Poor run defense puts Seahawks’ playoff hopes in doubt
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Jaxon Smith-Njigba scores on a 12-yard touchdown pass from Geno Smith, giving the Seahawks the lead over the Steelers. (0:23)
SEATTLE — Early in the fourth quarter Sunday, Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najee Harris bounced a run play off the left tackle and then sent Seattle Seahawks cornerback Riq Woolen airborne with a devastating stiff arm. What could have been a tackle for loss instead resulted in an 8-yard gain, extending a drive that would end in a field goal and a seven-point Steelers lead.
The ignominious moment would have been the obvious choice for the play that best epitomized the Seahawks’ defensive performance in their 30-23 defeat at Lumen Field if there weren’t a few other doozies to choose from.
There was also Harris powering through tackle attempts from Bobby Wagner and Dre’Mont Jones before diving across the goal line for a 9-yard touchdown run shortly before halftime.
Or maybe it was Harris’ second touchdown, when he was met at the line of scrimmage but dragged a pile of Seattle defenders into the end zone for a 4-yard tiebreaking score midway through the third quarter.
It was that kind of day for the Seahawks, who allowed 202 rushing yards while falling to an 8-8 record. They also fell out of the NFC’s seventh and final playoff seed with one game to go after the Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday night.
The Seahawks will still be alive for a wild-card berth, but even if they do qualify by beating the Arizona Cardinals next weekend and getting some help via a Chicago Bears win over the Packers, they don’t look like a team that’s capable of making much noise in the playoffs — especially given how important run defense tends to be in January.
Facing a Pittsburgh team that came to Seattle with a backup quarterback in Mason Rudolph, an 8-7 record and a minus-34 point differential, the Seahawks got pushed around in their own building — not exactly the type of performance that inspires any confidence that they can hang with better opponents on the road in the playoffs.
“They just beat us on the line of scrimmage,” linebacker Devin Bush said. “They beat us physically. That’s it.”
The Steelers entered Week 17 with the ninth-highest designed rush rate in the NFL, a well-established offensive identity that left no mystery as to how they’d attack the Seahawks, especially with Rudolph at quarterback. And yet Pittsburgh got a combined 197 rushing yards and three touchdowns from Harris (27 carries, 122 yards) and Jaylen Warren (13 carries, 75 yards). They combined for 40 attempts while Rudolph threw only 24 times for 274 yards.
“The tackling just seemed like it was really off,” coach Pete Carroll said. “It seemed like we just did not make the tackles that we had to, didn’t knock the piles back like we’d like to. I really need to see the film and see where it was happening to guys other than scheme and make sure that I understand that, which we will. Tackling wasn’t good enough and we weren’t efficient enough. We had shots. We had shots in the line of scrimmage, we had opportunities, and they won the battles better than we did.”
Two weeks ago, the Seahawks snapped a four-game losing streak — the longest of the Carroll era — and saved their season with a win over the Philadelphia Eagles. They followed that up by beating the Tennessee Titans last week. The winning touchdown drives led by Drew Lock and Geno Smith overshadowed strong defensive efforts in which Seattle allowed 17 points in both games and limited explosive passing plays in large part because of improved tackling.
But what had been a strength the past two weeks was a glaring weakness Sunday as Seattle missed one tackle after another. According to ESPN Stats & Information, the Steelers gained 132 of their rushing yards after first contact, their second most in a game since ESPN began tracking that stat in 2009. It was the most Seattle had allowed since 2014.
“Just piss-poor tackling, man,” Jones said. “It’s super frustrating because you feel out the run, everyone is in their gap and then the next thing you know, a tackle breaks here, a tackle breaks there. A 2-yard run or a 3-yard run turns into a 20-yard-plus run. The explosives were killing us.”
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Smith delivered a solid performance (23-of-33, 290 yards and one touchdown throw) and Seattle’s offense racked up 369 yards, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the woeful defense.
The Seahawks have now allowed an average of 170 rushing yards over their past six games. That streak began two weeks after a 298-yard debacle in their blowout loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Their strong start against the run this season provided hope that they had fixed their Achilles heel from 2022, but they’ve now allowed the third-most rushing yards of any team and the eighth-worst average.
“It’s been repetitive,” Carroll said of their struggles against the run.
The Seahawks enter Week 18 in the same position as a year ago, when they needed a win in their regular-season finale and some help in order to sneak into the playoffs as the seventh seed at 9-8. With the Los Angeles Rams winning Sunday to improve to 9-7 and holding two wins over Seattle, only the seventh seed is in play for the Seahawks.
Winning their final two games would have assured them of a wild-card berth.
“We lost our control of it,” Carroll said. “We had control of it, and we gave that up today.”