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RENTON http://www.theseahawksfanshop.com/Phil-Haynes-Jersey , Wash. (AP) — The players the Seattle Seahawks lost off their defense over the past year became synonymous with being considered among the best at their position and creating an elite unit that was tough to have success against.And yet, the current batch of Seahawks sit near the midseason point with a defense that statistically is back among the elite of the NFL.“I’m not surprised at all. We knew coming into the season we had a great group of guys and we knew the outside was sleeping on the leadership we had in the building and the people that we had in the building. … We knew that people didn’t see that. They wouldn’t see that,” Seattle linebacker Bobby Wagner said.“If you listened to us talk, we were very confident in what we were going to get accomplished and what we were going to be doing. What we are seeing is good, but I think there is a level where we can get better.”Heading into Week 9, the Seahawks have the No. 5 total defense (327.3 yards per game), No. 4 in pass defense (219.0) and No. 4 in points allowed per game (18.7). Those numbers include six games playing without starting linebacker K.J. Wright because of knee surgery and three games without Earl Thomas after he suffered a broken leg in the Week 4 win over Arizona.Wagner was around before the overhaul started. So was defensive end Frank Clark and defensive tackle Jarran Reed. But the rest of Seattle’s defense has been largely re-tooled over the past two seasons. And instead of Seattle taking a major step back, it has returned to being among the NFL’s best in less than half a season.“The first few games, even up until now, we were still trying to learn how to play with one another, learn how to have fun with one another,” Wagner said. “Now, you’re seeing the product of that last game and I think it’s still room to get better.”Seattle is coming off one of its better defensive performance of the season when it limited Detroit to 34 yards rushing in a 28-14 win over the Lions last week. Matthew Stafford still had a big day throwing the ball, but the Seahawks ability to make Detroit one-dimensional on offense was critical considering the Lions ability to run the ball in recent weeks.It was the fourth time Seattle held an opponent under 100 yards rushing and the Seahawks forced three turnovers bringing their season total to 16.The Seahawks were hopeful this kind of defense would develop but knew it could take some time with new players such as Tre Flowers, Shamar Stephen and Barkevious Mingo joining the lineup, and Tedric Thompson Ugo Amadi Jersey , Bradley McDougald and Shaquill Griffin stepping into more prominent roles.“There is so much football that they don’t know you can’t be upset by what they’re doing. Because they’re working really hard, they’ve had success, they’ve had failure,” Seattle defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. said. “They’ve learned from their successes and failures so it’s really fun to watch the development of the young players.”The competition Seattle has faced should be noted and will get significantly tougher in the coming weeks, beginning with Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers. Three of Seattle’s wins have come against teams ranked in the bottom half of the league in total offense.That changes this weekend. Led by Philip Rivers, the Chargers have the sixth-best offense in the NFL averaging 402.7 yards per game, and nearly 28 points. That’s followed by a matchup with the Los Angeles Rams and their second-ranked total offense; then back home to face Green Bay and Aaron Rodgers on a short week after that; and finally a trip to face Cam Newton and Carolina to close out November.If there’s a concern that Seattle’s defense has yet to be truly tested, the examination will happen over the next four games.“We all treating them the same and that’s the best quarterback we’ve played against,” Griffin said. “That’s the type of mentality we have to bring to that, no matter what quarterback we’re facing. We’re going to bring the same mentality and play our best ball. You name some great guys and I’m looking forward to playing against all of them.”NOTES: Coach Pete Carroll said the release of veteran WR Brandon Marshall on Tuesday was mostly because of roster construction and the fact Seattle is passing the ball less. Marshall had only two snaps in the win over Detroit and Carroll said the roster spot was needed for additional special teams help. The Seahawks promoted WR Malik Turner from the practice squad on Wednesday to take Marshall’s spot. … Carroll said the team was hoping for a shorter suspension for LB Mychal Kendricks, who was suspended eight games, but looked forward to getting him back late in the season. Through the first twelve games of 2018 Russell Wilson has tossed 29 touchdown passes, and earlier this year I took a look at every scoring pass he had thrown through the first eight weeks of the season. Now seems like an opportune moment to look at each of the touchdown passes he has thrown in the five games since then. I’ll simply start with his touchdown passes against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 9 and work my way forward. Touchdown 17: Week 9 against the Los Angeles Chargers 7:02 in the first quarter against Cover-3 zone.Touchdown 18: Week 9 against the Los Angeles Chargers 1:53 in the fourth quarter against Cover-3 zone.Touchdown 19: Week 10 against the Los Angeles Rams 11:23 in the first quarter against a single high safety. Touchdown 20: Week 10 against the Los Angeles Rams 4:27 in the third quarter against a single high safety.Touchdown 21: Week 10 against the Los Angeles Rams 2:00 in the fourth quarter against cover-0 (no high safety). Touchdown 22: Week 11 against the Green Bay Packers 8:07 in the second quarter against cover-0 (no high safety). Touchdown 23: Week 11 against the Green Bay Packers 5:11 in the fourth quarter against a single high safety. Touchdown 24: Week 12 against the Carolina Panthers 6:48 in the third quarter against two high safeties. Touchdown 25: Week 12 against the Carolina Panthers 3:33 in the fourth quarter against a single high safety. Touchdown 26: Week 13 against the San Francisco 49ers 1:32 in the first quarter against two high safeties. Touchdown 27: Week 13 against the San Francisco 49ers 13:49 in the second quarter against cover-3. Touchdown 28: Week 13 against the San Francisco 49ers 1:20 in the second quarter against cover-3. Touchdown 29: Week 13 against the San Francisco 49ers 14:24 in the fourth quarter against cover-3. In short, in looking at the 29 touchdown passes Wilson has tossed this season, only four of them have come when the defense was playing two high safeties. Further, the longest touchdown the Seahawks have thrown against a defense playing two high safeties has beentwelve yards in length Mychal Kendricks Jersey , while more than half of Wilson’s scoring tosses have come from 15 or more yards against a single high safety or no safety. Why is that? It’s simply the system. As I’ve noted multiple times throughout the course of the season, the Air Coryell system is designed to stress the defense by getting five receivers in the pattern and then attacking the weak part of the defense. In this system the pre-snap reads are vital, as they determine where the primary target is for the quarterback. On Tuesday I took a look at why the Hawks keep running on second and long, and how the data seems to show that this may be no more than a function of how the safeties are aligning. In order to further support this idea that the pre-snap reads for this system dictate what the offense does, let’s take a look at Russell Wilson’s game log for 2018 and focus on his touchdown passes. Russell Wilson 2018 GamelogWeekOppCmpAttCmp%TDIntRateSkYdsYdsWeekOppCmpAttCmp%TDIntRateSkYdsYdsLooking at that, it becomes pretty apparent that Wilson has shredded defenses this season, but that Week 4 game against the Arizona Cardinals certainly stands out. What is up with Wilson having at least one touchdown pass in every game except against one of the worst teams in the NFL? Well, for that, let’s flip on some film and look at how Arizona lined up defensively against the Hawks. Here is how they aligned defensively on the first five plays of the game. The first four of those plays were runs, with the Hawks only running out of the five wide formation with no back in the backfield for Wilson to give the ball to. What is readily apparent is that even when the Cardinals are playing with just a single deep safety, they are playing a soft zone. That is what Arizona does under head coach Steve Wilks. Wilks was hired by the Cardinals from the Carolina Panthers where he coached under Ron Rivera. Rivera and Wilks first worked together for the Chicago Bears under Lovie Smith, and where they ran the Tampa-2 that Smith had learned under Tony Dungy. In short, the Tampa-2 is the defense that typically gives the Air Coryell offense the most problems because it takes away the deep pass and forces the offense to repeatedly execute and work down the field in chunks. It’s basically the same concept as Pete Carroll’s cover-3, but the Tampa-2 doesn’t require an All World safety with insane range like Earl Thomas to be successful because the safeties have less ground to cover. During the 1999 NFL season when the St. Louis Rams and their greatest show on turf were lighting up the scoreboard, NFL teams averaged 20.8 points per game. The Rams that season averaged 32.9 points per game, and were held under that league average of 20.8 points only once. That lone game where the Rams were held below league average? It was the NFC Championship game against the All World defense of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Steve Largent Color Rush Jersey , which, of course, ran the Tampa-2 under Tony Dungy. Getting back to the Week 4 game against the Cardinals, let’s take a look at Russell Wilson’s passing chart against the Cards, courtesy of NFL’s Next Gen Stats. That’s a whole lot of short passes, and only one attempt deeper than 12 yards. What happened on that lone deep pass attempt? Was there a coverage breakdown? Was it a scramble drill play? Well, let’s take a look at the defensive alignment when the ball was snapped. Simply put, on the one play where Wilson tried to complete a pass of deeper than 12 yards, the Cardinals were not in a soft zone. So, what happened after that? The Cardinals went right back to their soft zone alignment, as is seen on the pre-snap alignment for the next five plays. Why am I going into all of this heading into the Monday Night Football game against the Minnesota Vikings? Well, simply put, and as I’ll look at more over the next several days, the Vikings do a mixture of things which could give the Seahawks offense problems. Does that mean they’ll shut down the Hawks? Not at all.It just means that the Hawks will need to be on their game and ready to execute.