Last season, the Seattle Seahawks marched into Baltimore on a wave of confidence, and limped out humbled by a devastating 37-3 blowout loss. Seattle’s offense, although inconsistent at times, clearly had the capability to be one of the league’s more high flying units.

Against the Ravens, they were grounded to a degree we are not used to seeing from the Seahawks. What was the issue? Namely, Baltimore’s defense, led by current Seattle head coach Mike Macdonald.

Macdonald’s units stymied plenty of offenses the last two years, and Seattle was no exception. Now, the Seahawks offense has to face what Macdonald has cooking literally every single day. Tight end Noah Fant recently took to the media to explain what it is like facing Macdonald’s unit.

What stands out the most to me is when Fant mentioned how the offense might be a little more relaxed when facing other teams, because they might not be seeing as much pressure. This leads me to believe the Seahawks defense is going to be a lot more aggressive when it comes to blitzing and generating pressure than we have seen them in recent years.

To that I say, good. Seattle’s pass rush was solid, but inconsistent last year. They had moments where they looked like world beaters, and other times they were non-existent. In today’s NFL, you need to be able to not just get after the quarterback, but make him constantly uncomfortable on every single last dropback.

If the Seahawks defense can manage to replicate some of the success defensively that the Ravens have had, this team is going to be a lot harder to score on this year than the previous handful of seasons.