Run Game Troubles Poised to Derail Seahawks Promising Season
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SEATTLE, Wash. - During their peak years of dominance from 2012 to 2015, the Seahawks cut their teeth excelling in the run game on both sides of the football, exhibiting a balanced, high octane offense with a potent ground attack and a defense that excelled at making opponents one dimensional.
During that four year span that included two Super Bowl trips and the hoisting of a Lombardi Trophy, Seattle never finished outside of the top five in rushing yards with Marshawn Lynch and Thomas Rawls bulldozing through would-be tacklers. Anchoring the league's No. 1 scoring defense four consecutive seasons, a talented, versatile front seven and excellent tackling cornerbacks and safeties helped them finish seventh or better in rush defense three times.
When coach Pete Carroll's teams have been able to successfully run the football and stop opposing rushing attacks, they have won a ton of football games over the years. Unfortunately, his current Seahawks aren't in the same stratosphere as those dominant teams from the early 2010s and as illustrated again by allowing 586 total yards in Sunday's ugly 40-34 overtime loss to the Raiders, they may not have the ingredients on hand necessary to cook up that tried and true winning recipe.
Asked after the game about his team losing the line of scrimmage battle, Carroll bluntly assessed, "That's kind of what happened on this day, yeah. It's really disappointing. That's not the way we want to play."
Last month, Seattle appeared to have fixed its porous run defense. After allowing north of 170 rushing yards per game amid a 2-3 start, including allowing two 100-yard rushers in a road loss to New Orleans in Week 5, coordinator Clint Hurtt's unit allowed only 99 rushing yards per game during a four-game winning streak that pushed the team into first place in the NFC West. Everything seemed to be coming together for a front seven that struggled mightily adjusting to a new defense early in the season.
After surrendering an embarrassing 161 yards to the Buccaneers historically bad rushing attack in a 21-16 loss in Munich two weeks ago and allowing Josh Jacobs to bludgeon them for 229 yards on 33 carries in Sunday's second straight loss, however, those statistical improvements look to be more of a reflection of the opponents they defeated rather than the Seahawks defense truly turning the corner.
Two of those wins came against the Cardinals, who were missing one of the NFL's premier centers in Rodney Hudson for both contests and also didn't have starting running back James Connor in Week 6. The Chargers were without star tackle Rashawn Slater and center Corey Linsley was coming off of a bout with food poisoning, limiting the effectiveness of their run game. In Week 8, the Giants inexplicably didn't give Saquon Barkley the football until their third drive and the lack of a respectable passing game allowed the Seahawks to sell out stopping him.
But over the past two games, opponents have been able to offset Seattle's alleged improvements sparked by allowing their defensive lineman to play more aggressively by using that aggressiveness against them deploying a downhill run game using two-back formations and other heavy personnel. Unable to adapt with proper run fit execution, they have yielded a whopping 444 rushing yards and 5.3 yards per carry in the two losses.
"What's different in the last two games, they stayed in regular personnel, used the fullback," Carroll explained. "More unique than other games we played. That was a problem for us again. It's old style ball. There's nothing new about that at all. It's just that it's different and we didn't adjust to it in either of the last two weeks."
Nothing demonstrates the issues Carroll's defense currently is dealing with better than Jacobs' 86-yard, game-winning touchdown in overtime. The Raiders lined up in an old school I-formation with 21 personnel and ran a simple iso to perfection as the fullback mashed linebacker Jordyn Brooks as a lead blocker and helped create a lane big enough a semi truck could drive through it. Accelerating through the hole with nothing but green in front of him, Jacobs made safety Josh Jones miss and silenced the Lumen Field crowd as he sprinted to the end zone in walk off fashion.
The inability to slow down running backs in the past two games has helped magnify other problems for the Seahawks defensively. With opponents finding consistent success running the ball on early downs to set up favorable third down situations, they have allowed 18 conversions on 29 third downs in the two losses, which equates to a 62 percent conversion rate. In the four wins prior, they allowed just 21 conversions on 61 third downs for a 34 percent rate.
Meanwhile, Carroll isn't just irked about his defense letting running backs like Jacobs run wild each week. Sensing a pattern developing over the past several games, he's understandably upset with the lack of consistency and effectiveness of Seattle's own run game, which one again got bottled up rushing for 65 yards and under three yards per carry on Sunday. Those numbers would have been significantly worse without Smith scrambling for 22 yards on five carries.
"Not consistent like we had wanted it to be," Carroll said of Seattle's lackluster run game. "Those guys, they did a nice job up front, got in the backfield on us a number of times. We really were inconsistent picking things up front. That running output is not getting us what we want in terms of balance. That's not what we're looking for. Geno threw the ball well today, got some good yards a lot of completions and all that, which was good. We need the balance to play the way we want to play. We couldn't find that today. It was enough to score 27 points, but we can do better."
From a positive standpoint, dynamic rookie Ken Walker III continues to make game-changing plays out of the backfield. Less than 30 seconds into the game, capitalizing on an interception by safety Quandre Diggs, he bounced an inside run outside to the right and darted down the sideline before diving inside the pylon to give the Seahawks an early 7-0 advantage. Later in the third quarter, showing he doesn't miss leg day, the powerful back received help from teammates pushing the pile to score his second touchdown of the afternoon.
But away from those two plays, Walker rushed for zero net yards on 12 carries, constantly receiving handoffs with at least one defender already in the backfield. Defensive tackle Andrew Billings caused a great deal of problems in the middle, whipping center Austin Blythe and guards Damien Lewis and Gabe Jackson to immediately disrupt multiple plays.
Surrendering persistent penetration at the line of scrimmage and unable to generate any push in the trenches, Seattle couldn't get its run game going, which has become a notable concern of late. Walker has been held under 51 rushing yards in three of the past four games and has rushed for 43 yards on his last 24 carries, averaging an abysmal 1.8 yards per carry.
Lacking the balance desired by Carroll that fueled their playoff success a decade ago, the Seahawks haven't been able to provide a complementary run game to support Geno Smith and on Sunday, Walker had eight carries on first or second down that netted two or fewer yards. Four of those runs went for negative yardage, including a 13-yard loss early in the fourth quarter where the rookie tried to escape multiple tacklers in the backfield and wound up going even further backwards.
These early down woes undoubtedly played into Seattle's second straight poor performance on third down. Often behind the sticks due to negative plays in the run game, the team converted only three out of nine third down opportunities after going a dismal one for nine against Tampa Bay two weeks earlier.
Serving as a painful reminder of last season's chronic third down issues that plagued the team in 2021, the Seahawks possessed the football 23 combined minutes less than the Buccaneers and Raiders in Week 10 and Week 12. As Carroll knows all too well, that simply isn't going to cut it and he put the onus on himself to help his team solve their run game difficulties on both sides of the ball before it's too late.
"I got to clean some stuff up. I've got to make sure that things fit well and precisely, we get out of balance with how much we're having to throw the football, how much we were playing for the throwing game, on defense, the other side, I think we can balance some stuff up. I got to help out."
With that said, it's worth questioning if Carroll and his staff have the components in place to play that style of game. For a second straight week, Blythe looked overmatched in the middle, often getting steamrolled into the backfield or whiffing on blocks off the snap, and the guards didn't look much better. Defensively, the front seven clearly needs another impact player or two to not only improve their run defense, but also bolster a mediocre pass rush.
Still in control of their own destiny, the Seahawks have six games left on the schedule to answer those personnel-related questions. If there's a reason for hope, they've already righted the ship once earlier this season to win four games in a row. But if they can't get back to the drawing board and find a quick fix again, a once-promising season has a chance to end in a tailspin.
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