Are the Seattle Seahawks still a run-first team?
Since the moment Marshawn Lynch arrived in Seattle in 2010 via trade with the Buffalo Bills, the Seahawks’ offensive identity was the physical, smashmouth rushing attack which had only one goal: run the football right down the opposing defense’s throat. While the rest of the NFL fell further in love with the pass, with passing attempts reaching unheard of levels, Seattle kept the faith with the run.
And it worked. From 2012-15 the Seahawks ran more than any other team in the NFL. In those four seasons Seattle went 46-18 in the regular season, 7-3 in the postseason, reached two Super Bowls and won one of them. The run-first Seahawks didn’t just defy the NFL’s offensive trends, they were a smashing success in the process.
But does that remain Seattle’s identity? With Lynch retired, the offensive line reshuffled yet again, and quarterback Russell Wilson emerging as an elite passer during the second half of 2015, is the power running game still the the first page of the Seahawks’ playbook?
In the season opener against the Miami Dolphins is sure didn’t look like it. Seattle’s first five plays were all passes. In the Seahawks’s first two drives, 12 of the 16 plays were passing plays, a steady diet of dink-and-dunk short throws that was more West Coast than a Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre rap collaboration. Wilson finished the game with 43 pass attempts, the most in his five-season career. Sure, Seattle finished the game with 32 rush attempts for 112 yards, but based on the play-calling it was hard to describe the Seahawks as run-first.
How did things change in Week 2 against the Los Angeles Rams? At least Seattle ran the ball on its first two offensive plays. Unfortunately, those two plays resulted in minus-11 yards. Not exactly smashmouth running. Seattle tried to remain committed to the run, but it just wasn’t working, particularly during a first half in which the Seahawks gained just 14 yards on 14 carries. Seattle finished the game with just 67 yards rushing on 24 carries, and for the second straight game the Seahawks passed the ball 11 more times than they ran it.
This is not what we’ve come to expect in Seattle. The previous four years the Seahawks averaged more runs per game than passes, the only team in the NFL with that distinction. As a result, Seattle was among the league’s top three in rushing attempts and top four in rushing yards in each of those seasons.
There are a number of circumstances that could point to the past two games being a blip on the radar. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll acknowledged the offensive line needs to run block better, something which may happen once rookie first-round draft pick Germain Ifedi recovers from his sprained ankle. Wilson has been dealing with a sprained ankle of his own, and while it didn’t prevent him from playing, it did eliminate him as a running threat via the read option. And Miami and Los Angeles possess formidable defensive fronts featuring two of the best run-stuffers in the league in Ndamukong Suh and Aaron Donald.
But there’s also evidence that suggests it may be the beginning of change in philosophy. Wilson has seen his number of passing attempts increase in each of his five seasons, and in the second half of last season when he reached a new level as a passer he threw 31.9 times per game, up from 28.5 during the first half. Also, Lynch is not walking back through that door, and his successor as the power back, Thomas Rawls, has yet to prove he can sustain a level of consistency — and withstand the physical punishment — they way Lynch did from 2010-15.
One would think the Seahawks would be quick to assert they remain a run-first team, despite their early-season struggles, given how well the run has served Seattle over the years. But that wasn’t quite the case this week.
“I see it as an offense that does whatever it takes to win,” Wilson said when asked if the Seahawks remain a run-first offense. “I don’t know. I think that ultimately we want to be able to throw the ball at a high level and we want to be able to make the plays. … The running game, we want to be great running the football, it really neutralizes the defense and we want to play physical. We want to do whatever it takes to win, though. I don’t think too hard. Ultimately nobody cares how you do it, ultimately all that matters is did you win or not.”
Said offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell: “One thing is you have to continue to call runs, which is something that I usually don’t have problems doing. But you want to see those runs gaining yards.”
Not exactly the strongest of assertions.
Maybe things will get back to normal Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers. Maybe Wilson’s ankle will feel better and he’ll be able to aid the run game again. Maybe the Seahawks will power right through a 49ers team that allowed more than 175 yards on the ground against Seattle in both their meetings last season.
But maybe a Seattle team that’s no longer run-first is something we’d better get used to. This just might be who the Seahawks are now.
For more on the Seattle sports scene, check out Nick Patterson’s Seattle Sidelines blog at www.heraldnet.com/tag/seattle-sidelines, or follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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