They are called explosive plays, and for the Seattle Seahawks, they were lacking against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.

With the Seahawks struggling to score lately, averaging 15.3 points in their past three games, executing explosive plays – pass plays of 16 yards or more and running plays of 12-plus yards, according to offensive coordinator Greg Knapp – and creating turnovers will be important in helping to create more scoring opportunities for the team’s stagnant offense against Jacksonville on Sunday.

Against Chicago on Sept. 27, the Seahawks had nine explosive plays but still lost, 25-19.

Against Indianapolis, Seattle had two plays of 21 or more yards. The Seahawks’ longest play from scrimmage was a 22-yard Deion Branch reception down the sideline, which led to Seattle’s only score in the first half, an Olindo Mare 38-yard field goal.

Since quarterback Matt Hasselbeck went down with a rib injury at the end of the first half against San Francisco on Sept. 20, Seattle has one play offensively of 25 or more yards, a 39-yard screen pass from Seneca Wallace to running back Julius Jones for the team’s only touchdown against Chicago.

The lack of explosive plays against the Colts didn’t go unnoticed by Seahawks coach Jim Mora.

“Two of the most critical variables in winning football games are turnover ratio and explosive gains,” Mora said.

“(Against the Colts) offensively, we were not very good at getting explosive gains, and we’d been making steady improvement in that area.”

Part of the importance of explosive gains is it makes it easier for Seattle’s offense to get into scoring position by not having to methodically drive the length of the field without having costly penalties or turnovers.

Seattle’s also experienced a dearth of explosive plays on defense. The Seahawks’ defense has produced four turnovers – two interceptions and two fumbles. Seattle has a minus-four turnover ratio, which ranks it tied for 26th in the league.

Mora said he thought Seattle would be better at creating turnovers this season because the defensive coaching staff focused on that during training camp. Creating turnovers could also help Seattle’s offensive woes by giving the Seahawks the ball in better field position.

“I’m really quite surprised right now that we don’t have more takeaways on defense, the way we’ve stressed it, worked at it, the time we’ve invested in it, the drills we’ve done,” Mora said. “Our players seemingly are committed to it. I think sometimes those things come in bunches.”

Eric D. Williams: 253-597-8437

eric.williams@thenewstribune.com

blog.thenewstribune.com/seahawks