Seattle Seahawks showing they're 'a smart football team'

The defense led the Seattle Seahawks to their win over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.

The unit forced a whopping five turnovers, including a pick-six, sacked undrafted rookie quarterback Max Brosmer four times and held the Vikings to a meager 162 total yards on its way the franchise’s first shutout in a decade.

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The results on the offensive side of the ball weren’t nearly as impressive.

The offense produced season lows of 219 total yards and 94 passing yards. It settled for field goals four times. And quarterback Sam Darnold completed just 14 of 26 passes and was sacked four times.

Even though it was far from Seattle’s best day on offense, FOX analyst and former NFL offensive lineman Mark Schlereth came away thoroughly impressed with the game plan. He explained why it showed the Seahawks are “a smart football team” during his weekly conversation with Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob on Monday.

“I thought one of the cool things that I went back and kind of studied – I love this aspect of football. What do we have to do to win this game?” Schlereth said. “Ultimately, they knew they were gonna be good on the defensive side. They knew they’d be able to create pressure. They knew they’d be able to create some turnovers and do those things.”

With the defense having a clear advantage against a struggling Vikings offense led by a third-string quarterback making his first career start, Schlereth felt Seattle’s conservative approach offensively made perfect sense against a defense than can cause havoc with its array of blitzes.

“I thought it was exceptional. Just throwing the ball outside the numbers: stick routes, quick slants – it was all basically three-step (drop), balls out,” Schlereth said. “Everything was basically, let’s get the ball out of our hands because we know Minnesota’s propensity to bring pressure, we know about their blitz packages. And so it was this complimentary football to me that was like, hey man, if we score 13 points, we’re gonna win.”

Ultimately, that sort of game plan kept Darnold mostly out of harms way, particularly in the second half when he wasn’t sacked.

“I think they just lived in that quick-game realm and understood what we have to do to be successful and what we have to do to protect our quarterback,” Schlereth said. “I just think that stuff is brilliant, because of course you’d like to see them hang 50 on everybody. But that’s how eventually you get yourself into trouble, you get strip sacked (and) fumble, you get your quarterback hit in the ribs and the next thing you know he’s out for three weeks.

“I thought that part of it was brilliant by Seattle, and it just goes to show you that they’re a smart football team, an incredibly well-coached football team. They know exactly who they are and what they’re trying to accomplish. So I think that stuff kind of goes unsaid, but I think that’s the stuff that sets apart the good teams from the bad teams.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Listen to Wyman and Bob weekdays from 2-7 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

Seattle Seahawks showing they’re ‘a smart football team’

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