Seahawks/Cardinals Preview: Defensive Gameplan

September 12, 2007 by Walter Mitchell

The Seahawks are 1-0 following a convincing 20-6 home win over Tampa Bay. The Cardinals are 0-1, having squandered a late lead in a heartbreaking 20-17 loss at San Francisco. This home opener for the Cardinals is a critical game against their division arch-rivals. A loss plummets the Cardinals into an 0-2 hole in the division. A win could move them into a tie for first place, should the Rams win at home versus the 49ers. The atmosphere at University of Phoenix stadium should be electric. Will the Cardinals, a three point underdog at home, prevail in this game? Here are some thoughts as to what it will take for the Cardinals to do on so on defense. Tommorow we will look at the offense and special teams.

 Defensive Gameplan:

Surprisingly, the 49ers’ gameplan versus the Cardinals was not to attack what appeared to be the Cardinals’ greatest defensive weaknesses in pre-season and throughout last season…the Cardinals’ propensity to give up outside contain, and their pattern of giving up easy completions over the middle on key third downs. Ironically, the 49ers waited until the game was on the line to throw over the middle in a key situation (the pass to Arnaz Battle) and then run the end around for the game winning TD (where, alas, there was no contain whatsoever on the Cardinals’ part).

Seattle, under Mike Holmgren, is too well coached not to focus on these vulnerabilities in the Cardinal defense…and Holmgren has just the players to do it with. In the Tampa Bay game, Holmgren called numerous bootleg and waggle plays for QB Matt Hasselbeck, and virtually all of them were successful in getting Hasselbeck plenty of time and vision to make plays. 

Holmgren has a veteran tight end in Marcus Pollard to run the short and intermediate drag routes, and he has a quartet of athletic WRs in D.J. Hackett, Deion Branch, Nate Burleson and Bobby Engram to exploit the secondary with.

Holmgren wants teams to play zone versus his offense, which is why he moves Matt Hasselbeck around so much. He realizes that teams will have to shadow Hasselbeck with their MLB to provide run support if Hasselbeck takes off. Such shadowing puts defensive coordinators in a bind, because they now have the 5 eligible receivers to shadow as well. If the team elects to rush 4…and play man-to-man with 5, and shadow Hasselbeck with 1, that leaves just 1 safety for deep help.

In the past, Clancy Pendergast has played a steady diet of zones versus Seattle…which is why WRs like Darrell Jackson have had consistently big days versus the Cardinals. Pendergast mixed up his coverages well versus the 49ers, and he will have to do so again…but he will also have to make sure his edge defenders establish contain or, no matter what the Cardinals throw at the Seahawks, they will be toast.

Oh yeah, and then there’s the business of slowing down RBs Shaun Alexander and Maurice Morris. In watching Alexander run versus Tampa Bay, not only has he slowed some, he almost always went down on first contact, which is a little weird seeing as the Bucs’ defense was not tackling like they normally do. In fact, there were several occasions when OLB Derrick Brooks would make an initial hit, but never even attempt to wrap up.

Morris, in some ways, presents a greater challenge in that he’s quicker to the holes and more of a breakaway threat.

So, how should the Cardinals gameplan for the Seahawks’ offense?

1. Get similar efforts and production from the interior five of DE Darnell Dockett–NT Gabe Watson–DE Antonio Smith–SILB Gerald Hayes–and WILB Karlos Dansby.

2. Ensure that when the flow is away the OLBers, Calvin Pace and Bertrand Berry don’t get suckered crashing down inside, but get upfield instead to maintain outside contain, so as to be sitting right in any bootleg, waggle or reverse.

3. Mix pass coverages with the same variety of blitzes they threw at the 49ers.

4. Have the free safety focus on Deion Branch out of the slot…yes, that would allow less deep help for Eric Green and Roderick Hood, but Green and Hood can handle Hackett and Burleson. The toughest matchup of the game for the Cardinals is Deion Branch. If the Cardinals allow wide open shots to Branch out of the slot, they will be in big trouble.

5. If they are having trouble with Branch, play the twin free safety package with Holt and Francisco…and have one of them key on Branch and the other play centerfield and read Hasselbeck’s eyes. The gist is…no matter what coverage the Cardinals are in, they are going to have to commit one of the safeties to inside coverage. Therefore, the Cardinals will need a big day from Terrence Holt as a centerfielder.

6. Do everything possible to keep Matt Hasselbeck in the pocket…he’s less effective there, but remains a threat to take off, so that will behoove the Cardinals to get good inside pressure via the DTs (use Chris Cooper in passing situations) and a steady array of inside blitzes from Gerald Hayes or Karlos Dansby.

7. React quickly and decisively to the Seahawk screens. They are very good at running screens. Very good. And, they like to throw the fake screen one way and screen back to the other, which again, would require the Cardinal defenders to stay at home when flow appears to be away.

8. Blow up FB Mack Strong in the holes…the Cardinals can’t let him get to the second level.

9. Ace Up the Sleeve? This is my favorite here: send occasional corner blitzes after Hasselbeck to pressure him from the outside and make him think twice about bootlegs and waggles. Cover for the corner with the safety.

10. Punish Alexander…he needs to be sent a message and he looks like he will fold like a tent if the going gets tough. And…punish the WRs everytime they come over the middle.

The Cardinal defense played an outstanding 37 minutes versus the 49ers. They took away their basic plays, held Frank Gore to a paltry 55 yards on 18 carries (3.1), held TE Vernon Davis to 2 catches for 4 yards (wow!) and held Arnaz Battle and Darrell Jackson to under 100 yards combined. This week they can have similar success only if they keep clogging the middle with their front five and make an all-out effort to limit Hasselbeck’s mobility.

Posted in football