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.
