The Seattle Seahawks got into an unexpected street fight with a foe that many expected them to handle easily. On Sunday, the Indianapolis Colts, looking invigorated by the un-retirement of a former legend, in Phillip Rivers, came out with energy and came out swinging. They brandished a bit of physical play in the Emerald City on Sunday, rising to the occasion to prove that they should be considered a playoff roster even without the exciting rebirth of Daniel Jones.
There’s also the fact that the Seahawk
offense looked weaker than a wet paper bag against Indy. It’s not hard to think forward to a pivotal divisional game on Thursday, and hope (plead, even) that the point-scoring attack can come with much more juice than we saw out there as the state gets wet weather dumped on it.
The good news is that each game is self-contained, to an extent. Coming out of a hard-fought win against a solidly built team is what it is. As the kids say: it do be like that sometimes. Colts Rookie tight end, Tyler Warren might be a dude in this league, but Seattle limited him to his second lowest yardage total (19) of the season.
That was against old man Rivers, and of course the Rams are a different matchup… a very big matchup. Is it possibly the biggest TNF game since Amazon has hosted? This is a game that could be part 2 of a trilogy match that concludes with both teams on a collision path in the playoffs.
For a Rams team expected to be without Davante Adams, they may be leaning on their tight ends even more than they did in the first matchup… especially since there is not another WR (besides Puka Nacua) with more than 17 targets! They adjusted out of 13, playing less of it than expected in Week 11 against the Hawks, but that was with both wideouts healthy. In their most recent game, against Detroit, the Rams lined up in 13-personnel (one back and three tight ends) “65% of the plays. That hasn’t been done in 20 years” (according to Jon Gruden on his weekly preview show).
Nick Emmanwori has been playing and playing well since he’s been back from injury. Let him play in the slot, at linebacker, a down safety, a deep safety, on the edge… he’s done well with a litany of assignments. The rookie is ~1/3 of a season wiser since the last time he played against Sean McVay’s offense. He is also a strong Defensive Rookie of the Year contender.
When asked about E-man’s versatile menu of alignments, HC Mike Macdonald talked about how the team has specific ways they communicate Emmanwori’s positioning and responsibilities. He goes on to say that the Seahawks have “never really had this… never had a player like him,” and they are “kind of making [it] up as we go to a certain extent”. He’s found himself to be a more integrated part of the defensive gameplan.
Emmanwori came up with his second consecutive contest with a sack against Indianapolis and was Seattle’s 2nd-leading tackler. He has shown up in coverage, as a blitzer and against the run. He may be Mike Macdonald’s answer to the enigma of how to stop LA’s multi-TE offense.
The kid does not lack confidence, as he said of his game on the Richard Sherman podcast (after the Falcons game): “I sometimes question myself, like what can’t I do? Or what is there that I can or can’t do? But I still really haven’t figured that out. I think I can do everything on the field”. Okay, that is NOT what I expected someone to say after they start with questioning themselves. The rookie may already be proving himself an alpha and worthy of that mindset when he steps on the gridiron.
He’ll need it, as Emmanwori will be seeing tight ends line up in-line, detached, in the slot, in the backfield and out wide in this unique LA offense. Sean McVay has his TE room ready to motion, fill-block and run routes from anywhere. Nick Emmanwori and Devon Witherspoon (and even Julian Love if he is healthy enough) can play multiple roles to match up with a tricky division rival.
Ultimately, we’ll probably see a mixture of corners, safeties, linebackers and edge players sharing some sort of coverage responsibilities against Rams tight ends. It should be the improving health and seasoning of Seattle’s secondary that proves a crucial deciding factor against the LA 13-heavy formations.
Nick Emmanwori and the multiplicity of the Seattle defense allow what the NFL considers “base defense” to not be the base for Coach Macdonald’s weekly lineup. Number 3 on defense is helping to change the rules and provide a new basis for Seattle football. The debut game for the rivalry unis will be one that provides the biggest test for those rules yet.
Do not let Colby Parkinson stiff-arm his way into the end zone again.
