After breakout in L.A. will rookie Rashaad Penny run more for Seahawks against Green Bay?

Rashaad Penny’s first career touchdown was more than just a milestone. It was more than a score.

It was a validation. And a celebration.

Thursday, we will find out if it turns into a continuation. A continuation of more playing time for the rookie first-round pick people were giving up on just last week.

Penny entered the Seahawks’ offense — and Seattle’s season — on the second drive of last weekend’s game at the Los Angeles Rams.

Mike Davis started for injured Chris Carson. Davis ran for 29 yards on the game’s opening drive that ended with a touchdown. On the second series Penny sprinted around left end. He used a crushing block outside by wide receiver David Moore on former Washington Huskies cornerback Marcus Peters. He gained 38 yards.

Two plays later, Rams linebacker Samson Ebukam blitzed. Seahawks offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer later said Los Angeles should have stopped Penny because of the quick, up-field blitzing off both edges instead of what resulted, an 18-yard TD run. The Seahawks’ offensive line all blocked this play to the left, where Penny first looked, but he cut sharply to the right, inside Ebukam’s charge. Penny’s move created no defensive containment around the right end.

“That cut,” the veteran coach Schottenheimer said Tuesday, marveling.

Now past the line of scrimmage, Penny discarded linebacker Cory Littleton.The rest was a walk in L.A. for Penny to his first career touchdown.

After he got to the end zone his tapped his right wrist. What was that about?

“I was patiently waiting. It was time,” Penny said Tuesday. “Once the opportunity came, I told myself, ‘I can’t shy away from this one.’ Once that opportunity came I took advantage of it.”

On the Seahawks’ sideline, Chad Morton shared a hug with coach Pete Carroll. Morton, Seattle’s running backs coach, has talked, “a lot,” Morton said, about Penny’s frustrations over his first months in the NFL.

“It was one of the best feelings I’ve had as a coach,” Morton said Tuesday. “Just from where he’s started, all the hard work that he’s been putting into it. It hasn’t gone the way it was expected for him from the beginning of the season.”

Up the concrete stairs of the iconic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, an entire section roared at the touchdown that put Seattle ahead 14-7. Penny is from nearby Norwalk, Calif. He starred at San Diego State. He said he had so many people there to see him Sunday “to be honest with you, I couldn’t even count. It was over, like, a hundred.

“It was fun having that much support.”

Finally, fun.

First, a broken finger in August. Then a benching in September.

People around the Pacific Northwest and NFL starting prematurely using the “B” word to describe Penny.

Bust.

That was after the first-round draft choice and nation’s leading rusher in college last season got as many snaps on offense as you did in two different games last month, against the Rams in Seattle and then at Detroit as recently as Oct. 28.

Now, coming off Penny’s big day, people are using other “B” words for him entering Thursday’s test against Green Bay (4-4-1) at CenturyLink Field.

“It’s great to see him busting out like that,” Carroll said.

That was Sunday in Los Angeles, minutes after Penny’s breakout day ended. He romped for 108 yards on just 12 carries against the Rams in Seattle’s 36-31 loss.

The afternoon restored Penny’s wavering confidence. His new belief in himself was evident at his locker before practice on Tuesday.

“I’m ready for the pressure. I’m built for it,” he said.

“I like being patient, waiting — then exploding on the scene.”

Penny, Morton and Carroll all acknowledge Penny was frustrated as recently as two weeks ago. The Seahawks ran 42 times and all over the Lions in a two-TD win at Detroit. Penny had none of those carries. He didn’t play a snap.

“He’s been frustrated for a while, obviously, because he knows the high expectations of being a first-round pick. He knows that,” Morton said. “He’s got a brother in the league (Elijhaa Penny, a fullback for the Giants who at 25 is three years older than Rashaad). And he hears everything, those guys hear all that kind of stuff.

“But he’s had a great attitude about it. It’s phenomenal, especially for a rookie, now. It could have gone bad. I’ve seen it. He didn’t get the playing time, but he didn’t complain about it. He wasn’t whining. He was frustrated, and we talked about stuff, and he wanted to learn more. That’s what was cool about him.”

So Penny set out the last two weeks to perfect his craft — in practice. He worked on his pass blocking, which has been the reason since training camp started that Carson and Davis have been ahead of him. He’s worked on being more precise on his steps to receiving handoffs, on being tighter and more aggressive into the running lane, on taking better angles on swing routes out of the backfield.

“And he’s been eating better,” Morton said.

All three back now have a 100-yard rushing game in this season; Davis ran for a career high 101 yards Sept. 30 in the win at Arizona, when Carson was out with a groin injury.

So who does what between Penny, Carson and Davis Thursday night?

Carson returned to full practice participation on Tuesday, his best sign yet he will start against Green Bay.

The Seahawks also got plowing right guard D.J. Fluker, their best run blocker who also missed the Rams game, with a calf strain, back fully practicing. So the running game Seattle has proven it must have to win this season will be back to full power.

Schottenheimer said “there is not a pecking order” Penny has to change at running back.

“Chris is the guy who will start the game,” Schottenheimer said. “But it’s pretty cool to have those guys. It’s a pretty unique (running backs) room, in terms of they are all young. They are all there to push each other, and to support each other. And it truly is next man up.

“It was cool to see Rashaad to come into his own last week. He made some beautiful, beautiful runs. ... And we know what Chris and Mike have done.

“There’s not an ego in that room. ... Whoever carries the ball, whoever has to produce, we expect them to do that.”

While explaining how great Penny’s attitude has been this season while he hasn’t played, Morton said the rookie “understood when Chris has been rolling (three 100-yard games in his last five starts). We said, ‘Hey, we are always going to go with the hot guy.’ And he was hot at the time. No matter what the rotation is, we are going to stick with that guy.

“We are always going to go with the hot guy.”

Well, not always. Penny learned that last weekend, that his coaches’ trust isn’t immediate.

How else to explain what happened to him in L.A. immediately after his touchdown run?

Mysteriously, Penny disappeared after his two bursts for 56 yards and that score. From his TD run with 3:42 left in the first quarter until 9:15 left in the third, Penny carried it just once. That was for no gain during a 2-minute, hurry-up series at the end of the first half.

Carroll acknowledged Monday the Seahawks erred in not getting back to running Penny quickly enough. In that span he mostly watched, Seattle went from leading, 14-7, to trailing the Rams, 20-14.

Penny got 12 of the offense’s 34 carries. Davis got 11 while gaining 58 yards. Add in Wilson’s 92 yards, 80 on scrambling, and Seattle is coming off a 273-yard rushing day against the Rams with three backs who deserve more carries.

“It’s a tough problem to have when you have three guys who can play,” Morton said.

“I need a degree in psychology.”

Yet if Penny’s performance against Los Angeles doesn’t earn him more time against Green Bay, presumably at Davis’ expense with Carson returning to start, is it really, per Carroll’s mantra, “always compete”?

“Yeah, yeah, but when everybody’s healthy, not everybody’s going to get the ball a lot,” Carroll said this week. “That’s just the way it goes, so we’ll figure that out.

“You’ll see how it comes together. Chris is going to be healthy this week and he’ll be excited to get back out there, too. It’s a good group. It’s a good problem. Not a great problem for the running backs. But it’s good for us.”

This story was originally published November 13, 2018 at 6:27 PM.