BALTIMORE — Michael Bennett has a refrain that’s as familiar this time of year as holiday wreaths, Christmas trees — and the Seattle Seahawks winning.
“I always say, man, ‘It’s the pretenders in the beginning of the season, then it’s the contenders at the end of the season,’” Seattle’s defensive end said Sunday following a 35-6 steamrolling of the Baltimore Ravens, the fourth consecutive victory for the two-time defending NFC champions.
“The great teams play great football in December.”
Seattle is now 14-2 the last three seasons in December.
The defense is back playing as great as that record in this month of Santa Claus and Seahawks victories. With Bennett and fellow defensive end Cliff Avril continuing their Pro Bowl-caliber seasons of zoom off the edge and tackles Ahtyba Rubin and Brandon Mebane devouring blockers inside so All-Pro middle linebacker Bobby Wagner can clean up on tackles behind them, Seattle has allowed 59 total yards rushing on 30 carries the past two weeks.
Baltimore, missing lead back and former Seahawk Justin Forsett (broken arm), had just 28 yards on 14 running plays. That was a season low against Seattle. Ravens offensive coordinator Marc Trestman basically quit running. That left the game in the arm of third-string quarterback Jimmy Clausen.
Yes, that worked out well for the Seahawks.
“This week we just wanted to hit our gaps,” Wagner said. “We felt if we stop the run game fast that was going to force them to throw. And we felt like we liked our chances with that.”
Clausen is now 1-12 in his journeyman career as a starting quarterback. He’s 0-2 this season against the Seahawks.
He became the sixth quarterback to start two games against the same opponent in an NFL season; he had filled in for injured Jay Cutler when Chicago lost 26-0 at Seattle on Sept. 27. After Baltimore punted the first two times it had the ball on Sunday, all 13 drives Clausen had led in two games against the Seahawks this season had ended with punts.
Clausen didn’t produce a touchdown on 20 drives against Seattle this season.
Seattle is now allowing 83.2 yards rushing per game. That includes holding league rushing leader Adrian Peterson to 18 yards the previous week. The Seahawks entered Sunday third in the league in run defense, then their average allowed dropped almost 5 more yards.
During the four-game winning streak, the Seahawks have held San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Minnesota and Baltimore to an average of 44 yards rushing per game.
The plan is to gang up on running backs and lanes, then force second- and third-tier quarterbacks to try to beat them with Avril and Bennett flying at them with no thought of having to stop the run. That plan will continue the next two weeks. Seattle hosts Cleveland (3-10) and Johnny Manziel this coming weekend, then St. Louis (5-8) and likely Case Keenum on Dec. 27.
“We pride ourselves up front, the front seven, to try to stop the run,” Avril said. “That’s our big thing, making them one-dimensional.
“We just need to keep chopping away.”
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