’ pass rush came ready to feast.
The Seahawks tormented rookie No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams with an onslaught of pressure, exploding for a season-high seven sacks in their smothering 6-3 win over the woeful Chicago Bears on a rainy Thursday night at Soldier Field. Six different players registered at least one sack, highlighting a suffocating and swarming defensive performance that limited the Bears to just 179 total yards.
It helped Seattle rebound from back-to-back losses, including the bad taste of a 27-24 heartbreaker to the Minnesota Vikings just four days prior.
“Guys were locked in,” Seahawks defensive lineman Jarran Reed said. “We feel like we let one slip away playing Minnesota, so we came in pretty hungry tonight.”
Standout defensive lineman Leonard Williams added to his monster year with his third two-sack game of the season, giving him nine sacks for the year. And he did so despite drawing double teams on 18 of his 33 pass rushes, according to NFL’s Next Gen Stats.
But it was far from a one-man show.
Edge rusher Derick Hall continued his second-year breakout by recording his eighth sack of the season. Edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu notched his first sack of the year after missing most of the season with a pair of injuries. Defensive lineman Jarran Reed and safety Rayshawn Jenkins each came up with a key third-down sack. And cornerback Devon Witherspoon was credited with a sack after chasing Caleb Williams out of bounds for no gain.
“Something we talked about in the defensive meeting the night before was allowing everybody to eat,” Nwosu said. “And that was a true game where everybody was in on the action. It’s fun to see guys making plays and everybody smiling and having fun and competing: ‘Who’s gonna get more?’ That’s the type of team and defense you want to play for.'”
The caveat is that the Seahawks took advantage of a hapless Bears offense that’s surrendered an NFL-high 67 sacks this season. But even by Chicago’s standards, Caleb Williams was under considerable siege on Thursday night.
Williams’ seven sacks were tied for the second-most he’s taken all year. According to Pro Football Focus, he was pressured on 55% of his dropbacks – an uptick of about 20 percentage points from his season average. And the heat came from all over the field, with 13 different Seahawks registering at least one pressure.
“The balance was incredible,” Mike Salk said Friday on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk. “I can’t remember a time seeing seven sacks where three came from the D-line, two from the edge, two from the secondary. It was like, ‘All right, there’s seven or eight guys up on the line of scrimmage – which ones are coming?’
“And I don’t know how you sift through that as a quarterback, especially as a rookie. I mean, if you were in Caleb Williams’ spot and … they keep sending seven guys on the line of scrimmage and you don’t know which five are coming, what do you do?”
Fittingly, the Seahawks sealed the game on a play that knocked Caleb Williams to the ground.
With the Bears facing a fourth-and-10 from the Seattle 40-yard line with 20 seconds remaining, the Seahawks brought heavy pressure. Safety Coby Bryant blitzed off the edge and took advantage of an unimpeded path to the quarterback, hitting Caleb Williams right as the rookie lofted a desperation heave downfield. The ball fluttered into the air and was picked off by cornerback Riq Woolen for a game-sealing interception.
Nwosu was a big fan of the aggressive play call from Seattle head coach Mike Macdonald.
“I like how he calls the game,” Nwosu said. “He’s always trying to switch it up, make things different, give the quarterback different looks. That’s always what you want. … He’s always coming up with new ways, new tricks.”
During his weekly appearance Friday morning on Seattle Sports, Macdonald credited the entire defense for the seven-sack onslaught. As Macdonald pointed out, many of the sacks stemmed from certain players creating opportunities for others.
“I’ve always said it’s a function of rush and coverage,” Macdonald said. “So in order to (sack the quarterback), he’s gotta have the ball. Some sacks were clean (wins) … and then some of them were, ‘Hey, we do a great job on the back end making him progress through (his receiving options), and now you can buy an extra click in your rush.’
“So I’m excited for the guys that got the sacks,” he added, “but it’ll be fun to show them why and who set them up.”
