The Seattle Seahawks have known all along that a successful 2024 season would be determined by the offensive line, which is why their performance in a 30-18 victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday was so gratifying.
Seattle rushed for a season-high 176 yards, with 134 coming from Zach Charbonnet, who had a career day on the ground and scored twice. His 51-yard touchdown was the team’s longest run of the season. Kenny McIntosh had 38 yards on seven carries and produced three first downs, career highs across the board in his first real game action outside of garbage-time snaps.
The Seahawks had their best offensive performance of the season by success rate (all stats provided by TruMedia unless stated otherwise), and after the game, coach Mike Macdonald awarded a game ball to offensive line coach Scott Huff on behalf of the entire unit.
“Whenever you get over 100 yards, man, you know the O-line’s been working,” said left guard Laken Tomlinson, who also gave Huff a shout-out during his postgame interview. “Real proud of the guys, everybody taking the challenge this week and putting up those yards.”
Geno Smith had fewer dropbacks (30) than Seattle had rushing attempts (31), and for the first time all season, he wasn’t sacked and didn’t commit a turnover. Smith has some control over his sack total because he can get rid of the ball, but he was hit only twice, which speaks to the offensive line’s ability to give him clean pockets. He used that time in the pocket to complete 24 of 30 passes for 233 yards and a touchdown to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Arizona had just two passes defensed, and only one of those was a play in which the defensive back got a hand on the ball.
Seattle’s defense has been on a roll since the bye week, while the offense has struggled to find consistency. The offensive line played its best game of the season on Sunday, and it allowed the Seahawks to see a glimpse of their ceiling.
“The way they played,” Smith said of his offensive line, “we can win every game we play.”
The Seahawks are (8-5) and sole owners of first place in the NFC West ahead of the Los Angeles Rams (7-6), Cardinals (6-7) and San Francisco 49ers (6-7). Seattle hosts the Green Bay Packers (9-4) and Minnesota Vikings (11-2) before two final road games at the Chicago Bears (4-9) and Rams. Seattle has 61 percent odds of making the playoffs and a 56 percent chance at winning the division, according to projection model.
The 49ers host the Rams on Thursday in a game that has major division implications, but regardless of that result, the Seahawks will still be in the driver’s seat if they continue to handle business. To do that, they need the offensive line to string together more dominant performances like the one delivered on Sunday.
“We have to be able to operate like that if we want to go where we want to go,” Macdonald said Monday on his KIRO-AM radio show. “You have to be able to run the ball, be a physical offense, be a physical football team. We’ve always believed that.”
Macdonald attributed some of the offensive line performance on Sunday to continuity. This was the second straight week that, from left to right, Charles Cross, Tomlinson, Olu Oluwatimi, Sataoa Laumea and Abraham Lucas practiced and played together. Macdonald said there’s a tangible benefit to “lining up next to the same guy, making the same calls, stacking all those reps in practice, in the meetings, talking through in the walk-throughs,” and then seeing it all come to life in a game.
“They’re building some chemistry, which is cool,” Macdonald said.
Seattle has used the same lineup in consecutive games before — the problem was that the players weren’t performing well. That appeared to be the biggest difference on Sunday. Cross and Tomlinson played well, as did Oluwatimi in his fourth start of the season. The right side of Seattle’s line has been an issue for most of the year, but Laumea and Lucas were at the center of some of the team’s most effective runs. The Seahawks had five runs of at least 10 yards, and three of them had Laumea at the point of attack. On two of those plays, including the 51-yard touchdown, Lucas pulled to the front side of the run as well.
Lucas, when healthy, is a proven commodity at right tackle, but Laumea emerging as a stable presence at right guard is a significant development for the front line. His kickout blocks on Seattle’s counter runs played a large role in the offense looking the best it has all year.
“He’s rugged, powerful and nasty, man,” Macdonald said of Laumea, a sixth-round pick who beat out third-round rookie Christian Haynes for the starting job in Week 13. “It’s on tape now, so this is who he is. He’s got to keep going on this trajectory, and we trust he will because he’s a heck of a guy. He’s still so young, man. It’s really exciting.”
Seattle stressed the importance of being effective on short-yardage runs entering Week 14, and the team converted on 3 of 5 attempts Sunday. Two of the failures occurred on second down. The Seahawks converted on both of their third-and-short runs, first with Charbonnet finding the end zone from 1 yard out in the first quarter. Charbonnet also picked up 10 yards on third-and-2 in the fourth quarter.
The touchdown run was a variation of the design that worked well against the Jets, with the running back coming across the formation on a jet motion. Instead of handing it to the fullback (tight end Brady Russell in this instance) as Seattle did against New York, Charbonnet got the ball and followed his three tight ends around the edge and into the end zone. The 10-yard run was the same counter action that worked all afternoon, but with Tomlinson and Cross pulling across the formation instead of Laumea and Lucas. Beyond the explosives, Seattle found a perfect combination of scheme and execution to snag its fourth straight victory.
“We want to be multiple and have multiple answers, and today was the gap scheme,” Smith said. “The way they were playing us with the three-down stuff, they’ve got three safeties, kind of like a 3-3-5 defense. If you pull a guy and pin one, you’re up on the linebackers pretty quickly. It’s depending on the front we are facing and the defense we are facing, but today the gap scheme worked really well for us.”
The Cardinals don’t typically generate a lot of pressure, but they did sack Smith five times in the first meeting, so the Seahawks knew they needed better protection in the rematch. Because four of those sacks were in the first half, before Seattle figured out its plan for all of Arizona’s movement up front, there was reason to believe Smith would have an easier time staying upright in the rematch. Both quarterback hits Arizona recorded on Sunday came in the second quarter (one resulted in a penalty for intentional grounding), and Smith was otherwise clean for the rest of the game. He said afterward that his internal clock ticked slower knowing he’d have time in the pocket.
Seattle’s offense will be challenged in its next four games. The Bears (sixth) and Rams (ninth) are among the top 10 teams in pressure rate. The Bears rank 13th in sack rate, just ahead of the Vikings (14th) and Packers (15th). By yards allowed and success rate, the Vikings have one of the best run defenses in the league; the Packers have a top-10 unit by yards allowed.
Macdonald often talks about stacking positive performances, and his defense has done exactly that over the last four weeks. Since Week 11, the Seahawks’ defense ranks No. 2 in points per drive and No. 1 in EPA per play. Thanks to a strong showing by the offensive line, the offense finally put its best foot forward. Seattle’s fate hinges on whether the line can start stacking days, too.
“The line powered us through this game,” Smith said, “and we’re going to need them down the stretch.”
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