The Seattle Seahawks looked and felt radically different on Sunday compared to what we had become accustomed to over the last several years. From the vibrant greens and blues of their throwback uniforms to the fresh faces on the sidelines and up in the booth, almost everything about this team seemed to have undergone a radical change, including the vibes.
On the field the biggest difference we saw was a stark contrast in how well the team tackled, especially compared to previous season openers and other early games on the schedule in the latter years under former head coach Pete Carroll.
Seattle tackled flawlessly at all three levels of the defense, but the changes were most evident on the back end, where this was an issue for everybody last season. Third-year cornerback Riq Woolen in particular looked much-improved in this part of the game. Here's what Woolen said about the change yesterday, per Mike Dugar at The Athletic.
Riq Woolen on Seahawks' improved tackling
“We practice tackling every day... It’s a big emphasis around here. You can just tell it’s just natural to everybody. Everybody is just going in there, and we trying to get guys down. On Sunday it reflected how much tackling practice we’ve had. We’re just going to continue to build on it.”
There's no reason to believe that Woolen meant this as a heaping of shade on his former coach, but nevertheless it functions as just that and it's well-deserved.
Remember, Carroll did not allow his players to practice real tackling throughout the offseason. While it was intended to cut down on unnecessary injuries, the team invariably started out the regular season with serious tackling issues. Eventually the tackling improved every year and was on-point no later than Week 5, but the Seahawks' ineptitude in this area was a major reason why they had so many slow starts to the year once the core of the Legion of Boom defenses had moved on.
Anyway, what matters is the Seahawks were exceptional tackling on Sunday, especially on open field solo attempts when there was no help around. It's a long season and we're only one game in, but most of the advanced stats indicate that this is the toughest defense in the NFL this year.
