The Seahawks won this game five days before they played it.
Tuesday, Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon announced coming off his team’s Monday night win at Dallas that Jacoby Brissett would continue to be Arizona’s quarterback this weekend in Seattle. That was for the banged-up Kyler Murray.
That made this past week, then Sunday’s game, infinitely easier for DeMarcus Lawrence, Leonard Williams, Tyrice Knight, Byron Murphy and the Seahawks’ defensive front.
When they’ve faced Murray playing NFC West rival Arizona in past years, Seattle’s pass rushers have had to rein themselves in. Coaches have stressed the importance of rushing outside-in. That is, with discipline and a consistency with teammates. They must avoid creating huge gaps between them for the speedy, elusive Murray to run through, or from giving up the edges for the Cardinals’ regular QB to run around for gains.
Brissett, 32, is about as opposite of Murray as possible. He’s a pocket passer. He stands tall in the face of pressure and zings the ball down the field. If he moves, it’s usually just a few steps up in the pocket away from defenders, to throw. He played right into what’s been the strength of Seattle’s defense this season: Pass rush generated primarily by its front four.
Brissett and not Murray Sunday meant Lawrence, Williams, Murphy, Knight (on linebacker blitzes up the middle) could bull straight up the field, vertically in a direct line to a stationary quarterback.
For a pass rusher, what’s not to love about that?
“Ah, man, it was a big difference, because Murray, he likes to run around in the pocket,” Murphy said at his locker amid boomin’ bass music after the game.
“Brissett, he’s just a guy, you know, he sits there. He’s a sitting duck.
“So it was really just trying to push the pocket back on Brissett.”
That’s exactly how the Seahawks beat Arizona 44-22 to stay atop the NFC West. That’s entering a showdown in Inglewood, California, next Sunday between Seattle (7-2) and the 7-2 Los Angeles Rams for first place in the division.
The Seahawks sacked Brissett five times and hit him seven times in his 18 dropbacks to pass in the first half. Seattle led 38-7 by then.
Coach Mike Macdonald called two new blitzes he put in this week, interior linebacker stunts up the middle at Brissett in the first half Sunday. Macdonald sent Tyrice Knight, subbing at middle linebacker for injured Ernest Jones, straight at Brissett on both blitzes. “We don’t blitz much,” Macdonald said.
They don’t play Brissett much, either.
The gaps Knight blitzed to Arizona’s veteran QB were different.
The results were, incredibly, the same.
Both times, Knight banged into Brissett as the quarterback held the ball about to throw. Both times, the ball bounded free. Both times, Lawrence picked up the fumble and ran to the end zone for touchdowns.
The first time it was 34 yards to put Seattle up 14-0 early in the first quarter.
The second time, Lawrence ran 22 yards with the fumble for the score to make it 28-0 Seahawks in the first minute of the second quarter.
“I couldn’t believe that ‘D-Law’ got the second. I was like, ‘Holy crap! It’s him again!’” Macdonald said later.
“The way that he attacked the ball, ‘T-Knight,’ is just awesome.
“Hadn’t forced any fumbles this year on defense, and got two today. It’s awareness, just taking advantage of those opportunities. It was awesome.”
And it was by design. The game was essentially over, not long after it began.
“It was the same play. Same ending. Same result,” Knight said.
“And really, the set looked the same to me.
“God just puts things in order for you, so there was no problem with that.”
Lawrence became only third NFL player in the last 104 years to score touchdowns on two fumble recoveries in a game. He doubled his total for fumble-recovery touchdowns in his 149-game, 12-year career in the first 16 minutes of this game.
“You can’t draw that up,” the 33-year-old Lawrence said. “’T Knight’ did a great job running the play exactly how Coach Macdonald drew it up. And I was the lucky recipient of the two forced fumbles.
“I’ll take it, every day.”
Macdonald gave one game ball from the win Sunday to Knight, and one to Lawrence.
And the Seahawks won for the seventh time in eight games. Seattle and the Rams share the NFC’s best record, pending 6-2 Philadelphia playing at Green Bay (5-2-1) Monday night.
“I can definitely see we’re building something special,” said Lawrence, in his first Seattle season after 11 playing for Dallas. “There are some things that we can clean up and get better at, but that’s a testament to the detail that we put into our work each and every day.
“Again, the sky is the limit from here. It’s just all about us continuing to come together with our camaraderie and taking it one day at a time.”
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