Lack of interceptions this year

We are 1/4 through the season and have only 2 interceptions so far (projection 8 vs 28 last year). What do you think is the biggest reason for the drop off? Is it lack of pass rush, defensive scheme, quality of opponent, players lost from last years team., etc...... For me it's the lack of pass rush but I'm interested to see what others think is the reason.

The only team that picked Aaron Rodgers off so far this year is the Seahawks.

Rivers has only thrown 2 INTs against his 12 TDs.

Manning's thrown INTs 3 times, one of them was against the Seahawks.

People expected more picks from Cousins, but 4 out of his 5 came against the Giants.


Last year in the first four games, the defense faced a chronic turnover machine (when he plays in Seattle) in Kaepernick (3 INTs), Chad Henne (2 INTs), <Mr. Force It> Matt Schaub (2 INTS), and Cam Newton (0 INTs). Among four games that is actually an evenly paced 28 INTs.

Turnovers really help so you'd like to see this defense get more, but I'm not surprised that there haven't been a rash of them with who they've faced this year so far.

They have dropped plenty of them. When they start hanging onto the ones available they will come in bunches.

It's not just interceptions that are down, it's turnovers in general. We've only gotten 3 total turnovers so far this season. The bright side is that as few turnovers that we've taken away, our offense/special teams have given it away even less. We're still a plus 2. Although I'd obviously like to see us get more takeaways, I'm OK with not getting bundles of them so long as we're still on the plus side of the turnover battle.

One of things we have to acknowledge is that our opponent quarterbacks, even Kirk Cousins, have by and large done an excellent job of getting the ball out of their hands quickly and being on target with their throws, or at least putting the ball where only their guy can catch it. But I don't see that continuing forever. Tony Romo in particular is famous for playing great for a long stretch of a game or games then having a series of brain farts at the worst possible time.

That and given that tomorrow's game will be played in front of the 12th man, I predict that we get at least 3 turnovers vs. the Cowboys.

RiverDog":26zcpy63 said:

It's not just interceptions that are down, it's turnovers in general. We've only gotten 3 total turnovers so far this season. The bright side is that as few turnovers that we've taken away, our offense/special teams have given it away even less. We're still a plus 2. Although I'd obviously like to see us get more takeaways, I'm OK with not getting bundles of them so long as we're still on the plus side of the turnover battle.

One of things we have to acknowledge is that our opponent quarterbacks, even Kirk Cousins, have by and large done an excellent job of getting the ball out of their hands quickly and being on target with their throws, or at least putting the ball where only their guy can catch it. But I don't see that continuing forever. Tony Romo in particular is famous for playing great for a long stretch of a game or games then having a series of brain farts at the worst possible time.

That and given that tomorrow's game will be played in front of the 12th man, I predict that we get at least 3 turnovers vs. the Cowboys.

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Excellent response Riverdog. I am not worried about it and I think they will come especially if we continue to have games where we are ahead in the score. There have been quite a few dropped as the other poster mentioned. Cousins was the first second or third tier quarterback we've faced and he literally did put the ball in the defense's hands several times. We've been able to win games without a lot of turnovers and will win more decisively as they come. This week I expect one from Maxwell and maybe one of the linebackers. A little off topic, I went to the Redskins game. Boy, the Seahawks are a great team to see in person. That was my first Hawks game. Seeing the whole picture on those Wilson runs was really cool. Looking forward to Sunday.

capncrunch":4w6phj82 said:

Excellent response Riverdog. I am not worried about it and I think they will come especially if we continue to have games where we are ahead in the score. There have been quite a few dropped as the other poster mentioned. Cousins was the first second or third tier quarterback we've faced and he literally did put the ball in the defense's hands several times. We've been able to win games without a lot of turnovers and will win more decisively as they come. This week I expect one from Maxwell and maybe one of the linebackers. A little off topic, I went to the Redskins game. Boy, the Seahawks are a great team to see in person. That was my first Hawks game. Seeing the whole picture on those Wilson runs was really cool. Looking forward to Sunday.

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Careful, skipper...Seahawk games are so addictive that there's a warning from the surgeon general on the back of each ticket.

I would be more than happy eliminate all turnovers from both sides of the ledger in every game we play this season. You see, I feel that we are the best team in the league and that one of the few ways that we can lose a game is by turning the ball over more than our opponent. Eliminate all turnovers, zero on each side, and we'll win 90% of all our games.

RiverDog":2pn5z5hq said:

..........I predict that we get at least 3 turnovers vs. the Cowboys.

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I'm saying 2 though REALLY want you to be right.

The Seahawks have been in position for multiple INTs and dropped them.

The Seahawks have also punched out a lot of fumbles and failed to recover them.

They are forcing turnovers at pretty close to the same rate they did last year. They are just failing to hold on to them or recover them like they did last year.

homerun1970":2vvd3xo9 said:

They have dropped plenty of them. When they start hanging onto the ones available they will come in bunches.

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This is the correct answer, we should have had at least 4 more ints, we had 2 dropped against Washington alone. Once we start hanging onto the ball better that number will explode.

HawkFan72":2nu9bb4o said:

The Seahawks have been in position for multiple INTs and dropped them.

The Seahawks have also punched out a lot of fumbles and failed to recover them.

They are forcing turnovers at pretty close to the same rate they did last year. They are just failing to hold on to them or recover them like they did last year.

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This is what Im noticing.

They are still in the right positions to make a play. The oblong gods are just not being kind to them. Law of averages though. Those balls are gonna start bouncing the correct way and the fingers are going to get a little tighter.

I think there's a few factors. Here are some of my reasons:
-Teams know we try and take the ball away, and thus are being more careful in their decisions
- We've played some pretty great QBs who tend to not turn the ball over too often
-Pass rush hasn't been anywhere it was last year. I think it would help to take Avril out of the base and bring him back on pass rushing situations. Pass rush creates turnovers..

jlwaters1":c6hir23i said:

homerun1970":c6hir23i said:

They have dropped plenty of them. When they start hanging onto the ones available they will come in bunches.

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This is the correct answer, we should have had at least 4 more ints, we had 2 dropped against Washington alone. Once we start hanging onto the ball better that number will explode.

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Yep winner winner chicken dinner. Same goes for fumbles as well. Last year we hung onto picks after crazy tip drills with diving catches. This year we've dropped some easy ones. It's nice we've been solid without the turnovers because when we do get them we could see some laughers up in here. Maybe Sunday?

INT's have been there, simply dropped.

It all comes back to pass rush, ALWAYS. We just haven't had the kind of pressure we had last season. I'm really disappointed in Avril so far this year.

But yes, the QBs we have faced - 3 of the 4 are in the top-7 in the NFL, without question. They all read defenses extremely well, have quick releases, are decisive and run quick throw offenses.

And as others have said, we have had quite a few in our hands - Earl had an easy one last game and B Wags had one he normally comes up with.

As I'm sure others have stated its a combination of pretty much all of the above but for me the pass-rush option is on the bottom of the list of reasons.

I think many here are perhaps confusing lack of pass-rush as in lack of pass-rush completions for sacks. Also, for some reason as always refs are turning a blind eye on offensive holding on our guys. And I think the Seahawks are blitzing more to counter that.

We've also faced some really great QBs + Offenses in all 4 games.

And despite the numbers, I think we've done quite well against Rodgers, Manning, and Cousins.

Rivers was the only one to beat us with amazing plays, gutsy MVP ball.

Rodgers more or less was man-handled and raked up yardage in garbage time.

Manning was stifled until that last minute in which he basically exploited Josh Thomas' zones when Burley went down after getting tattooed by Kam.

Cousins was awesome on a few of his throws to D-Jack but if you give the Seahawks any one of the Ints that dropped out of Thomas' and Wagner's hands his 102 passer rating plummets to 78.

I actually think the Seahawks are also playing it smart in that they've been adjusting, adapting, adhering to the rules emphasis... and its quite obvious that it has taken them out of their element as a ball-hawk defense but they are playing within the rules and once they get more acclimated to that style and understanding more what they can and can't do, they'll play more loosely and start ball-hawkin it up.

And also I think Quinn is also close to figuring out the best pass-rush groupings paired to certain situations, it helps that everyone is healthy, and the younger guys are getting needed experience, it took until the Cards game in 2013 for the D-Line to really hit its stride. And I feel they are close to being dominantly consistent.

It will all come together, Seahawks are 3-1 against some pretty good teams. Even the Redskins have a decent team, RG3 lost that game in Houston with inept RZ play, they took the Eagles to the wire, and had one really bad game against the Giants. But they have a solid D with a great pass-rush plus a balanced offense with big play ability in Desean Jackson. If they can get healthy, they'll start to roll some momentum their way in games.

Not worried about the Seahawks at all. A lot of people said that this team can't win without our defense and getting lucky with key turnovers in key moments.

3-1 says otherwise.

The scary thing for me is that turnovers seem to be really streaky, with no rhyme or reason. Chicago got a billion turnovers two or three years ago, and then that number drastically went down. They just weren't creating turnovers anymore. For no reason whatsoever. The Bills were the same way after Byrd's rookie season. You often hear about teams that for whatever reason all of a sudden are generating a ton, or all of a sudden are now generating none.

For the most part, opposing teams are being really cautious, which will hurt our turnover numbers. However, I don't see any reason why we shouldn't be creating a decent amount. I think we'll get there.

I remember several times in our history where we had the league or top of the league lead in turnover and then the next year we drop to near the bottom, same personal really just missed opportunities the next year.

Fumble recoveries are random. We've still forced a goodly number. The number of dropped interceptions is a bit concerning, though.

We haven't played Tony Romo yet.

chris98251":3691du1q said:

I remember several times in our history where we had the league or top of the league lead in turnover and then the next year we drop to near the bottom, same personal really just missed opportunities the next year.

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Opponents study films too LOL
Tcal answered his own question by saying that teams are taking a lot more care with ball control, and even then, they're losing the battles in the trenches.
The Opponents have surmised that by spreading the ball around a little more, they boost their chances of keeping the games within reach.
The Seahawks Defense is going to hit their stride here in the next few games, and then watch out.
I'm more concerned with the Offensive Line not holding up, or sometimes, not even slowing down some of the obvious pass rushers.