Russell Wilson, Seahawks not taking what defenses are giving them underneath
Defenses keep backing up, preventing DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett from catching deep passes from Russell Wilson.
Wilson keeps throwing deep, into two defenders here, three cover guys there.
Arizona on Sunday did what Green Bay did the previous week against Seattle, only with a better, more damaging pass rush. The Cardinals played way deep in zone and some man coverage. They challenged Wilson and the Seahawks to adjust with shorter, quicker throws, to take what the defense was giving them — and to get the ball out of Wilson’s hands more quickly before the pass rush arrived through an iffy offensive line.
He and they rarely did either of those things Sunday.
The first two sacks, of four, Wilson took in the last-place Seahawks’ 23-13 home loss to first-place Arizona came on consecutive plays during the game’s opening possession.
On both sacks, Metcalf and Lockett had their backs to Wilson, running long routes when Wilson did not have time to wait from them.
It’s become obvious through 10 Seahawks games, seven of them losses, that this last-place offense and first-year coordinator Shane Waldron is either incapable or unwilling to:
- consistently convert on third downs
- have enough positive plays on first and second downs to make third downs work
- run the ball consistently
- take what soft, deep-playing defenses are giving them.
‘I keep saying adjust,” Seahawks wide receiver Tyler Lockett said, “because we have to understand what teams are doing.”
Wilson was asked following his second straight subpar game since his return from finger surgery he had last month: is it against his Super Bowl-winning history and nature to check passes down to underneath and safety-valve receivers when that’s what defense are giving the Seahawks?
Wilson immediately cited the few times he did throw quickly and underneath: to tight end Colby Parkinson for 6 yards outside left on second and 10 in the third quarter with Seattle trailing 16-6; and on second and 10 with 2 minutes left in the third quarter, to tight end Will Dissly. Dissly had no one between him and the line to gain across midfield — but he dropped the pass at his chest.
“I think about the ball flat to Colby. We had some other things. Got the ball to Dissly a couple of times quickly,” Wilson said, citing just three of his 26 passes Sunday. “We have some quick throws in there today that we felt like we were trying to get the ball out. That was really when we were in tempo.”
According to ESPN stats, Wilson was 8 for 14 for 67 yards throwing within 2.5 seconds of the snap Sunday. On throws of 5 yards or fewer air yards, Wilson completed 8 of 13 for 58 yards.
Only 13 of 26 throws were where the Cardinals were letting Seattle have free yards.
“Then we had some deep shots, too,” Wilson said. “Those are shots you got to take, and those are opportunities that are massive opportunities, and it didn’t go our way.”
Wilson threw deep to DK Metcalf on a post route midway through the third quarter. It was into double coverage. Arizona’s Marco Wilson had a better chance to catch that pass than Metcalf (four catches on eight targets for 31 yards) before that ball fell to the ground incomplete off the defender’s hands.
The one deep pass Wilson completed, for 48 yards to Lockett in the fourth quarter, came after Wilson scrambled and Lockett ran across the field on an unplanned, improvisational route, almost a broken play.
Wilson completed no other pass for more than 16 yards Sunday.
“We have to learn to play when those explosives (plays) aren’t there,” Lockett said.
Wilson’s response?
Ignore “the noise.”
“I think what we have to do is to block out a lot of the noise right now. Just to be honest with you, block out a lot of the noise and understand that there’s still opportunities,” Wilson said. “There’s still time to get better. There’s still -- not much time, but there’s still time, meaning tomorrow — and that’s what we have to do.”
About that noise: Where you and the NFL sees what looks like rust — or at the very least what Wilson hasn’t looked like in 10 previous seasons as the Seahawks’ franchise quarterback — Wilson sees as an excuse.
To be fair, the wobbly floating deep passes he threw the week before while getting shutout for the first time in his career in his return game, at Green Bay, were mostly gone Sunday.
Rust for Wilson?
Wilson ruined a third and goal inside the Cardinals 10-yard line in the first half when he short-hopped a throw to wide-open Freddie Swain.
On a key third down and 4 in the third quarter he chose to throw to...Penny Hart? That nearly got intercepted.
Wilson was asked: do you feel rust and the five-week layoff have contributed to your first consecutive games without a touchdown pass in five years?
“No, I don’t,” he said. “I think we got to see the deep ball. You won’t say rust when you watch it. The ball is coming out of my hand just fine.
“You can make as my thoughts and excuses. I’m not going to make excuses. I’m not an excuse kind of guy. I’m a guy we want to figure out how to fix it and get better, and and that’s how we’re going to stay neutral and think through it.”
The previous week at Green Bay, a 17-0 shutout that was Seattle’s first blanking since 1999, the Seahawks had Wilson take all 59 of his snaps in shotgun formation. That was to keep a direct snap from center Ethan Pocic from slapping into Wilson’s repaired throwing hand.
Against the Cardinals, the Seahawks’ first three plays were direct snaps with Wilson under center. Eleven of Seattle’s first 15 plays were runs — as many handoffs as the team gave its running backs in 59 offensive plays against the Packers.
Wilson took direct snaps on 11 of his 49 plays against Arizona.
Carroll was asked if the Seahawks and Waldron have had to ask Wilson to do things in a game he’s not quite ready physically to do.
“No. No. We really haven’t,” Carroll said. “The only thing that we could be doing more is putting him under center more. That’s all. That’s the only other thing we could do more, and we didn’t feel like it was an issue, and we’re trying to keep that spank of the ball coming up not to be a factor in the game any more than we do, as he is still recovering.
“This is week six of broken bones (in his finger), so that’s all. None of us feel like that’s a factor.
“We may have to revisit it again, and get us back to a more normal cadence of how we do that, and where we mix the gun stuff and under-center stuff.”
Up tempo?
Wilson brought up one of his familiar refrains: the need to play more up tempo on offense. The first time the Seahawks ran consecutive plays without huddling Sunday was with 8 minutes left in the game. After a third-down run by DeeJay Dallas for 15 yards to the Arizona 2-yard line, the Seahawks rushed to the line and handed the ball to Dallas again for a 2-yard touchdown. It was the closest Seattle got to the lead and winning all day, down only 16-13.
Then when it had to rise late, Seattle’s defense collapsed and the Seahawks lost.
“I thought that we could have played a little bit sharper,” Wilson said. “I think that for me the standard is always high. The standard is always to find a way to win. It’s what it’s really about.
“I think one of the things we did well was picking up the tempo and moving the ball really well. We went up and down the field before half, and near the end of the game there we responded really well with that, and I think that we have to figure out how to tap into that a little bit more maybe and then as we do that, I think, also staying with confidence.”
Here’s the thing: the Seahawks were again abysmal on third downs, converting just 2 of 10. They are last in the NFL this season in third-down conversions, which is why they are last in time of possession. Plus, Wilson is a 35% passer this season on third down.
It’s darn near impossible for Waldron to call any up-tempo offense when the offense can’t keep itself on the field for more than three plays.
“There was just some stuff that wasn’t as clean as we needed it to be, and so for me I’m going to look internally to see what can I do better, and then also, too, what can we do better collectively?” Wilson said.
In the locker room Sunday, Wilson thought about these 3-7 times for the Seahawks after making the playoffs in eight of nine years and winning Seattle’s only NFL title in that span.
He thought this is nothing compared what he’s seen in his life.
“It’s been a challenge, I think, so far this year and I think there’s been a lot of -- we’re up against it a little bit, and if anybody likes being up against it, I’m OK with it,” Wilson said.
“I think that I’ve had harder days, too. This is a pretty hard day. It’s a hard couple of weeks, whatever, because we’re feeling it right now, and we know that we’re up against it. But what I also do know is that, man, I think about my dad when he was on his death bed. That’s what I was thinking about when I came back in the locker room. What we’re up against is not harder than that. He lived another three and a half years, and they told him he had only 12 to 18 hours left to live.
“For me, seven games (left in the season) sounds good to me. I look forward to the next seven, and when we do figure it out, which will hopefully be this week when we do figure it out, everybody better watch out.”
This story was originally published November 21, 2021 at 8:30 PM.
