Tubbs, Darby head Seattle’s inside defensive game
In his first year with his second NFL team, Chuck Darby is playing inspiring football for his new teammates. And the backups for Tubbs and Darby ? Rocky Bernard and Craig Terrill ? are making big contributions to the Seahawks’ sensational season, too.
“Our inside game, all four of them, you can’t separate any of them out of there,” coach Mike Holmgren said Friday. “I like how they’re playing.”
In a defense that is overshadowed by the team’s brilliant offense led by running back Shaun Alexander’s league-leading 23 touchdowns, Tubbs, Darby, Bernard and Terrill have played key roles in Seattle’s best-in-the-NFC 11-2 record that includes a franchise-record nine consecutive victories.
In Seattle’s last two games, lopsided wins over Philadelphia and San Francisco, the Seahawks outscored their opponents 83-3.
Going into their game at Tennessee on Sunday, the Seahawks rank fourth in the league in scoring defense with just 16.2 points a game, are 10th in the NFL in rushing defense and 11th in the league in total defense.
“They all get about 25 snaps a game and they’ve been doing a nice job,” Holmgren said. “For big guys inside, I think it’s a good way to do it as long as the talent level there is close.”
After Friday’s practice, Holmgren presented the 6-foot-3, 324-pound Tubbs with a game ball for his play in the Seahawks’ 41-3 win over San Francisco last Sunday. Tubbs had his first career two-sack game against the 49ers.
Tubbs was a major disappointment for the Seahawks last season after they drafted him in the first round with the 23rd overall pick from the University of Texas. He couldn’t stay healthy, suffering hamstring and ankle injuries that limited his rookie season to 11 games and three starts.
Tubbs returned to the Seahawks’ lineup for the Philadelphia and San Francisco games after missing three games with a calf injury.
In 10 games and nine starts this season, he has 30 tackles, four sacks and his first career fumble recovery.
“His future looks bright,” said Darby, an undersized 6-foot, 270-pound five-year veteran who spent his first four seasons in Tampa Bay before signing with Seattle as a free agent in March. “I’m thinking he’s going to be a Pro Bowl player in the future.”
Tubbs isn’t ready to make any predictions.
“I’ve still got a long way to go to learn the game and being as good a player as I want to,” he said. “But this season feels good.”
The Seahawks may not have any Pro Bowl defensive tackles right now, but they think they do have an excellent, productive group.
The team leads the NFL with 45 sacks and the 6-3, 293-pound Bernard, a fifth-round pick by the Seahawks in the 2002 draft from Texas A&M, leads all NFL interior linemen with a career-best 8.5 sacks. Bernard and Terrill, a second-round draft choice last season from Purdue, rotate into games.
Holmgren said the addition of Darby to the defensive tackle group has been a key to his team’s defense. He calls Darby “a John Randle-type guy whose motor is going pretty hard.” Randle played with the Seahawks from 2001-2003 before he retired and was a Holmgren favorite.
“He kind of brings guys along with him,” Holmgren said of Darby. “I knew that was going to help the group.”
Darby, 30, was undrafted out of South Carolina State, and then was cut by Baltimore and Carolina before playing a year in NFL Europe. He spent the 2000 season on Tampa Bay’s practice squad before playing his four seasons for the Buccaneers.
First-year Seahawks team president Tim Ruskell brought Darby to Seattle, one month after being hired for the job here. Ruskell spent 17 seasons with the Tampa Bay organization.
In the 2002 season, when Ruskell was director of player personnel with the Buccaneers, Tampa Bay won the Super Bowl.
“He brought me to Tampa Bay and he brought me to Seattle,” Darby said of Ruskell. “I’ve been with Tim Ruskell my whole career. Tim Ruskell knows what he’s doing. He knows how you put a team together, a team that has an opportunity to take it to the next level.”
And Darby thinks the Seahawks could be headed to their first Super Bowl this season.
“I’m having so much fun,” he said. “I feel the same way I felt the year we went to the Super Bowl in Tampa Bay. Everybody has a lot of confidence. Everybody believes in each other.”
Notes: Holmgren said he expects LB D.D. Lewis (right knee) to miss his second straight game. … Former Seahawks WR Brian Blades (1988-98) was a visitor at practice. Blades is second on the Seahawks’ all-time receiving yards list with 7,620 behind Steve Largent’s 13,089. Largent (1976-89) and Blades were teammates for two seasons.