Seahawks’ defense very good at not being run over

KIRKLAND — Julian Peterson had really messed up. And he knew it right away.

After Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson cut back into the gap where Peterson was supposed to be and rambled 43 yards for a touchdown, the Seattle Seahawks’ linebacker went to the sideline and called his teammates together.

“I told them it was my fault,” Peterson said Wednesday, recalling Benson’s first carry in a Nov. 18 game. “We didn’t even have to look at the film. I told them right there on the sideline: ‘That was my fault.’”

Benson broke off a 20-yarder on his next carry, and the Seahawks corrected that problem, too. For the rest of that afternoon, Chicago’s star running back had just 26 rushing yards.

It’s been a common theme for Seattle’s run defense as of late. A rough start is followed by a quick sideline correction, and the opposition is shut down the rest of the game.

“Maybe it wakes us up; I don’t know,” safety Brian Russell said of Seattle’s early letdowns. “But we haven’t given up anything beyond those runs.”

Last Sunday, St. Louis running back Steven Jackson exposed a Seahawks blitz with a 53-yard touchdown run on his first carry. But he had just 37 yards on 22 carries the rest of the way.

The Rams and Bears had 55 percent of their total rushing yards on three carries. The other 50 carries went for a paltry average of just 1.9 yards per attempt.

“We’re doing a good job of making adjustments,” defensive tackle Rocky Bernard said. “Any time a guy pops a run on us, we’ve been good about figuring out what happened. Where was the gap? What went wrong?

“In years past, it took us three or four times before we figured it out.”

Bernard went as far as to say that this year’s Seahawks have the best run defense he’s seen since arriving in Seattle in 2002. The statistics support that, with opposing teams averaging 100.5 rushing yards per game. Only one Seahawks team under Mike Holmgren had a lower clip than that, and it was the 2005 squad that gave up just 94.4 rushing yards due in part to a Seattle offense that had a habit of building big early leads.

The 2007 Seahawks haven’t allowed a runner to go over 100 rushing yards since Arizona’s Edgerrin James had 128 in Week 2.

“For the most part this season, our run defense has been very good,” Holmgren said on Monday.

On the rare occasions when Seattle makes a mistake in defending the run, the proper adjustments are made.

“You can’t go back. You just have to make sure you move forward,” said Russell, who took the blame for Jackson’s Sunday touchdown after missing a tackle at the 20-yard line. “When you’re dealing with good backs like Cedric Benson and Steven Jackson, beyond that one run you’ve really got to shut it down. Because if you let them get any more, it’s really going to snowball.”

Seattle’s run defense, which ranks 14th in the NFL in yards allowed per game and 15th in yards allowed per carry (3.9), will have a particularly focused week because of Sunday’s opponent. Philadelphia’s Brian Westbrook may be the best dual-threat running back in the NFC — if not the entire league. His 901 rushing yards rank second in the conference, while his 62 receptions lead the team.

“He reminds me of Marshall Faulk in his prime,” Russell said, comparing Westbrook to the retired star from the Rams and Indianapolis Colts. “He can widen out and run a great route as a receiver. His screens are unbelievable; he’s taken several to the house. He’s very good at making guys miss.”

Holmgren also used the Faulk comparison.

“Those guys are rare,” Holmgren said. “The really good ones are rare, and Brian is very much like that.”

Westbrook has an amazing 37 percent of the Eagles’ total yardage this season, so it’s no secret that he’ll get plenty of opportunities on Sunday.

“He’s a big part of the offense,” Philadelphia coach Andy Reid said. “When you have good players, they become a big part of it, so he’s a good player.”

The Seahawks have faced some good players in recent weeks, and they’ve been able to contain them. They just hope that this Sunday, no adjustments will need to be made.

“We communicate a lot on defense, and people have to be in the right gap for it to work,” Peterson said. “That’s why we’ve been playing so well lately.”