And while the Seahawks were able to slow Rivers down, the bigger key to their victory was work they did on run defense facing Jonathan Taylor, the NFL’s leading rusher. Taylor, who came into the game with 1,356 rushing yards, 16 touchdowns and a 5.5 yards-per-carry average, was held to 87 yards on 25 attempts, an average of 3.5 yards per carry. Most significantly, the Seahawks limited big plays by one of the league’s most explosive backs. Taylor, who has nine rushes of 20 or more yards and four of 40 or longer this season, was held to a long of 11 on Sunday.
“He’s one of the best running backs in the league, but we were able to stop him, get good hits on him,” said defensive tackle Byron Murphy II. “Also, too, just being aggressive up front, being physical, knocking the O-line back. We were able to create negative plays and just keep them in the phone booth. I mean, we did that.”
Taylor is always a huge part of the Colts’ offensive game plan, but the Seahawks knew that would really be the case on Sunday with the Colts not wanting to rely too much on Rivers in his first week back on the job.
“That was big,” linebacker Ernest Jones IV said of slowing Taylor. “We knew coming in they weren’t going to try to lean on (Rivers’) arm, the whole game. We knew they were going to try to use him a bunch. So, we knew coming in to just make sure we stop him. If anything, all 11 heads to the ball, and let’s hit him hard.”
Said Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald. “I’ll tell you what, our front I thought really battled. Playing a lot of those runs in split safety, that’s really what we do. They did a great job. Now, it was great to have Rylie (Mills) go out there and have his first game experience and he’s going to learn from some of those things about what it’s like. Got to give him a lot of credit. He is out there, he’s battling, and hadn’t done it in a long time. So it was great to have him.”
After slowing Rivers and Taylor throughout the game, Seattle’s defense was asked to make one last stop after Jason Myers’ 56-yard go-ahead field goal with 29 seconds left. At that point, Rivers, who had mostly lived on short passes, had to take a shot downfield, and the Seahawks were ready, with Devon Witherspoon tipping the pass to set up Bryant’s game-clinching interception.
“We play football, we play together, we play 12 as One,” Witherspoon said. “It’s always going to feel like [there’s an] extra defender out that when we play, because as we just fly around and we swarm to the football.”
