Seahawks' 'Leak' Concept Reflects Shane Waldron's Ability
The Seahawks' 51-29 victory over the Lions featured a creative way of getting aerially explosive on offense. In Wee7 16, Rashaad Penny’s NFC Offensive Player of the Week performance saw most of the attack’s explosive plays come on the ground. Indeed, just three of the 11 explosives (used by the team and defined as a pass of 16 or more yards, run of 12 or more) were delivered through the air.
One of the trio of explosive passes was a 58-yard Freddie Swain catch and run—the biggest play of the game. Russell Wilson had a simple throw, with Swain wide open versus the Lions' coverage. This was thanks to the play-action “leak” concept.
Leak
The Lions span late into a zone match, quarter-quarter-half coverage, similar to Seattle’s CLEO pass defense concept. This had two defenders follow Tyler Lockett’s race route across the field. Meanwhile, on the frontside of the coverage, linebacker Anthony Pittman saw the No. 3, Will Dissly, come across the formation and block with Wilson rolling out, so he added on to the rush rather than continuing his match No. 3/No. 3 receiver hook coverage.
Swain’s leak route started as a shallow underneath route, something that the strongside of the coverage thought could be passed off to the weak. However, the quarter flat player stationed on that side, Jalen Reeves-Maybin, had been sucked up by the run fake. As Swain broke his route vertical, Reeves-Maybin keyed pass and covered the running back, Penny, releasing in the flat. Swain had cavernous space and Wilson the throwback.
Adding On
What made this call even more intelligent from Shane Waldron was how it exploited the way that the Lions looked to play defense throughout the game.
Firstly, the Seattle offensive coordinator recognized that Detroit was looking to add on to its rush after seeing a receiver stay in pass protection.
This strategy negatively impacted Seattle’s first play of the game, where safety Tracy Walker saw the No. 3 receiver, Dissly again, stay in pass protection for the shotgun bootleg. Walker, his man coverage assignment redundant, therefore decided to add on to the rush, pressuring Wilson’s rollout. Seattle’s quarterback threw the ball out of bounds before he was comfortable accessing his concept.
Following Swain’s big gain, Detroit still sprinkled in the adding-on strategy. Running the same zone match, quarter-quarter-half deal as Swain’s big play, the Lions allowed their match No. 3/No. 3 receiver hook player to rush the passer once Swain, the No. 3 receiver, blocked down in the play-action pass protection. The blitzing Pittman got his hands on Wilson, though the passer was still able to find Dissly over the middle in the vacated space before any meaningful damage.
This adding-on of players meant that on Swain’s big play there would be no coverage player looking to take the shallow route back across the field to the underneath help on that side. Instead, that defender would rush.
Flat Defender Play
Waldron also observed the flat defender play of the Lions. Firstly, Detroit’s players were not very athletic or good, such as Jessie Lemonier (sorry, Jessie).
Secondly, the Lions kept their flat defenders highly conscious of the running back release and of screens into the flat, especially to the backside of bootleg rollouts. Observe this throwback screen play where Reeves-Maybin correctly attacked downhill to make the tackle for loss. It would prove telling how uncovered DeeJay Dallas was releasing on his block downfield.
Leak Again
The Seahawks managed to get a similar concept to leak open again later in the game. The incompletion only reflected the struggles that Wilson is still experiencing as a passer, likely due to his finger injury that saw him go under the knife on October 8, 2021.
This time, Detroit ran an inverted Cover 2 shell designed to stop the typical play-action routes of cross-post that arrive from I-formation looks like this. Instead, Seattle released Gerald Everett from his position at fullback on a wheel route that got matched up with the curl defender, Reeves-Maybin.
Reeves-Maybin flowed aggressively downhill and outside towards the run fake, positioned in the B-gap bubble of the fit. Everett ran right past him. The cloud, outside space zone defender locked on to DK Metcalf’s vertical release, with it turning into a shallow crossing route. Wilson had the window to Everett open behind Reeves-Maybin and inside of the deep-half defender, Walker. Sadly, the quarterback underthrew the football, with the pass possibly slipping out of his hand in a weird short arm mechanic.
