The Seattle Seahawks still win with defense, but it's a different type of D this go-around.
"Richard Sherman and his era is over here," Seahawks defensive end Frank Clark said emphatically following Seattle's 21-7 shutdown of the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night.
Clark's comment was part of a response to Sherman calling Seattle's defense "middle of the road," but can be extrapolated further in context of Monday's performance.
Staples of a Pete Carroll-coached team, the Seahawks shut down the run on early downs and scrambled the quarterback's brain on third. Seattle held the Vikings to 3.7 yards per carry on the day, while forcing Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota offense to a pathetic 2 of 10 on third down, and 0-2 on fourth down.
"For so long, I feel like we've had this spirit over us -- that Super Bowl lingering from 2015. You know what I mean?" Clark said, via the Seattle Times. "I feel like for the longest (time) we had that cloud over us, like people wouldn't get over it. But I feel like there were some changes here. We were called a team that was going to have a rebuilding season, quote (unquote)."
"The one thing we want to do is just continue to go out there every week and prove all the doubters, all the haters, wrong and continue to show them that we're a team and we're a force to be reckoned with."
With the playoffs all but assured following Monday's win, these Seahawks have a chance to forge their own path, their own identity.
The holdover from the LOB days, Bobby Wagner, said he's preaching to the young defenders they don't have to emulate the past era.
"I think you just try to let them know that you don't have to be the dudes that used to be here," he said, via ESPN. "You can make the position special yourself. You don't have to be like Sherm. You don't have to be like Kam. Those are amazing players and they're like once in a lifetime players so you don't have to be that."
"You just go out there and do your job and do what God called on you to do and be whoever you are, you don't got to be anybody else and I think that's what it is: guys just going out there, having fun and being themselves."
