by John HickeyFiled under: Saints, Seahawks, NFC South, NFC West
SEATTLE -- If you are looking for proof that numbers don't mean everything, all you had to do was to look at the Seattle defense Saturday against the New Orleans Saints.The Seahawks gave up 474 total yards, had Saints' quarterback Drew Brees complete 39 passes and saw New Orleans rack up 36 points.
For all of that, it was a good day for the Seahawks defense, which made big play after big play when it mattered. And when it mattered most was when the Seahawks were in a 17-7 hole at the 13:42 mark of the second quarter. It was at that point that Seattle's spine stiffened.
Here's a breakdown of the six possessions following the moment New Orleans took that 10-point lead on Julius Jones' five-yard touchdown run:
o. Three plays, then a punt.
o. David Hawthorne's recovery of a Jones fumble on the first play of the next drive.
o. Three plays, then a punt.
o. An 11-play drive that resulted in a 22-yard Garrett Hartley field goal. Six of the plays were from the 14 and closer, but the Seahawks held and with the clock an enemy, the Saints had to settle for three.
o. One first down on the first drive of the second half, then a punt.
o. Three plays, then a punt.
During that time, the Seahawks offense took control of the game, outscoring New Orleans 27-3.
Yes, the Saints ran up some big yardage in the late third and early fourth quarter, but the hole New Orleans was in proved insurmountable as the 7-9 Seahawks pulled off the stunner.
Asked what happened after it got to 17-7, coach Pete Carroll made it sound simple, starting with the second of two touchdown connections from Matt Hasselbeck to tight end Jon Carlson.
"We finally stopped them,'' Carroll said. "We couldn't stop them the first few times they had the ball. They are a notorious start-fast team. But we already had that in our mindset. It (conceding) was not part of our thinking, and we just kept playing football.''
Middle linebacker Hawthorne gave Brees pause to think on that first Saints drive up 17-7, almost intercepting a Brees pass. And after defensive end Raheem Brock separated Jones from the ball, Hawthorne fell on the ball at the 18 giving Seattle possession for what would be a game-tying field goal.
"It wasn't nothing major,'' Hawthorne said of the turnaround. "We just went back to the game plan and come out and tried to execute better. We didn't scrap the playbook or nothing like that. People focused up and realized that this game could be ours if we just do the fundamentals and get back to the basics. We did a good job of that.''
Brock then got a sack of Brees on the next New Orleans possession as the momentum began to flow solidly in Seattle's direction. And no one was happier about that than Brock, who was with the Colts last year when the Saints beat them in the playoffs.
"It feels good to get them back and hit Brees a couple of times,'' Brock said.
Seattle took the second-half kickoff and went down and scored on a Mike Williams' touchdown catch, and now the Saints were in trouble, down 11 points at 31-20.
But on the next possession, New Orleans' first of the second half, safety Lawyer Milloy stepped up and forced Brees into an intentional grounding penalty on a second down and free safety Earl Thomas came up on second down and made sure Brees couldn't connect with receiver Lance Moore, forcing another punt.
Then Seattle cornerback Marcus Trufant, given the primary charge of handling Saints' multipurpose offensive threat Reggie Bush, shut down a Brees-to-Bush pass after just two yards, setting up another three-and-out.
"You've got to show the Saints look after look,'' Trufant said. "You've got to show them a whole bunch of different looks because they're going to come out and they're going to put up points.
"They're a great offense. They've got a great quarterback, they've got great receivers, so they're going to get their points and they're going to get their yards. You've just got to try to limit the big play.''
For one afternoon, anyway, the Seattle defense was up to the task.
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