As the flags continue to fly this preseason, there has been a lot of talk about the Seahawks defense, and their secondary in particular. When the NFL decided to make defensive holding and illegal contact a point of emphasis for 2014, the assumption made by most was that it was basically a “Legion of Boom” rule. After watching Seattle’s defense stifle the league’s best offensive in the Super Bowl, it appeared the NFL decided to make yet another offensive-friendly change.
Players on other teams have talked about the Seahawks being the cause for these changes, as has Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Yet maybe that blame is a just a little bit misplaced, or if the NFL did indeed make those points of emphasis with the Seahawks D in mind, perhaps the league was a bit off on its opinion of how the Seahawks secondary plays.
Through three preseason games, despite the increase in flags league wide, Seattle’s starting defensive backs have yet to draw a flag, and no Seahawks have been called for defensive holding. Seahawks backups have drawn a handful of illegal contact flags, though at least one of those, the one that negated Tharold Simon’s 105-yard interception return for a touchdown, was a bad call by the league’s own admission.
So clearly the Seahawks made some big adjustments to those new rules, right?
“We didn’t adjust anything,” cornerback Richard Sherman said. “We’ve been playing the game the right way, we continue to play it the right way.
“Everybody just complains and whines about us breaking the rules, etcetera, etcetera, but apparently they break the rules a lot more than we do. It’s just funny to watch it. The same thing that makes you laugh makes you cry, so it makes us laugh.”
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