Riq Woolen's tackling comments are a serious indictment of former Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll

The Seattle Seahawks looked and felt completely different on Sunday than what we've become accustomed to over the past few years. From the bright greens and blues of their throwback jerseys to the fresh faces on the sidelines and in the locker room, almost everything about this team seemed to have radically changed, including the vibe.

On the field, the biggest difference we noticed was a stark contrast in the team's tackling ability, especially when compared to the opening games of previous seasons and other early games on the schedule in later years under former head coach Pete Carroll.

Seattle tackled flawlessly at all three levels of defense, but the changes were most evident at the back, where that was a problem for everyone last season. In particular, cornerback Riq Woolen, who is in his third year, seemed significantly better in that part of the game. Here's what Woolen said about the change yesterday, according to Mike Dugar at The Athletic.

Riq Woolen on the Seahawks' improved tackling

“We practice tackling every day… It's something we put a lot of emphasis on here. You can just see that it comes naturally to everyone. Everyone just goes in and we try to bring the guys down. Sunday showed how much tackling practice we've had. We'll just keep building on that.”

There is no reason to believe that Woolen intended this as a dig at his former coach, but it functions as one nonetheless and is well deserved.

It's important to remember that Carroll didn't allow his players to practice real tackling in the offseason. While this was intended to avoid unnecessary injuries, the team invariably began the regular season with serious tackling problems. Eventually, tackling improved each year and was on point by Week 5, but the Seahawks' ineptitude in this area was a major reason why they so often started the year slowly after the core of the Legion of Boom defense moved on.

What matters is that the Seahawks tackled exceptionally well on Sunday, especially on solo attempts in the open field when help was not there. It's a long season and we're only one game in, but most advanced stats point to this being the strongest defense in the NFL this year.