{"id":663705,"date":"2026-01-08T12:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/663705\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T12:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:07:14","slug":"julian-love-shouts-out-riley-leonard-for-helping-seahawks-win-scoring-defense-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/663705\/","title":{"rendered":"Julian Love shouts out Riley Leonard for helping Seahawks win scoring defense title"},"content":{"rendered":"

Julian Love shouts out Riley Leonard for helping Seahawks win scoring defense title<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Seattle Seahawks<\/a> clinched the No. 1 seed with a dominant performance against the San Francisco 49ers in the regular season finale. San Francisco was red-hot entering the Week 18 matchup, scoring at least 37 points in three straight games. But the Seahawks shut the 49ers down<\/a>, holding Brock Purdy and company to just 173 total yards and three points.<\/p>\n

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Seattle finished the season as the No. 1 defense by DVOA<\/a>. The Seahawks\u2019 league-leading -24.2 defensive DVOA is the best mark for any team since 2018. Seattle also boasted the NFL\u2019s top scoring defense this season, allowing a very stingy 17.2 points per game.<\/p>\n

The Seahawks just edged out the Houston Texans for top scoring defense honors. Houston gave up 17.4 points per contest this year. When told of Seattle\u2019s accomplishment, Julian Love gave credit where it\u2019s due<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s cool. Thank goodness for Riley Leonard<\/a>,\u201d Love said, per The Athletic\u2019s Michael-Shawn Dugar.<\/p>\n

Riley Leonard helps Seahawks surpass Texans\"Troy<\/p>\n

Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Leonard got his first career start<\/a> in Week 18 and the rookie quarterback hung 30 points on the vaunted Texans defense. Despite facing a laundry list of star passers, including Matthew Stafford, Trevor Lawrence (twice), Sam Darnold, Purdy, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert, Week 18 marked the first time all season Houston allowed 30 points in a game.<\/p>\n

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Leonard\u2019s outburst, combined with the Seahawks\u2019 13-3 effort, allowed Seattle to surpass the Texans as the league\u2019s stingiest defense. Houston, however, finished as the top overall defense, allowing 277.2 total yards per game. The Seahawks ranked sixth in total yards allowed, averaging 285.6 per contest.<\/p>\n

Week 18\u2019s divisional clash featured a good-on-good matchup. But ultimately, Seattle\u2019s defense outshined the 49ers\u2019 offense. The Seahawks bloodied Purdy<\/a> in a dominant performance.<\/p>\n

Seattle created constant pressure on the fourth-year passer, registering three sacks and eight QB hits. After scoring 10 touchdowns in his last two games, Purdy was held out of the end zone. He went 19\/27 for 127 scoreless yards and an interception.<\/p>\n

The Seahawks earned a first-round bye with the win. The 49ers will head to Philadelphia to face the No. 3 seed Eagles in a Wild Card matchup on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Related: NFL rumors: 4 teams request head coach interviews with Seahawks\u2019 OC<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: NFL Week 18 Winners and Losers: The NFC South ends like only it can<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Julian Love shouts out Riley Leonard for helping Seahawks win scoring defense title appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2081],"tags":[2644,2908,84185,7,253,872,1329,1159,32,6,499,242,747,1878,1161,252,238,237,261,2635,314],"class_list":{"0":"post-663705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-seahawks","8":"tag-brock-purdy","9":"tag-defense","10":"tag-dominant-performance","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-houston-texans","13":"tag-josh-allen","14":"tag-julian-love","15":"tag-justin-herbert","16":"tag-matthew-stafford","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-patrick-mahomes","19":"tag-philadelphia","20":"tag-riley-leonard","21":"tag-sam-darnold","22":"tag-san-francisco","23":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","24":"tag-seahawks","25":"tag-seattle","26":"tag-seattle-seahawks","27":"tag-seattleseahawks","28":"tag-trevor-lawrence"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115859403860950243","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}