Why all the Seahawks’ false starts. What the Packers were doing to help cause them
The Seahawks’ reborn offensive line is mastering a new scheme, a new line coach, a new coordinator and newfound, record-setting success blocking for the running game.
Now it apparent needs to master one of the oldest tricks in football.
Seattle’s blockers and their coaches said following Thursday night’s huge comeback win over Green Bay that the Packers’ defensive linemen did what the Chargers did before them, in the Seahawks’ previous home game. They used CenturyLink Field’s crowd noise and chaos against the Seahawks by simulating snap counts with yelling and sharp movements before snaps.
That’s technically illegal, and unsportsmanlike conduct, but is rarely called in the NFL.
It wasn’t on Thursday night, when the Seahawks had five false-start penalties.
And it wasn’t on Nov. 4, in Seattle’s previous home game, when the right side of the Chargers’ defensive line yelled and made sudden arm movements to induce left guard J.R. Sweezy into a crucial false-start foul. That came on a fourth and goal from the 1-yard line on a final, untimed down with the Seahawks trailing 25-17. Seattle appeared set to run the ball with a shotgun handoff trying for the tying touchdown and two-point conversion to send that game into overtime. Pushed back by Sweezy’s illegal procedure to the 6, Russell Wilson’s pass got tipped just before it reached David Moore in the end zone and fell incomplete, giving the Chargers the win.
Then Thursday, the Seahawks had four false-star fouls by 6 minutes into the second quarter: on right tackle Germain Ifedi, right guard D.J. Fluker, reserve tackle and extra tight end George Fant, even wide receiver Jaron Brown.
Friday, coach Pete Carroll termed it “an epidemic” of false starts. It led the Seahawks to go to a silent count on offense, something Carroll can’t recall if they’d ever done in a home game before in his time running the team.
After Fant was called for Seattle’s fourth illegal procedure with 9:09 left in the second quarter, when the Seahawks had a first and goal at the Packers 2, center Justin Britt confronted referee Tony Corrente about what Green Bay was doing.
Three of the first four times Seattle got flagged for a false start came on first down.
Britt said after the game he didn’t think what the Packers doing was legal, but, whatever, since the Seahawks won the game.
“They did that a little bit,” Carroll said Friday. “Yeah, that did happen in the game I think and we thought our guys thought that. I thought so, and I know Britt went crazy. He’s like trying to make the point to the officials.
“But I’m not griping about that. That’s just them playing the game and I don’t know that they weren’t doing it exactly. If you say ‘move’ to move your (own defensive) guys, that’s legit. You can do that. It’s just if there’s something else. I don’t know if there was not. But we got to talking about it and it didn’t happen after a while. I know the officials were well aware and they might have warned them or whatever. I don’t know.
“Again, I can’t document that they did it. That’s kind of what we were griping about at the time. It was kind of a rule-number-two violation, to tell you the truth.”
After the game, 11th-year veteran Duane Brown was asked if the Packers were barking out signals.
“Yeah,” Brown said.
“For one, I think, their fans showed up. It was pretty loud out there when we were on the field. Besides that, yeah, they were giving the ‘move’ calls. ...It happens.
“They were giving ‘move’ calls and guys were thinking they were our cadence, you know, jumping offsides. You know, we’ve got to focus as much as we can on it. But we found a way to overcome it, so that was good.
“Their defense was moving around quite a bit and making calls during our cadence. And guys just kind of got a little anxious. So we just had to focus, just calm down a little bit and that’s what happened. It was tough at the beginning of the game because it’s tough to ask guys to not do that the way it was happening. It wasn’t as easy as not moving. In the middle of the cadence, guys are barking out calls and guys can’t hear and they think it’s Russ. It was tough but we found a way to overcome it.
It’s not that this penalty is never called. The league even has a complicated name for the violation: shouting “disconcerting signals.” The Cincinnati Bengals got caught doing it and it gave the Arizona Cardinals a win in 2015.
But that, of course, was three years ago.
Now, as Brown said, it’s something else the Seahawks’ offensive line needs to work on. Something else for Seattle’s first-year line coach Mike Solari to drill.
That’s on top of the man-on-man, drive blocking scheme he installed this year after years of the Seahawks blocking in a zone scheme under Tom Cable.
Solari’s way, with a little zone still mixed in, has Seattle number one in the NFL in rushing offense, at 154.3 yards per game.
The Seahawks, without lead back Chris Carson and the plowing Fluker last weekend, romped to 273 yards on the ground in the five-point loss at the Los Angeles Rams. That was the most Seattle’s ever had in a defeat. Thursday they gained 173 yards on 35 carries against the Packers, with Carson gaining 83 yards with a touchdown while joining Fluker back in the lineup.
Thursday was the seventh consecutive game the Seahawks have rushed for at least 150 yards, extending a team record.
Yes, something not even the Super Bowl teams with Marshawn Lynch in the 2013 and ‘14 seasons did.
McKissic to return
The Seahawks’ already crowded offensive backfield will add another running back when the team returns from its weekend off to practice early next week.
J.D. McKissic is coming off injured reserve and will be a candidate to play Nov. 25 in Seattle’s next game, at Carolina. The former wide receiver the Seahawks have also used as a third-down receiving back and kick returner since claiming him off waivers from Atlanta in Dec. 2016 joins Carson, rookie first-round pick Rashaad Penny, Mike Davis and mothballed C.J. Prosise (a healthy inactive again for the Packers game) in the backfield.
“J.D. McKissic is going to come back to practice this (next) week for the first time, so he’ll have a chance to see what he can do to make it more confusing and challenging,” Carroll joked. “But that’s a good thing.”
Seattle is the only team in the NFL who has three backs who have rushed for 100 yards in a game this season. Carson has done it three times in his last six starts. Penny did it last week at the Rams. Davis ran for 101 on Sept. 30 in the win at Arizona, when Carson was out with a groin injury.
Wright to let knee heal
Carroll said Pro Bowl outside linebacker K.J. Wright’s left knee on which he had arthroscopic knee surgery needs a break from him trying to play, so it can get healthier.
Wright had played three straight games after missing the first six following surgery in late August. The 29-year-old was inactive for the Packers game.
“We’re trying to get his knee back where he really feels confident that he can get back and stay back,” Carroll said. “We’re going to take our time, whatever time it takes to check that out and make a decision on it. ....
“He’s been awesome and he did everything he could to get back. Now we’re going to just figure it out and make sure that we give him a shot to come back full-go.”
The Seahawks had backup middle linebacker Austin Calitro in Wright’s place again at weakside linebacker, as he was early in the season. Barkevious Mingo had spelled Wright last weekend when he had to leave the Rams game early.
Carroll said they went with Calitro against Green Bay because he has more experience as an every-down linebacker than Mingo, whose primarily been an edge pass rusher in his NFL and college careers.
Carroll said rookie Shaquem Griffin, who started the opener for Wright but struggled in run defense so much Calitro replaced him in the second quarter in Denver Sept. 9, is “banging, trying to get in there, too. But that’s the way we’ve decided to go.”
Kendricks back practicing
Mychal Kendricks has rejoined the team and will practice next week, Carroll said.
The Super Bowl starter at outside linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles in February hasn’t played since Sept. 30. The NFL suspended him for insider trading. Terms of the suspension are Kendricks can return to the Seahawks to practice for two weeks. He is eligible to play again Dec. 10 when Seattle hosts Minnesota.
Extra points
Carroll said he was “thrilled” the team did not sustain a new injury coming out of the game. ... The coach on Prosise, the team’s third-round pick in 2016, being inactive for the fourth time Thursday and having just one carry and three catches in 10 games: “It really bothers me that C.J. is not part of this, because C.J. is worthy of being a part of it. It’s just kind of the rotations and how it’s fitted together.”
