The Seahawks just did to Kenneth Walker something no one has done since his freshman year of college.
That was a half-dozen football seasons ago.
They played him — yet mostly ignored him.
Seattle’s head coach Mike Macdonald and offensive coordinator/play caller Ryan Grubb spent spring into summer now fall describing Walker as one of the NFL’s best running backs. They’ve lauded him as supernaturally elusive, uniquely skilled at making would-be tacklers miss. He, they’ve said, is the guy on Seattle’s offense who must get the ball.
Sunday in the first-place Seahawks’ galling home loss to the previously 1-3 New York Giants, Walker played more than two-thirds of the offensive snaps (67%).
He rushed just five times.
Walker had never played so much for the Seahawks with so few rushes in his three NFL seasons. Or in college at Michigan State.
His previous Seahawks low for carries with higher play time was eight carries playing 58% of snaps in his fourth pro game, Oct. 9, 2022, at New Orleans. That Sunday the rookie took Seattle’s lead-back job for good, replacing starter Rashaad Penny after Penny’s season-ending injury in the Superdome against the Saints.
Before that, you have to go back to his freshman season at Wake Forest, 2019, to find a game in which Walker played and had fewer carries. On Nov. 9, 2019, he had three rushes at Virginia Tech.
That was so long ago Grubb was in his first season as offensive coordinator at Fresno State.
Grubb called 58 plays for the Seahawks’ offense against New York. Fifty-one of them were pass calls. Walker and No. 2 back Zach Charbonnet carried the ball just seven times combined.
Quarterback Geno Smith threw 40 passes, six days after he threw a career-high 56 in Detroit. Those are the Seahawks’ two losses this season.
Not needing to read run keys or pay attention to half Seattle’s offense that didn’t exist Sunday, the Giants sacked Smith seven times. The QB scrambled four times on pass calls, for 73 yards. Those made the Seahawks’ rushing total Sunday cosmetic rather than impactful.
Monday morning, on his weekly day-after-game radio show, Macdonald told KIRO AM the Seahawks (3-2) did Walker “a disservice” giving him just five carries in the team’s 29-20 loss to the Giants at Lumen Field.
The coaches say they see the errors of their ways entering Seattle’s quick-turnaround game Thursday night against the rival San Francisco 49ers (2-3) for the NFC West lead.
Then again, they said this last week following Seattle’s first loss this season, at Detroit.
The rushes were so few, the calls so pass-dominant, a valid question is: Was Smith changing many would-be running plays to passes in audible calls at the line of scrimmage, based on what New York’s defense was showing before the snap.
That’s a reason Grubb cited following the Seahawks’ overtime win at New England in Week 2 and after the team’s 42-29 loss to the Lions last week. In New England, when Walker was out with an oblique injury that cost him to miss two games, Grubb called 14 running plays for Charbonnet; he was Seattle’s lone back that day. In Detroit, with Walker back from injury, it was 14 hand-offs to running backs among 78 offensive plays.
No NFL team has thrown it more than the Seahawks this season, 199 times in five games.
No team has run it fewer times than Seattle’s 105 rushes through five weeks.
Geno Smith changing play calls?
The News Tribune asked Macdonald on Monday how many of the 51 pass calls in 58 plays against the Giants were Smith changing Grubb’s run calls to throws.
The NFL’s youngest head coach paused.
“I don’t really want to answer you,” Macdonald, 37, said, “like, to the letter of the law here.
“There is some (of Smith) getting in and out of runs. But to the extent of how much we’re doing it, (I’ll) just kind of leave that in-house.
“But it’s also, we all know we need to run the ball more. I mean, everybody knows that. Our opponents know that. Our players in our locker room know that. Grubb knows that. Our coaches do. I do.”
That’s just about everyone. It includes Macdonald’s predecessor. Pete Carroll said the same thing for years: We need to run the ball more. The 2023 and ‘22 Seahawks consistently didn’t, too.
Smith was asked after the loss to the Giants if, given his stated belief the he wants the ball in his hands to win every game, he thought the Seahawks’ offense needs to be more balanced.
“Honestly, I don’t even think about that when I’m playing. I’ve got to execute the plays that are called,” Smith said.
“I’ve got to do my job. That’s my main focus, to do my job to the highest of highs of my ability. So those things are questions you should ask the coaches.
“In reality, I’ve just got to go out there and play better. I’ve got to do better to get us over the hump.”
So will Macdonald’s 2024 Seahawks do it? Will they run the ball more?
As in, now, Thursday night against the rugged 49ers who have owned them the last few seasons?
“We have to create more situations where we can run it, as well,” Macdonald said. “And that’s a team stat, as well. So that’s all three phases where we have to create those.”
The failed 4th & 1
One of Grubb’s 51 pass calls against the Giants came on Macdonald’s decision to go for the first down on fourth and 1 deep in Seattle’s own territory down 20-13 in the fourth quarter Sunday.
The head coach said on his radio show Monday the analytical analysis of that situation “favored” going for it there. It also spoke to Macdonald knowing his defense wasn’t stopping New York. The Giants were rolling for 412 yards, 175 on the ground, and converting 6 of their first 11 third downs against Seattle.
Grubb called an offset I formation on that fourth and 1, with Walker as a tailback behind Charbonnet The offensive line blocked to the left. The idea was to leave Giants edge rusher Brian Burns unblocked but influence him to follow the blockers and flow of the play.
He didn’t. Burns did what the Giants gave him a $141 million contract to do. He rushed up the field to the quarterback. By the time Smith faked the handoff to Charbonnet running right to left, Burns was in Smith’s chest. The sack and turnover on downs became a field goal and two-score lead for New York, essentially ending the game.
CBS television cameras caught Grubb in the coaches’ play-calling booth three levels above the field with yelling and slapping his hands together, punctuated by an expletive.
Monday, after the former University of Washington play caller until January had already put in the early-down game plan on offense for Thursday’s game against the 49ers, Macdonald was asked what his communication from the field is like with Grubb during games. That is, on situations when the coaches decide to go no-huddle, if to throw more, play-call decisions, etc.
“We’re in constant communication. And we both know the game plans. And we’re on the same page,” Macdonald said.
“And we both know that we got to establish the run more; that’s probably where your question’s going.
“And, so, both of us can be better on that front.
“And again, it’s a team thing as well. We’ve got to put ourselves in position to dictate terms more offensively in the tempos.”
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