Chris Carson ready for ‘a full load’ again, so Pete Carroll wants more Seahawks balance
It appears if and when they need 1 yard again this week, the Seahawks are (finally) going to call on Chris Carson.
And for much more than 1 yard.
Pete Carroll said this week, Carson’s third since returning from missing more than a month with a sprained foot, will be the first time since the injury Seattle’s lead running back will get “a full load.” That will be Sunday, when the Seahawks (8-4) host the New York Jets (0-12).
“Chris looked really good. I’d love to see him more,” Carroll said Monday.
That was one day after Carson and fellow plow back Carlos Hyde rushed just 15 times—while Russell Wilson dropped back to pass 48 times—in Seattle’s galling, 17-12 home loss to the sub-.500 New York Giants.
“He feels better this week, going into the week, than he’s felt at any time,” Carroll said of Carson. “I think this week is really a time we have a chance to cut him loose and he can take the full load.
“That hindered us a little bit in the thinking (against the Giants).”
A little bit?
Sunday’s dismal game turned for the worse for Seattle when its play-calling ignored Carson in the third quarter after New York had taken its first lead, 8-5.
The Seahawks had a fourth and 1 at their own 48-yard line. At that point Carson had rushed for 58 yards on his first nine carries, more than 6 yards per rush, against the Giants huge defensive front. He had consecutive runs of 11 yards, even to the beaten-up right side of his offensive line, on Seattle’s first possession of the game. That produced the Seahawks only offensive score of the first 3 1/2 quarters, a field goal by Jason Myers.
Plus, Carson gained 2,381 yards with 16 rushing touchdowns the previous two seasons. He scored Seattle’s only touchdown Sunday, on a 28-yard catch then stretch over the ball over the goal line.
And this is his contract year, the last one of his rookie deal. He’s wondered aloud about the Seahawks not approaching him yet with a new contract offer. It’s because of his history of injuries, every one of the four years he’s been in the NFL.
He is ultra-motivated to prove his worth every time he touches the ball.
Yet the Seahawks went too cute on fourth and short Sunday—for the third time in two games.
Play caller Brian Schottenheimer employed three tight ends to the left. Carson was lined up in the backfield next to Wilson. But instead of giving it to Carson for a power run, Schottenheimer had Wilson fake a hand-off to him. Wilson rolled outside to his left on a bootleg. Two Giants defenders weren’t fooled by the fake. They barreled in unblocked at Wilson.
Wilson spun and ran but couldn’t find anyone open down the field amid the pressure from a New York front that sacked him five times. He ultimately chucked a desperate pass somewhere near Carson incomplete. He was covered tightly a few yards up field by Giants cornerback Isaac Yiadom.
“They guessed right,” Carroll said Monday of the Giants’ defensive call.
Wilson said “it’s almost like they knew it was coming.”
They did.
The end of soft?
The same thing happened in Seattle’s previous game, its win at woeful Philadelphia. Soft, lateral instead of downhill, and failed, on fourth down.
Early against the Eagles, Carson was in on fourth down at the goal line. Schottenheimer had third wide receiver David Moore, coming off hip injury, run a fly sweep. Laterally. He lost yardage. That play had zero chance from the start.
Seattle is 1 for 1 this season converting to first downs when running it on fourth and 1 or 2. The Seahawks are 1 for 4 with minus-3 total yards trying to pass in those situations.
Yet another why giving Carson a fuller load should change the offense and the outcomes over the last four games of this season.
His coach said Carson came out of his 13 carries for 65 yards against the Giants the best he’s been after a game since the week leading into the game he got hurt, at Arizona Oct. 25.
“Chris looked really good. He handled what we did,” Carroll said. “So in the long run we’ll have him, we hope, full speed, full go this week.”
It’s not only the Seahawks’ hope. It’s their need, to get into then advance in the playoffs.
“I think we need to get him back to full go. Get him back to full load, and ease our way to that,” Carroll said. “I mean, we’re not going to overdo it. We don’t have to. We’ve got Carlos (Hyde, the bullish number-two back also healthier after injuries) to run the ball, as well, and we love Carlos running the football.
“The main thing will be Chris feeling he can go and he can take all the load. That’s important.
“And that’s important to the play caller, too, that he knows he’s got him and all that.”
Indeed. Schottenheimer hasn’t been calling as many runs for most of the last six weeks, since Carson and Hyde both got hurt in Seattle’s overtime loss at Arizona Oct. 25.
The Seahawks’ two lowest rushing-yard games of the season have come since then: 57 yards while falling behind right away in a 44-34 loss at Buffalo Nov. 8 and 76 yards last week in the Monday-night win at Philadelphia.
The Carroll 50
Carroll last week repeated his annually recited standard he credits to the Vince Lombardi Green Bay Packers for championship football: a combination of pass completions and rushing attempts totaling 50 or more wins games and titles.
Modern analytics folks hate it. So do people who argue cause and effect with such numbers. The many Let Russ Cook-ers despise Carroll’s 50. They want to see Wilson chuck the ball all over NFL stadiums every week.
Thing is, the Seahawks’ truth remains what it was in 2019, and ‘18: the way their offensive line is constructed and is beaten up—it was down to a fourth-string practice-squad right tackle against the Giants, Chad Wheeler—Seattle must run often. And effectively.
It must force the defenses the Seahawks likely will have to beat to get out of the NFC to the Super Bowl—the Rams’, Green Bay’s and New Orleans’—to honor the run and not tee off their pass rushers at Wilson. He’s been holding the ball too long and getting sacked 21 times in the last five games behind his iffy O-line.
Doesn’t matter whether you agree with the magic 50 combo number, or think Carroll’s 50 is how many years ago his ways applied to pro football. It’s what Carroll believes. And he’s the head coach.
Overlooked during their flying, 5-0 start to this season, the best start in franchise history when Wilson was setting league records for touchdown passes to begin a year and was the early favorite for NFL MVP: With Carson healthy the Seahawks hit 50 completions and rushes four times in those five weeks.
In the last five games the Seahawks have reached 50 completions and runs just twice. They got to 49 in the Giants game.
In the last five games, Wilson has been hit more than any other NFL quarterback (27 times).
They are 7-1 this season when getting completions and rushes to total at least 50. The exception: the overtime defeat at Arizona. Carson and Hyde led a run-based offense early in the game, until they got hurt.
“We need to be balanced. We need to have our balance about us, and able to go whatever way we need to go,” Carroll said Monday.
“Down the stretch here, we have to be ready for anything.”
He cited league-wide trends in the last month that show defenses more successfully slowing down the high-flying aerial games from early this season.
“There’s been enough time for the defenses to see everybody. Right now, it’s going to be more challenging (to score late in the season),” Carroll said.
“Early in the year, it was wide open, man. It was like the wild, wild west out there on offense.
“We fell prey to that, as well.
“But it’s tightening down. So we’re going to need the running game. We are going to need the throwing game,” Carroll said.
A new Jets challenge
Carroll said this week will be a prime example. The Seahawks don’t know how the Jets are going to play defense with a new coordinator.
New York fired Gregg Williams Monday, a day after he called an all-out blitz against a Raiders Hail Mary pass in the final seconds. Las Vegas scored the winning touchdown past man, corner coverage with no safety help deep.
Frank Bush is the Jets’ interim defensive coordinator. Carroll was Bush’s defensive coordinator at North Carolina State when Bush played college ball for the Wolfpack in 1981-82.
“We need to play real good, solid ball that we can count on, and then go wherever we need to go when they show their hand,” Carroll said.
“It’s going to be an exciting run here down the finish.”
Literally, for a change according to Carroll, more Seahawks run.
Things is, Carroll has said this before. Last week, in fact. And numerous other times this season. And last season.
But Carson has missed swaths of the last two seasons with injuries.
The coach says his lead back is full go now.
“At this point we’re not holding back for four weeks from now,” Carroll said, chuckling.
“This is a freakin’ championship run right here. It really feels like the season starts all over again right now. Look at where we are right now. It’s a great fourth quarter coming up right now, if we can make it so.”
This story was originally published December 8, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
