You and Brian Schottenheimer’s wife have a lot in common about the Seahawks’ play caller
You and Brian Schottenheimer’s wife have a lot in common.
“She’d be like, ‘That third-and-3 call, I don’t know about that one,’” the Seahawks’ play caller said about his wife on their drives home from games.
“I’d be like, ‘Which one? She’d be like, ‘The one where you ran the ball up the middle and you didn’t make any yards.’
“I was like, ‘Honey, let me just get home and have dinner first before I have to explain to you what I’m doing.’
“We kind of have fun with it. She’s passionate about football and that’s why I love her.”
Now that he’s gotten that established—smart man—Schottenheimer continued joking about his wife’s, um, inquisitive football nature.
“She’s very critical, I’ll be honest with you,” he said. “I get in the car and I’m like, ‘Can I just relax for a few minutes?’
“She’s like, ‘You ran it up the middle. I don’t like that.’”
Schottenheimer’s response to his wife, Gemmi?
“Join the club,” he said.
Yes, Seattle’s second-year offensive coordinator knows he is the city’s favorite punching bag for how Seahawks games go. Or don’t go.
Fact is, Schottenheimer—the coach, not the wife—has spent the first three weeks of this season waiting for the opportunities to employ the plans he spends five days before every game preparing.
He’s still waiting.
His offense has either been in first and 20 (six times already this season) and subsequently in long-yardage situations that ruin series, or it has been down on the scoreboard by 20 points (last weekend against New Orleans).
That’s meant the play calls Schottenheimer had planned to make are mostly useless. Instead, his calls have largely become the NFL equivalent of drawing plays in the dirt, pulls from the far corners of his call sheet for special, long-odds situations.
To keep franchise quarterback Russell Wilson from getting an injury that would doom the season, behind an offensive line that continues to prove it can’t adequately pass protect when defenses know Seattle is going to throw, Schottenheimer has called running plays two times this season on first and 20. He’s called runs eight times on second and 10, the second-most such calls in the NFL. He’s called four runs on second down and more than 10, three runs on third and more than 10.
That preservation play calling, not attacking.
Last weekend, the malfunctioning Seahawks (2-1) fell behind the Saints 20-7. Lead back Chris Carson’s fumble became a New Orleans touchdown. The Saints returned a punt for a score. And Seattle’s offense again was backed up into long yardage by penalties and mistakes.
At halftime, coach Pete Carroll told Schottenheimer to go hurry-up, to let Wilson basically play sandlot football and improvise on the fly.
Wilson ended up throwing for 406 yards, the second-highest total of his career, on a career-most 50 passes. His two late touchdowns were cosmetic, cleaning up what was a 33-14 deficit in the fourth quarter of a 33-27 loss.
So why not go hurry-up earlier in games, such as Sunday’s NFC West one at Arizona (0-2-1)?
“You know it’s funny, I actually get asked that a lot,” Schottenheimer said.
Yes, Gemmi Schottenheimer has an opinion for her husband on that, too.
“My wife loves to ask that question: ‘Why don’t you guys just do what you did then?’” the Seahawks’ play caller said.
“What I try to explain to her is what is a big benefit of that is the fact that it’s late in the (half), or it’s late in the fourth quarter. Or it’s late in the second half. It’s hard to go out when a defense is fresh and try to spread them out and just try to throw it all over the yard because they’re fresh. They’re attacking and things like that. What helps is obviously, we kind of wear them down.
“Of course, Russ is so magical in a lot of ways of getting out of trouble. A lot of times, it’s just like, you’re like, ‘What is he doing?’ Then he kind of gets out of there.”
So, what’s the problem playing that way more? If not all the time?
“The problem with playing that way would be just you’d be concerned about, OK, they know you want to do that and they’re fresh. Here they come and they’re getting on the edge and they’re making you step up into traffic and things like that,” Schottenheimer said. “That’s where it’s usually, what most teams—we’re no different than most teams_is when you wear them down, it works.
“You just don’t want to be in it for basically a quarter and a half of football like we were last week.”
To be clear, Schottenheimer got hired by Carroll and keeps his job for being grounded in the run first. It’s the way Carroll set about getting back to being on offense before the 2018 season, months after Seattle and former offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell had Wilson passing far too much for Carroll’s liking, and the 2017 Seahawks missed the playoffs for the only time in the last seven seasons. Running is the way the Seahawks are able to throw consistently and effectively, the way Schottenheimer forces defenses play Seattle more honestly, the way he gives the line a fighting chance to protect Wilson more consistently.
So even on second and 10, even with Carson losing four fumbles in the first three games entering Sunday’s at Arizona, Schottenheimer is still going to run first.
At least, that’s the plan.
Whether you—or his wife—like it or not.
“(And) when they take that away,” he said, “we feel good about where we are with the passing game that we can be able to strike quick with some stuff behind it.”
This story was originally published September 27, 2019 at 9:00 AM.
