Russell Wilson, Seahawks offense didn’t adjust offense vs. Giants. How they will vs. Jets
DK Metcalf was coming off a career game.
Russell Wilson was coming off being the early season front-runner for the NFL MVP award.
Chris Carson was back, after a month out with a sprained foot.
The Seahawks were 8-3. Their offense had been leading the NFL in scoring and yards passing most of this season.
Then, last weekend as a double-digit favorite over the New York Giants, Metcalf was mostly silent. Wilson hesitated and held onto the ball too long during five sacks. Carson was ignored. The offense didn’t score a touchdown until 6 minutes remained.
That was the longest stretch in a game without a TD for Seattle in more than three years. Wilson and the Seahawks scored none and managed only three Blair Walsh field goals in a 17-9 loss at Green Bay in the 2017 opener.
Last weekend Seattle lost to the Giants 17-12 and fell out of first place in the NFC West. The game was even uglier than the unsightly score suggests.
What in the name of Charlie Whitehurst happened?
Those who run the Seahawks’ offense say it was maladjusted. Or not adjusted, until it was too late.
“We’ve shown some vulnerability, at 8-4,” coach Pete Carroll said, assessing his playoff-seeking team with four games left in the regular season, including Sunday at home against the New York Jets (0-12).
“We’ve let some games get away from us. ...You know, we started so fast (a franchise-record 5-0 start this season) people have changed the way they are playing us.
“So we have to adjust and adapt to it.”
At least three times this week Carroll has said what doomed the offense against New York was its inability to effectively adapt and adjust to what the Giants were doing with mixed coverages after Seattle slogged to a 5-0 halftime lead.
On Thursday, Wilson used the same words.
“After watching the film, they just played a really good game. They had a really good game plan and it did a pretty good job doing it. And we adjusted later on, a little too late,” Wilson said.
“At first we had a lot of plays that were called deeper down the field. And then in second half, third, fourth quarter, we really started adjusting to what they were trying to do. ...
“Their their objective was to slow the game down.”
The Giants put their best coverage defensive back, cornerback James Bradberry, on Metcalf. They reinforced Bradberry with deep safety help, and held Metcalf to five catches for 80 yards. The Giants played zone and man, mixed coverages sometimes on the same play. They were effective pressuring Wilson and sacking him five time while mostly rushing only four defenders, sometimes just three linemen.
Wilson and play caller Brian Schottenheimer had a game plan to throw deep and often at the Giants, with Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. New York planned to specifically take that away.
Wilson kept holding onto the ball, waiting for open routes deep that weren’t there.
It was like Seattle’s loss at Buffalo last month. The Bills defense was prepared for seemingly every Seahawks receiver’s route and almost every Wilson throw while jumping out to a 17-point lead early. Last weekend was like the Seahawks’ loss at Arizona in October, when the Cardinals blitzed Wilson relentlessly in the fourth quarter and overtime. That was after Carson and fellow running back Carlos Hyde got hurt.
After both games, Carroll said his team didn’t adjust quickly or effectively enough.
Last Sunday, the opponent’s coaches again were ultra prepared for Seattle’s offense, better prepared than the Seahawks were to counter and alter their plan.
Schottenheimer said he could have done a better job countering the Giants’ spot-on plan to support journeyman fill-in quarterback Colt McCoy and New York’s offense.
“They came in here thinking, ‘Hey you know, they might have a rough day offensively, so, hey let’s limit the big plays Let’s limit the explosives for this Seattle offense; it’s explosive and very dangerous.’ And they did a nice job of that,” Schottenheimer said.
“I would say I probably could have adjusted a little bit better, and thrown some more of the underneath stuff. We were hunting and we’re trying to go get them. And they were sitting back there and that led to us having to hold the ball a bit.
“In those situations, we need to be better with the play calls and say, ‘OK, they’re not gonna let us get there,’ and then also with some of the decisions we’re making Russ taking the underneath stuff.
“We both are wired the same way. We’re both pretty aggressive and want to go for it. And in that game it was not the right formula.”
How about Chris Carson?
Leaving Carson out of the plan wasn’t the right formula, either.
In his second game back from injury Carson combined with Hyde for just 15 carries by Seattle running backs against the Giants, against 48 drop backs to throw by Wilson.
Those are numbers befitting being behind 17-0 right away and chasing the rest of the game, as Wilson and the Seahawks did at Buffalo last month while losing 44-34.
Fifteen runs and 48 pass calls are not what Carroll wants in a 17-12 game.
It’s not how Seattle’s offensive line is built to best pass protect. It’s not how Seattle can beat Green Bay, New Orleans and the Los Angeles Rams, the three teams in the NFC the Seahawks are likely going to have to defeat to reach the Super Bowl in February.
“Chris looked really good. I’d love to see him more,” Carroll said.
“He feels better this week, going into the week, than he’s felt at any time. 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). ...
“We need to be balanced.”
Carroll said Carson is ready this week for “a full load” in the run game. That would mean more runs for the entire offense against the Jets.
But Carroll has said this before.
“The main thing will be Chris feeling he can go and he can take all the load. That’s important,” he said.
“And that’s important to the play caller, too, that he knows he’s got him and all that.”
Schottenheimer said he has a staffer with him up in the play-calling booth at press-level during games who is reminding him of the game plan’s intended balance of run and pass versus how the coordinator is actually calling game.
He has those numbers broken down in three categories:
- the numbers of runs and passes called on the first plays of each Seahawks possession
- the overall numbers of such calls for all plays and situations
- how many runs and how many passes resulted in earned (not by penalty) first downs.
“You try to balance them up, the best you can,” Schottenheimer said.
“Last game was one of those games where we didn’t really get to the balance that we wanted, for different reasons.”
Wilson says he can feel when the Seahawks are throwing way more and barely giving the ball to Carson. And not just because his body aches the next day from getting sacked 40 times this season, third-most in the NFL.
Wilson also has been hit 52 times through 12 games. That’s five fewer times than he got hit throwing 80 more times all of the 2019 season.
“We can feel in the game, yeah, for sure. I think you obviously want to get Chris Carson touches,” Wilson said. “I mean this guy’s one of the best running backs in the game.”
Then Wilson mentioned Hyde. He mentioned Metcalf. Lockett.
Balance?
“Balance is tough because...there so there’s so many guys that can make plays. And so you want to be able to diversify the football in tons of ways,” Wilson said.
Carson has 429 yards rushing and four touchdowns in eight games this season, the final one of his current contract. He rushed for 2,381 yards and 16 touchdowns the previous two seasons, which injuries also shortened for him.
The Seahawks adapting and adjusting better during games and including Carson more could prove to be the difference between them winning the NFC West or looking like they did against the Giants.
“It’s fun to watch this, how explosive he is running the ball, how he attacks downhill,” Wilson said. “(Carson’s running) obviously helps the play-action game some, too, as well....because they’ve got to come up and stop Chris Carson. That’s a big deal, you know. ...
“Really mixing run and pass are all the different things that we want to do. I think also what Chris does is he finds the end zone. He’s one of the best scorers in the game.
“We want to get him in the end zone. ...
“Chris is one of those answers, for sure.”
Speaking of answers...
“Whenever you have a loss, everyone wants to have the answer,” Wilson said. “Whenever you have a win, everybody thinks they came up with the answer.
“We are ready to roll this week.
“Just keep believing,” Wilson said. “I know who I am as a player. I know who we are as a team.
“I know where we can go.”
This story was originally published December 11, 2020 at 5:30 AM.
