One change was clearly obvious in the Seattle Seahawks Week 1 victory over the Denver Broncos and that was that Seattle's tackling was much better than it has in recent seasons. Seattle limited yards after the catch and appeared to swarm to the ball in a way not seen with the Seahawks since last decade. Cornerback Riq Woolen feels he knows the reason why.
For all of the greatness Pete Carroll brought to Seattle, and the excellent defenses he created, over the last several seasons, tackling has been a major concern for the team and one Carroll was either unable or unwilling to try to fix. As a defensive-minded coach, one might assume Carroll would make tackling a priority, but Woolen said that was not the case.
According to The Athletic's (paywall alert) Michael-Shawn Dugar, Woolen implied the team works on practicing far more than it did under Carroll. Of course, new head coach Mike Macdonald is all about getting reps in and then doing more reps. After that, more reps. While practice may not make perfect, not practicing tackling means issues are going to arise.
Dugar reported Woolen to say, "We practice tackling every day. It’s a big emphasis around here. You can just tell it’s just natural to everybody. Everybody is just going in there, and we trying to get guys down. On Sunday it reflected how much tackling practice we’ve had."
Some NFL coaches might assume that players have been taught tackling technique since they were in elementary school and then worked on form throughout their careers until they reached the league. Woolen makes it seem as if Carroll did not think much more work needed to be put into tackling. At least, not enough work.
The Seahawks were crippled in recent seasons by having runs broken in run defense that created far too many splash plays. The issue was not confined to one certain position group. Other than linebacker Bobby Wagner, every Seahawks player was inconsistent with bringing ball-carriers down. In Week 1, that problem was almost entirely gone which is one reason the Broncos were limited to only 3.3 yards per play.
One good game does not mean the tackling problem is completely fixed, of course, but since there was such a stark difference between what 12s saw in Mike Macdonald's first game and Pete Carroll's last few seasons, clearly the Seahawks have tried to address the issue. Let's just hope there is not much of an issue for the rest of the season as well. A better tackling Seattle defense could mean the team can get into the postseason and be dangerous once there.
