SEATTLE – Jamie Sharper knows he’s here because the Seattle Seahawks blew too many games in the fourth quarter last season.
So he knows full well how important it was for the Seahawks to hang on for a 21-18 victory over the Atlanta Falcons in their home opener Sunday.
“That’s going to be a new identity for our defense, to go out here and make plays and not rely on the offense to win games all the time,” the linebacker said. “We’ve got to go out and win some.”
For the first time since early last season, that’s what happened.
Sunday’s script seemed so familiar. The Seahawks started well and led 21-0 at halftime. But their offense generated zero points and three first downs in the third quarter, and it became apparent as Atlanta came to life that the defense was going to have to rise up to keep the game from slipping away.
Four times last season – three of them at home, including once in the playoffs – opponents came from behind in the fourth quarter to beat Seattle, and when Atlanta scored a touchdown with 3:58 left in the game to cut the lead to 21-18, the sellout crowd at Qwest Field went deathly quiet.
When the Seahawks offense went three-and-out on the ensuing series, it got quieter still.
But the defense that fell apart at key times last season is largely gone. There were eight new starters in the Seahawks defense Sunday compared to the home opener last season.
And it was the new guys who saved the day.
Sharper and defensive tackle Marcus Tubbs stopped Warrick Dunn for no gain on first down. Linebacker D.D. Lewis dropped Justin Griffith for a 2-yard gain on a short pass completion. Defensive end Bryce Fisher sacked Michael Vick on third down, and cornerback Andre Dyson broke up a pass on fourth down.
Sharper, Fisher and Dyson came to the Seahawks this season through free agency along with defensive tackle Chuck Darby. Lewis, Tubbs and safety Michael Boulware are young players who have grown into starting roles. An eighth new starter, linebacker Lofa Tatupu, is this year’s second-round draft choice.
No worries, as far as Sharper was concerned.
“Four and out,” he said with all the emotion of somebody watching paint dry. “That’s a good sign that our defense is going to make some plays.”
Truth be told, the defense played well most of the day, even with the nervous moments in the fourth quarter.
Falcons quarterback Michael Vick had a subpar day by his standards, passing for 123 yards and running eight times for 43, 32 of them on one play. Running back Warrick Dunn managed just 54 yards on 16 rushing attempts.
This from a defense that finished last season ranked 26th in the NFL.
“We had a bunch of guys out there who weren’t really sure what they were doing (last season),” said defensive end Grant Wistrom, one of the few holdovers. “We’ve got a bunch of guys out there right now that are much more responsible to their assignments, and that’s why we were able to go out there and execute when we had to.”
Most of the new starters have played at the championship level. Darby and Sharper won Super Bowls with Tampa Bay and Baltimore, respectively. Dyson played in an AFC Championship Game with Tennessee. Tatupu won back-to-back national championships at Southern California.
“They brought in a whole bunch of guys that are used to standing up in the fourth quarter,” said Fisher, who was a pain in Seattle’s neck for years while with St. Louis. “These are guys that are used to winning everywhere they go and know what it takes to win.
“Most of it is mental, not beating yourself up when you make a bad play. They’re a good team. It’s very rare that you shut out a playoff team,” Fisher said of the Falcons. “The thing was, we had to bounce back and stand up, and the guys did.”
What a welcome change that would be for Seattle if it becomes a habit.
“I hope that’s one of the reasons they brought me in,” Dyson said. “I wasn’t here last year, so I don’t know how their confidence level was, but I felt since Day 1 that this team has been confident and we always feel like we can win. The key today was when they started coming back we never panicked. We stayed together. We stayed focused. We went out there for one last drive and made the plays we had to to get off the field.”
It sounds so simple, so matter of fact.
But for a team that has been missing that, it felt so good on Sunday.
“When we have a 21-point lead at halftime, those are football games we have to win on defense,” said Wistrom, who twice last season saw Seattle blow a 10-point lead in the last six minutes. “Our offense can go out there and go three-and-out every series, but defensively we should still go out there and be able to win those football games.”
“It’s huge,” he said of Sunday’s victory. “This is a game that, last year, who knows if we win or lose, and if you look at our past we probably would have lost this game.
“But it’s a new year, a new set of guys, a new attitude on this defense, and, hopefully, it’s just a sign of things to come.”
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