Seattle Seahawks: 3 Big takeaways from win vs. Cardinals in Week 17
By Samuel Teets
The offensive line still struggles with pass blocking
Even though the Seahawks offense has no problem running the ball, Wilson has been under constant pressure most of this season. Sunday wasn’t anything different. Wilson was sacked a whopping six times by the Cardinals, and it wasn’t just one player putting the squeeze on Wilson. Six Cardinals defenders in total tallied half a sack or more. If anything, that number shows that the whole offensive line and blocking scheme has holes.
Only one Cardinal defender has more than five sacks this season and that’s the All-Pro defensive end, Chandler Jones. By contrast, three Cowboys defenders have more than five sacks in 2018. One of those players is Pro Bowl defensive end Demarcus Lawrence. Lawrence only has half of a sack back in Week 3, but Seattle has failed to stop star pass rushers all year long.
Wilson has been sacked 51 times this season. That’s the most times he’s been sacked in a single season during his career. The previous high was 45 times back in 2015. Wilson has been sacked more than 40 times in every season except for his rookie campaign. He’s been running from pressure for his entire career, but who knows how much longer he can do that?
The Seahawks need to plan to face pressure next week. They saw just how much an effective pass rush messed up the passing game this week, now they need to learn from that a prepare to deal with similar pressure next week.