So how did the Rams stop the Seahawks on fourth down in overtime on Sunday? According to defensive tackle Michael Brockers, it helped that they knew a run was coming.
"[I]t was probably in the third quarter I seen that same formation before, and I got out of my gap and they got about three yards,” Brockers explained during Wednesday’s PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio. “So we called a call that we had been practicing on all week against that formation, and I told coach to trust me and call it again, don’t can it and let me get my redemption back on that play and make it up for the team. So he called it, I was ready, I was like, ‘OK, I see this formation, I know what they’re gonna do,’ and when [Russell Wilson] handed the ball to Marshawn Lynch I was in the backfield, and me and Aaron [Donald] took him down to the ground.”
How did Brockers know the run was coming?
“[W]e pick up on tendencies, and when you see Marshawn probably a yard or two behind Russell and you just know that zone read scheme that they do is coming,” Brockers said. “I knocked the tackle back in the backfield so he didn’t have anywhere to go and wrapped [Lynch’s] legs up so he couldn’t keep those things going, because if you don’t he can get that yard. So we just did a great job. We did our job on that play and I think it all came out at the end.”
The penetration from Brockers forced Lynch to actually stop. By the time he got started again, Donald was on top of Lynch. And getting he job done was easier because the Seattle offensive line isn’t what it used to be.
“It’s very makeshift,” Brockers said. “You have a lot of guys who aren’t playing positions they they started when they came into the league. Like you have [J.R.] Sweezy who also was a really good guard in this league and he used to be a defensive tackle. [Justin] Britt who played tackle last year has now moved to guard, so you got a lot of people who aren’t playing a position that they started with or playing a new position and when you got things like that, you know, you got great defensive linemen I feel like we have, you have to take advantage of that. And we came out got six sacks and we got a lot of pressure on Wilson.”
Here’s the part that should concern the Seahawks going forward.
“We tried to make them one dimensional,” Brockers said. “You try to take away the run game and make them pass and they played right into our hands.”
With a quarterback making more than $20 million per year, the idea that an opposing defense would try to beat his team by forcing him to do what quarterbacks are paid to do is a little alarming. The question is whether other teams will be able to make Seattle one dimensional -- and whether the Seahawks will be able to win with Wilson throwing more than 40 passes per game.