‘He’s on Cutting Edge of Everything’: Julian Love, Seahawks Racing Clock to Prepare For Sean McVay, Rams
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Seattle Seahawks safety Julian Love (20) tackles Los Angeles Rams running back Kyren Williams (23) during the second half at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images [/caption]
RENTON, Wash. - Physically, mentally, and logistically, Thursday Night Football creates a unique set of challenges for the two teams tasked with suiting up twice in a five-day span, trying to get their minds and bodies ready to play again in rapid fashion.
When the Seahawks hit the field for a crucial primetime rematch against the Rams on Thursday in a battle of the top two teams in the conference, it will mark the second time the two NFC West rivals have dueled in the past five weeks, which many would see as a benefit to both squads on a short practice week given their familiarity of one another. After all, the two teams face at least twice a year, leaving no shortage of film from previous matchups to use for game planning purposes for the latest installment at Lumen Field.
But as safety Julian Love cautioned on Monday, entering another chess match with Rams offensive mastermind Sean McVay mitigates much of that advantage for the Seahawks, as he seems to thrive off of such situations finding new tricks to pull out of his play calling hat in regard to both personnel usages and schematic innovations. With only three days to prepare and so much at stake with the No. 1 seed on the line, that can make an already daunting task feel all the more difficult.
“You kind of understand like the style, I guess you could say,” Love said of the Rams. “But with team like the Rams, they switch it up and present different things each week, especially their offense. And so it's like, all right, what are we going to do this week? And what is our plan of attack? It’s always high interest with division games, but obviously the moment of the season, this is big.”
Before pivoting this fall, McVay cut his teeth heavily leaning on 11 personnel groupings with three receivers, one running back, and one tight end on the field. Last season, they ranked second behind only the Falcons deploying 11 packages on 82.4% of their offensive snaps, and they ran nearly 95% of their offensive plays from those groupings in 2023, rarely diverting a different direction with an extra tight end or an extra receiver on the field.
But even after signing Davante Adams in free agency to pair up with star receiver Puka Nacua, with arguably the deepest tight end room in the NFL headlined by Colby Parkinson and Tyler Higbee, the Rams quickly shifted towards utilizing heavy personnel packages more than they ever had previously under McVay in the early stages of this season. According to TruMedia, Los Angeles has used 13 personnel with three tight ends on the field 24.6% of the time, nearly 10% higher than any other team in the league.
Even with Higbee on injured reserve, Parkinson has emerged as one of Matthew Stafford’s favorite targets, with two touchdowns against the Lions last weekend giving him a career-best six scores on the season thus far. Davis Allen has turned three of his 22 receptions into touchdowns, while rookie Terrance Ferguson has averaged 24 yards per catch on six receptions, adding another explosive element to the Rams’ passing arsenal as a seam stretcher.
“It seems like he's on the cutting edge of everything offensively in the past five to eight years,” Love said of McVay. “Right now, they're playing the game with the 13 [personnel]. You'll see other teams now and in the next year, the year after that, play the game of 13 taking notes from him… Colby [Parkinson’s] playing really well. The two tight ends are playing really well. The rookie they like, he's a skillful tight end. And so they're just trying to present issues right now. As the league's getting smaller, they go back to being big.”
If there’s a team equipped to handle the Rams’ shift towards larger personnel groupings, however, as they already proved in Week 11, the Seahawks can stand toe to toe with them thanks to their own versatile defensive personnel. Aside from having stalwarts in Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy II, and Demarcus Lawrence in the trenches, linebackers Ernest Jones and Drake Thomas have been multi-faceted playmakers both against the run and the pass, combining for 3.5 sacks and five interceptions.
But the real difference for Seattle lies in the secondary, where coach Mike Macdonald has the luxury of deploying two of the most dynamic weapons found in any defensive backfield in Devon Witherspoon and do-it-all rookie Nick Emmanwori. Both players excel as blitzers from the slot, with the latter having enough size to even line up in a two-point stance occasionally as an edge rusher or moonlight as an off-ball linebacker without a hitch, and can match up well against both receivers and tight ends in the passing game while also having the physicality and mindset to mix it up as hard hitters defending the run.
Love, who didn’t play in the first matchup last month as he continued to recover from a hamstring injury, called the versatility afforded to Macdonald by Emmanwori and Witherspoon the Seahawks “biggest weapon all year,” giving them a significant edge compared to other teams trying to counter the Rams’ revamped offensive approach.
“I think with the skill and the talent of Nick Emmanwori and Spoon, they can do so much. They can blitz. Nick can play defensive end pretty much. He can play safety, nickel, corner, whatever. He has the size to do it all, and Spoon has the talent to do it all, and so it allows us to be multiple. And I think that has been the story kind of the season… That's our strength.”
Having watched the 21-19 defeat at SoFi Stadium from the sidelines, Love felt the Seahawks started slow, referencing a couple of uncharacteristic explosive runs allowed in the first half to running back Kyren Williams. Circumstances weren’t helped much by the fact that Sam Darnold had an interception returned by safety Kamren Kinchens inside the five-yard line, leading to an easy touchdown to open the scoring and make it 7-0 in the first quarter. There wasn’t much else that could be done backed up against the goal line from the start.
But after a not-so-ideal start, Seattle’s defense settled down as the game progressed, allowing just seven points in the second half while managing to hold Stafford to a season-low 120 passing yards and keeping Williams at bay in the second half, retaining their current 23-game streak without allowing a 100-yard rusher. This kept the door open for a miraculous comeback to come to fruition, only for Jason Myers’ 61-yard field goal to fall short as time expired.
“Even that game had some hype to it, obviously, with two talented teams,” Love said. “We started slow, and we were kind of a little out of character early in that game, and then we settled in and we knocked it out. We felt like, man for man, we feel like we can compete with these guys. They're a really dynamic offense in this league, but we're a really dynamic defense. And so that's kind of the takeaway. We felt defensively, let's just settle in quicker, start much faster than we did last time, and just keep swinging.”
Full steam ahead for Thursday’s rematch, Love hopes that the training wheels will be taken off after being on a pitch count in his first two games back from injured reserve and that his presence back in the lineup can help the defense settle in faster in arguably the biggest Thursday Night Game in NFL history. Prior to this week, there had never been a game between two teams with 11 or more wins in the Thursday prime time slot, creating quite compelling mid-December cinema for football fans.
But with their first battle in Los Angeles already having significant stakes last month, Love doesn’t believe the hype this time around will produce too much pressure for the confident Seahawks. And with their own guru in Macdonald ready to dish out his own creative scheming on the defensive side, they expect to be more than ready to go toe-to-toe with their foe under the lights in front of their home crowd as they seek their first division crown in five years and first playoff bye since 2014.
“My mindset is, all right, let's say what it is. Right now, we're fighting for the No. 1 seed in the NFC. There's a lot of power in that, especially being in Seattle with a great home stadium. That's just where we are. We have a shot to do that, and it's a team that we've seen and we lost to in the past. We didn't play our cleanest football, so it was close and we just got to go out and just execute. You can appreciate the hype. You can try not to hide from it, just face it head on. That's kind of how my approach is. Embrace the moment.”
