Seahawks WR Percy Harvin: ‘We’re going to be fine’

The Seahawks tried to get Percy Harvin involved early and often in their loss to Dallas, but thanks to a few miscues and some good defense by the Cowboys, Harvin had no yards on three catches and minus-1 yard on three carries.

Like everyone, he noticed the issues with his team’s offense, but Harvin thinks the mistakes are fixable ones.

“We’re 3-2, we don’t have all losses right now, we’re still in a great spot,” Harvin said. “We’ve just got little things to fix here and there, but we’re going to be fine. There’s nothing where we come into the meeting room and it’s like, ‘wow, we can’t get it fixed.’ It’s little things here and there. Unfortunately in this league, little things here and there make a big difference.

“When we watch film, it’s just the little things here and there. It’s nothing major or anything for us to be worried about. It’s a little fixture here and there, and we’ll be fine.”

Like his coaches, Harvin sees the team’s inability to stay on the field as a big part of the problem.

“We didn’t convert on third downs very good,” Harvin said. “That’s something the last couple of weeks we’ve been wanting to do; keep our defense on the sideline a lot longer than they’ve been doing. The offense staying on the field on third down and staying in rhythm.”

Aside from a 40-yard touchdown catch in Washington that was called back because of a penalty Harvin has been catching nearly all of his passes behind or near the line of scrimmage. According to STATS Inc., Harvin’s average catch this year occurs just 1.1 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, down from an average 4.6 in his career. And of NFL receivers who have caught a minimum of two passes per game, Harvin’s average of 6.0 yards per catch is the lowest in the NFL. He is not, however, going to campaign through the media for more plays down field.

“I really don’t have a feeling on that,” he said. “I’m just staying within the offense, whenever my number is called I’m trying to do it to the best of my ability, and when I don’t have the ball, just try to affect the game in the same way.”

Asked if he feels like his role is similar to how he was used in Minnesota, where he also played in a Darrell Bevell offense, Harvin said, “There’s some similarities, some difference, but I’m just doing whatever I’m called to do and doing it to the best of my ability.”

As for his struggles to get yards against Dallas, Harvin gave the Cowboys credit, but also says the offense needs to do better.

“They just overall had a great defensive game plan taking away the bubble screens, some of the sweeps,” he said. “Overall, their defensive coordinator had a heck of a game play. It slowed us down, it threw us off rhythm, we didn’t convert on third down, so a mixture of all of that, we weren’t on key on offense.”

“Everything has to be on rhythm. It’s not just a bubble screen or just a sweep, everything has to be on rhythm, from the quarterback calling me in motion to the blockers in rhythm to the other wide receivers blocking on rhythm. Everybody has to be on key for it to be effective.”

Asked if the Seahawks are getting open, Harvin said, “We’re doing a good job. For whatever reason, we’ve just been rhythm, that’s from the offensive line to the quarterback to the wide receivers. It’s on all of us to make sure we stay on key, stay in rhythm and stay on the field on third down.”

Harvin says he has noticed defenses doing things a bit differently since he had success against Green Bay in the season opener, gaining 59 yards on seven catches and rushing for 41 more on four carries.

“A little bit,” he said. “I won’t get into the game plan, but defenses the last couple of weeks have been coming up with different game plans, making us think a little bit. Last week, (Dallas cornerback Orlando) Scandrick, he did a great job attacking the block on the bubble, so that kind of shut down that play. Teams are just doing a great job right now, but we’ll keep dialing things up and hopefully we’ll get back going.”