Easy to see the ‘philosophical differences’ in Pete Carroll firing Brian Schottenheimer
Brian Schottenheimer won’t have to “adapt” better for the Seahawks’ offense next season.
He won’t be calling their plays anymore.
The team announced Tuesday they fired Schottenheimer as their coordinator after three seasons as Russell Wilson’s play caller. The move came three days after the Seahawks ended the season in which they set a franchise record with 459 points scored. But Seattle underachieved as a division champion that lost in the first round of the playoffs last weekend because of late-season problems with Schottenhimer’s previously soaring offense.
“Brian Schottenheimer is a fantastic person and coach and we thank him for the last three years. Citing philosophical differences, we have parted ways,” the team said in a statement late Tuesday afternoon.
Meaning: Schottenheimer wanted to throw the ball deep to maximize the talents of Wilson, DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, while Pete Carroll wanted to get back to more running.
Those “philosophical differences” were easy to see.
They became clear by the final weeks of this season—and particularly during the team’s 30-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Saturday in an NFC wild-card playoff game that wasn’t that close.
The Rams did what most of the league did the last two months of the season. They mostly kept two safeties deep to keep wide receivers Metcalf and Lockett in front of them and prevent the long passes with which Seattle burned the NFL the first half of this season. Rams All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey shadowed Metcalf all over the field 25 times in Seattle’s first 43 offensive plays.
And it worked—three times since November, in fact. The Rams sacked Wilson 16 times with 30 hits on him in three games this season.
Defenses countered Schottenheimer’s offense this season. Schottenheimer never countered back. The Seahawks kept throwing deep, not enough short. Of Wilson’s 27 throws against the Rams Saturday, only three were complete for gains of 10-19 yards.
And Schottenheimer didn’t run the ball enough this season for Carroll’s liking, and nature.
Wilson, who set a team record with 40 touchdowns this regular season, posted a tribute to his play caller the last three years on Twitter Tuesday evening.
Last straw?
The most glaring example of the “philosophical differences” between Carroll and Schottenheimer came early in the fourth quarter Saturday. It doomed the Seahawks’ last true chance to rally.
Down 23-13, Seattle lined up to go for it on fourth and 1. It was after a long injury time out for rookie right guard Damien Lewis. Inexplicably, the Seahawks got out of the huddle with just 5 seconds remaining on the 40-second play clock following the extended time out. Wilson tried to rush the snap before a delay-of-game penalty. Half the offensive line moved, but center Ethan Pocic did not snap the ball. The false-start penalty made it fourth and 6. Carroll then decided to punt.
Seattle never got closer than that to coming back.
Carroll said he “got involved” in Schottenheimer’s play call on that fourth and 1. Carroll eventually got the play he wanted. But it took all but 5 seconds of the play clock to get it. Carroll overruling his play caller caused the delay and ultimately confusion that led to the pre-snap penalty and, in essence, Seattle’s game-ending punt.
Those a season-, and job-, ending “philosophical differences.”
Carroll said after the game, and throughout the final two months of this season, that the offense needed to “adapt better” to how defenses were playing it. Carroll said that beginning in November. He said it December. He said it Saturday, that the Seahawks needed to have “more balance” on offense and needed to run the ball more.
“It seemed like during the course of the season, after the halfway point, we had hit so much early, we had been so effective that people found a way to stay back and just try to bleed us and make us have to throw the ball underneath,” Carroll said. “And we were maybe really going for it more than we needed to. And didn’t take advantage of switching gears a bit there, as effectively as we would like.
“We like chunking them and going after them. As I look back now, I have a lot of work to do to figure it out, but I would think that we might think that way a little differently. At one part of the year, it was available, and we took it. And then in the second part of the year, against the really good defenses that we played, they were able to keep us out of that kind of a mode.
“I wish we would have adapted better under those circumstances.”
That’s damning in multiple ways. But mostly toward Schottenheimer.
Carroll reiterated that on Monday.
Tuesday, Schottenheimer was gone.
In the first two months of the season Wilson was a candidate to be the NFL’s most valuable player. The offense was leading the league in yards passing and points. Metcalf was the sport’s leading receiver in yards. Wilson was repeatedly launching home-run balls like he was Babe Ruth. The Seahawks were 5-0 for the first time in franchise history.
Then defenses caught up to Schottenheimer’s and Seattle’s ways. Instead of single-high safety coverage and cornerbacks trying to stay with Metcalf and Lockett, teams dropped two safeties deep. They bracketed Metcalf with a cornerback in front and a safety behind. The teams that beat the Seahawks the latter half of the season—the New York Giants, the Rams (twice)—sacked and hit Wilson with pass rushes that further ruined Seattle’s deep-passing game.
Foes dared Wilson to throw shorter, quicker passes underneath the more-umbrella coverages. He never did that, not consistently or successfully.
Not thrilled
Wilson and Lockett, who set a franchise record with 100 receptions this season, didn’t exactly endorse the way Schottenheimer ran the offense this season following their final game.
Lockett said teams defended the Seahawks differently than Seattle’s offense—than Schottenheimer—had planned.
“They just came out with a whole different game plan that we haven’t seen them run in games,” Lockett said Saturday. “I think that just comes with us this year being a passing team, to where because we became a passing team, it became easier for teams to try to scheme.
“You got teams starting to figure out, like, let’s drop eight people back. Let’s do this different type of stuff that they normally (don’t do on) film and now we gotta learn how to adjust. ...
“We really know what teams were gonna do.”
Ouch.
Wilson said he wanted to play at a faster tempo more often this season. That most often means without huddling. No-huddle offenses have the quarterback, not the coordinator, calling plays in a hurry and on the fly. For years, Wilson and the Seahawks have been effective using no-huddle sporadically in games.
Of course, it’s difficult to go no-huddle when you are 2 for 14 on third downs and getting sacked five times in games, as Seattle did against the Rams Saturday.
The Seahawks’—and more to the point, Schottenheimer’s—fatal flaw?
They never adjusted to defenses’ adjustments.
He was the play caller, the game-plan designer. It was on Schottenheimer to see defenses backing up and taking away what Wilson feasted on in September and October, and countering that counter.
But ultimately, it was on Carroll. He’s the head coach. He’s got the most power in the franchise. He’s also the executive vice president, above even general manager John Schneider in decision-making power of all football matters. The Seahawks hired Schneider as a first-time GM in 2010 after they hired Carroll to bring his entire program, down the music blaring through practices and free-throw shooting contests at team meetings, from USC 11 years ago.
If Carroll wanted adjustments, he should have made them, or ordered Schottenheimer to. And he should have done it before Wilson was sacked 16 times and hit 30 times in the three games by the team they ultimately could not get past to extend their season beyond round one of the playoffs: the Rams.
Then again, perhaps Tuesday’s “parting of ways” shows Schottenheimer may have resisted if not refused changing, that he wanted to keep the ball in Wilson’s hands to throw Seattle to wins in 2021 and beyond.
Either way, it’s Carroll’s team. His call, as always, won.
This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 5:00 PM.
