When the Seattle Seahawks punched their ticket to Super Bowl 60 against the Los Angeles Rams, the team could finally exhale after a hard-fought victory. Many players stepped up in big moments.
Sam Darnold made clutch third-down throws, Jaxon Smith-Njigba was a consistent presence throughout the game, but the most significant play was one that won’t show up in the stat sheets, made by Demarcus Lawrence.
On fourth down near the goal line with the Rams down by four and in position to take the lead late in the fourth quarter with a touchdown, the Seahawks broke up a pass to tight end Terrance Ferguson to force a turnover on downs. However, it was what Lawrence did in the play that made the breakup possible.
High Football IQ
Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald didn’t draw up for Demarcus Lawrence to abandon his rush and drop in the flat and cover running back Kyren Williams, but 12 years of NFL experience allowed Lawrence to make the play.
After the game, Rams head coach Sean McVay appeared baffled by what Lawrence was doing on the play. McVay discussed the play in his post-game press conference. Seahawks.com provided the transcript of McVay’s answer.
“You’re talking about the one where we ended up coming up short? Yeah, I mean they were bringing a zero,” McVay said. “They ended up peeling two guys. Can’t imagine that’s what they were really trying to do kind of trying to move off schedule. And I’ll have to go back and look at it, but there was the other opportunities on the previous play that we could have converted on that one, too.”
While it appeared at first to be a miscommunication, Lawrence intentionally dropped back into coverage instead of rushing Matthew Stafford . He explained his thinking behind his actions during an interview in the Seahawks’ locker room.
“Too fast. The back was too fast. If it was a regular design and the back wasn’t his [Stafford] hot, the back would have waited to see if Julian [Love] was gonna rush first and then flare it out, but he didn’t wait. So, it was definitely an indicator, like an ‘Oh sh–’ moment. The back is flaring out that fast that means that’s his hot, so he’s going to the back first. Playing football as long as I’ve played, I’ve only seen so many formations and schemes. You start to pick up on those things.”
Lawrence has a special ability to recognize plays as they develop, and he displayed it in the NFC Championship game.
Special Instincts
On the pivotal fourth-down play, Demarcus Lawrence used his veteran instincts to clean up what could have been a season-ending mess for the Seahawks defense.
Seahawks safety Julian Love was late getting out of his break and was trailing slightly behind Kyren Williams when Lawrence abandoned his rush to pick up the slack in coverage.
John Boyle of Seahawks.com , in his January 29 article, wrote about Love praising Lawrence’s instincts on the play.
“I was a step too far up field, and (Williams) got out pretty quick,” Love said. “It was a designed play, obviously, and D-Law, he just felt something funny going on, I think he thought it was a screen or some weird action because of how fast the back got out versus a pressure look. So something was off in his mind, and thankful he had the wherewithal to drop and clear screen, and then he just bailed into the zone. Obviously, he was in a great spot just off of instincts.”
Love then discussed how Lawrence’s awareness allows him to erase mistakes.
“He’s special, he’s the perimeter killer,” Love said. “Every screen play that you’ve seen, he’s involved in, he’s chasing something down because he’s like, ‘No, something’s wrong.‘ And he gets out. And that was one of those, and thankfully he saved my ass on it… It was just such a heads up play by him. Something was off, and he just had the wherewithal to read it out, get out there quick. He’s just been around the block a long time, and sometimes instinct just takes over. I’m definitely grateful.”
Next week, for the first time in his 12-year career, Lawrence will play in the Super Bowl, but despite this being his first time in a game of this magnitude, the defense will still lean on his veteran wisdom.
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