Pete Carroll: Anemic Seahawks need to run more. Rashaad Penny: They need to trust run more
Pete Carroll used the same word Quandre Diggs used.
“Humbled.”
One week, the Seahawks are the surprise of the NFL. They are the vindicated, from being doubted league-wide after trading Russell Wilson to beating Wilson in his return to Seattle to begin this season of massive change.
This week?
“We shouldn’t be feeding into all the hype, anyway,” Diggs, the Pro Bowl safety said after his Seahawks got dump-trucked by the San Francisco 49ers 27-7 in a game that wasn’t that close Sunday at Levi’s Stadium.
“Obviously, we’re not that good.”
The truth, well, it hurts.
Diggs’ defense couldn’t stop the run. Again. It couldn’t stop getting penalties.
The offense was even worse. Again.
It’s been six quarters since Wilson’s successor Geno Smith and Seattle’s offense has scored a touchdown. The Seahawks’ only score Sunday was a field goal rookie Tariq Woolen blocked and fellow cornerback Michael Jackson returned 86 yards for a touchdown.
That was after it was 20-0 San Francisco.
Carroll said the first task for the anemic offense is to run the ball. He said that last season. He said that in the 2020 season, after bad losses such as 17-12 at home to the New York Giants that year.
At San Francisco, the Seahawks had 36 yards on 11 rushes. Lead back Rashaad Penny? Just 15 yards on six inconsequential runs.
“We didn’t do anything like we wanted to today,” Carroll said. “On the line of scrimmage, on either side of the ball, we didn’t deal with it right. ...
“It’s really hard to win this football game the way we did it.
“We didn’t run the ball worth a darn. ...We’ve got to get right.”
Penny has a way to get right: Give him and his running backs the ball more and earlier in games.
Play caller Kyle Shanahan had San Francisco run on 13 of its first 16 plays.
Seattle offensive coordinator Shane Waldron dressed up formations with pistol, three tight ends, four running backs, direct snaps to rookie back Ken Walker in his NFL debut — yet had his offense run eight times in its first 16 snaps.
Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith had an interception, the 49ers had three scoring drives and Seattle was down 13-0 by then.
Penny said he feels the Seahawks running backs have been “efficient” running the ball through two games. Yet the numbers say: 34 carries, 112 yards, just 3.4 yards per rush and no scores for Seattle on the ground this season.
Penny had 15 yards on six rushes at San Francisco. Rookie second-round pick Ken Walker debuted with four carries for 10 yards.
“To be honest, I feel like we are still really trying to find our identity as to who we are as an offense,” Penny said. “It’s early in the season, so that’s kind of like how it’s always been here. We’ve tried to kind of find ourselves in the first few games.
“That’s a good defense, a really good defense. ...
“I feel like we’ve got a really great running-back room. I think, you know, we’ve just got to trust it more.”
Yet trust is hard to muster after 36 yards on 14 rushing attempts.
Smith was 24 for 30, but for only 197 yards passing, as Waldron again sought to get the ball out of his quarterback’s hand to neutralize a dangerous opposing pass rush. He had two sacks and one interception he threw behind Lockett over the middle in the second quarter.
Smith has 47 completions in 58 throws (a gaudy 81%) but for just 392 yards, only 6.8 yards per attempt. He has two touchdowns and one interception with four sacks through two games — his first two games as a full-time NFL starter in eight years.
He said what a veteran quarterback should say, what he’s paid to say.
“It starts with me, of course,” Smith said.
“We’ve got to play better. I’ve got to play better.
“It starts with every man being hard on himself and saying, ‘What can I do better?’”
This story was originally published September 18, 2022 at 6:25 PM.
