Brandon Mebane

[flyerhawk]

I have to say I thought we were screwed when Mebane went down. He was playing well and he had a somewhat unique skill set on the team.

However, since his injury the Seahawks have gone back to being the best defense in football. A lot of that has to do with Wagner, Kam, and Maxwell coming back. But Kevin Williams and Jordan Hill have played inspired football. Since Mebane's injury, Jordan Hill has 3 sacks!

If only our OL could play half as well.

 

[Mariners_44]

Jordan Hill has been a huge surprise, and bodes well for the future if he can keep it up. Though, I think the most noticable plug has been Wagner. That dude is all over, especially up the middle against the run. The D is out of their mind right now.

 

[PolarVortex]

I have to say I thought we were screwed when Mebane went down. He was playing well and he had a somewhat unique skill set on the team.

However, since his injury the Seahawks have gone back to being the best defense in football. A lot of that has to do with Wagner, Kam, and Maxwell coming back. But Kevin Williams and Jordan Hill have played inspired football. Since Mebane's injury, Jordan Hill has 3 sacks!

If only our OL could play half as well.

What Williams and Hill are doing is reminding me of the way Byron Maxwell and Jeremy Lane stepped up last year.

 

[Sharkonabicycle]

Jordan Hill has been beasting it since he came into that role, which is AWESOME. D-Line is the one area I'd still love us to draft but Hill playing like he has is a relief. Williams wont be here much longer (just age) so we still need to find a replacement.

 

[Banned 10x]

Jordan Hill has been a huge surprise, and bodes well for the future if he can keep it up. Though, I think the most noticable plug has been Wagner. That dude is all over, especially up the middle against the run. The D is out of their mind right now.

Wagner really seems like the guy who makes this Defense elite. I certainly hope they have the funds to resign him.

 

[gowazzu02]

Dont forget Kam finally got healthy too. Having him at 100% is night and day.

But yes. Wags coming back.

Plus hill really stepped up when we needed him too. Thats really cool to see. I love it when guys are thrust into the spot light and take the opp and run with it.

As someone said, reminds me of Maxy last year.

 

[FirebreathingMonkey]

SEATTLE -- Sometimes you can lose something important that causes you to find something you didn’t know you had.

The Seattle Seahawks lost nose tackle Brandon Mebane a month ago. They found Kevin Williams and Jordan Hill.

The defense had another dominating performance Sunday in the 17-7 victory over the San Francisco 49ers, and Williams and Hill led the charge up front.

Seattle had 11 stops behind the line of scrimmage, including a season-best six sacks. The Seahawks also had a key stop in the fourth quarter by defensive end O'Brien Schofield when the 49ers had a fourth-and-1 at the Seattle 38.

Seven different players were involved in those 12 plays, but it all starts up front and in the middle with a wily old pro in Williams and an emerging young talent in Hill. Those two defensive tackles combined for seven tackles, including three sacks and another tackle for a loss.

Mebane was having, arguably, the best season of his career at nose tackle before a hamstring injury ended it five games ago. Since the Seahawks don’t have another true nose tackle on the roster, there were major concerns about how the interior of the defensive line would hold up.

Williams and Hill have stepped up to fill the void in Mebane’s absence. Williams had a sack and a stop for a loss in his four tackles Sunday. At age 34 in his 12th season, the six-time Pro Bowler is playing like he’s 24 again in stepping into Mebane’s starting spot.

“Kevin’s doing a hell of a job,” said Seattle middle linebacker Bobby Wagner, who led the team with 10 tackles (including a sack) on Sunday. “A lot of the stuff [Williams] does won’t show up in the stat book, but trust me, I play behind him. He’s making a difference for us.”

So is Hill, a second-year player out of Penn State. He had two sacks Sunday, giving him four in the past four games.

“I feel like a proud father out there whenever I see [Hill] making plays,” said Seattle defensive end Michael Bennett, who had two tackles for loss Sunday. “I’ve been working with him the last couple of weeks and helping him develop as a pass-rusher and he’s doing a really good job.”

The fact that Williams and Hill have played at such a high level in Mebane’s absence is one of the reasons the Seattle defense resembles last season’s unit that led the league in fewest points allowed en route to a Super Bowl victory.

“The last four games I feel like we’ve been better than last year,” said linebacker Bruce Irvin, who had a sack as one of his five tackles Sunday. “Everybody is putting their egos to the side and playing for one another.”

The Seahawks have given up only 27 total points in the past four games.

“It’s just a maximum group effort,” said linebacker K.J. Wright, who had a sack and another tackle for a loss Sunday. “Everybody is getting to the ball and making plays. We’re not letting teams breathe out there.”

The only points for the 49ers Sunday came on a 10-yard run by Frank Gore on a fourth-and-1 in the second quarter. It was the only rushing touchdown the Seahawks have allowed in the past four games.

“We should have stopped them on that drive,” Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman said. “They should have gotten nothing.”

Now that’s confidence, something the Seahawks appeared to have lost midseason. And something that was found along with the two defensive tackles who helped them regain it.

 

[SeattleCoug]

Hill looks like he is filling the role vacated by Clinton McDonald last year nicely. We haven't been great at hitting on D lineman in the draft so nice to see one paying off

 

[WizardHawk]

To be fair, what running games have they faced since losing Mebane? Out of those 4 games only Philly has a running game that was working well going into that game.

They have adjusted to life without Mebane well, but let's see what they do in a rematch with Dallas or any other team with a RB you fear/respect.

 

[SonnyCID]

To be fair, what running games have they faced since losing Mebane? Out of those 4 games only Philly has a running game that was working well going into that game.

They have adjusted to life without Mebane well, but let's see what they do in a rematch with Dallas or any other team with a RB you fear/respect.

I think they can play well against any running game right now. In the Cowboy game, Murray didn't really take off until Wagner left the game, and Kam was visibly banged up. In the KC game, no Wagner and Mebane went out early. They're in a completely different place right now as far as injuries and experience of playing together. .

 

[droider]

The run defense is still a problem, we couldn't stop the 49ers until they were down to their 5th string back. We've been gashed by other good running teams as well.

 

[WizardHawk]

I think they can play well against any running game right now. In the Cowboy game, Murray didn't really take off until Wagner left the game, and Kam was visibly banged up. In the KC game, no Wagner and Mebane went out early. They're in a completely different place right now as far as injuries and experience of playing together. .

Um, they lost both of those games. Just saying.

They haven't looked great against the strongest running teams and now that Mebane is out those are the only ones I fear. Not really that worried about NE or Denver should they get that far. GB and Dallas can run and open up things for their QB's you haven't seen most of the year.

 

[SonnyCID]

Um, they lost both of those games. Just saying.

They haven't looked great against the strongest running teams and now that Mebane is out those are the only ones I fear. Not really that worried about NE or Denver should they get that far. GB and Dallas can run and open up things for their QB's you haven't seen most of the year.

I know they lost both those games, that's partially why I used them as examples . I was just saying that those games had factors that are no longer in play (Wagner, Kam)

 

[SonnyCID]

The run defense is still a problem, we couldn't stop the 49ers until they were down to their 5th string back. We've been gashed by other good running teams as well.

Seattle made adjustments and stopped giving up chunks of yards before those two went out.

 

[dude82]

Looking at the stats each team has put up on the ground and at possible playoff matchups as currently constructed, I don't see any team other than Dallas, ranked 3rd in rushing yards per game, that can hurt us on the ground. The only other NFC teams in the top 10 in rushing yards per game are New Orleans (8th) and Philly (9th) and those two teams may not even make the playoffs. Out of the teams that are currently in line to make it (if the playoffs started next week) Green Bay ranks 11th, Carolina ranks 12th, Arizona ranks 28th and Detroit ranks 30th in rushing yards per game. That's one really good rushing offense (Dallas), two decent rushing offenses (Green Bay & Carolina) and two awful rushing offenses (Detroit & Arizona) lined up as potential playoff opponents for the Hawks. Is there a rushing offense in that group that really scares you more than Dallas' does? I