How maligned coaches Ryan Grubb, Scott Huff aligned the Seahawks to romp past Arizona
Sataoa Laumea had a gaggle of visitors in front of his locker waiting to talk to him.
That got the rooting hoots and hollars from his teammates next to him.
“Oh, look at you!” teammates yelled to the rookie, over another bumpin’ Seahawks locker room after yet another Seattle win.
“You BIG time now!”
Yes, for the Seahawks, this was BIG time. Their previously pushed around offensive line finally pushed back.
The guys who did it credit two assistant coaches from the University of Washington who many around the Pacific Northwest have criticized all season.
Veteran left guard Laken Tomlinson told The News Tribune on his way out of the desert Sunday evening that offensive line coach Scott Huff made critical adjustments in the first quarter of Seattle’s eventual 30-18 win over the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium.
Seahawks players say those adjustments and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb sticking with a run game plan from the week even after the team determined Saturday lead running back Kenneth Walker was too injured to play Sunday was why they won their fourth consecutive game.
Zach Charbonnet replaced Walker and ran for a career-best 133 yards on 22 carries with two touchdowns. The Seahawks (8-5) rushed for a season-high 176 yards to remain in first place a game ahead of the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC West with four games remaining in the regular season.
Those yards are why the Seahawks beat the Arizona Cardinals Sunday 30-18 to remain atop the NFC West with four games remaining in this season.
“They deserve a lot of credit,” rookie head coach Mike Macdonald said of Grubb, Huff and the other first-year offensive assistants he hired last winter. “I have been saying for weeks that we’re working on this thing. We’re working through all the processes. By no stretch of the imagination have we made it, but it’s great to get a breakthrough on productivity on how we want to play.
“I thought Grubb called a great game. And onward we go.
“I think now hopefully this generates some more confidence for us in the things that we’ve been doing and the inputs that we’re putting in.”
Tomlinson said Huff, UW’s line coach from 2017 until coach Mike Macdonald hired him onto his first Seahawks staff last winter, called all Seattle’s linemen around him at the bench in the first quarter of Sunday’s game. Tomlinson explained Huff changed the blocking plan for this game, on the fly, to more gap schemes. That meant more pulling of linemen laterally along the line of scrimmage to clear lanes on inside paths flanking center Olu Oluwatimi, and on runs off tackles Charles Cross and Abe Lucas.
Cross, in particular, pulled more Sunday than he had all season.
“He was drawing plays up right on the sideline,” Tomlinson, the 10th-year veteran the Seahawks signed to start before this season, said of Huff, who this time last year was coaching college football’s best offensive line to UW’s win over Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game.
The result of Huff’s impromptu change to gap schemes: The best game a Seahawks offensive line has played in years. The unit paved the paths to Seattle’s most rushing yards since week 18 of the 2022 season.
“Fantastic,” Tomlinson said. “Whenever you get over 100 yards, man, you know the O-line’s been workin’.
“I’m proud of the guys taking the challenge this week and putting up those yards.
“Big shout-out to Coach Huff, man, really sitting us down and getting us to our right points.
“I think we played a really good game together as an offensive line.”
Protecting Geno Smith
The pass protection that has been iffy all season was at its season-best, too.
Right tackle Abe Lucas made his fourth start in his return from knee surgery last winter. Lucas next to Laumea, in just his second NFL game, made for the most effective pair of blockers the Seahawks have had working together all season.
Lucas’ return to the O-line has coincided with this four-game winning streak for Seattle.
Two weeks ago inside Lumen Field, Arizona’s defensive front that often moves and changes before the snap to throw off blockers sacked quarterback Geno Smith five times. The Seahawks scored only one offensive touchdown. Yet safety Coby Bryant intercepted Arizona’s Kyler Murray and returned it for a game-clinching touchdown in Seattle’s 16-6 win.
Sunday, Smith dropped back to pass 30 times yet the Cardinals did not sack Smith once. It was the first time this season Smith wasn’t sacked. They only hit the QB twice.
That allowed Smith the time to check the ball down to underneath receivers more than he had all season. He had an efficient, 24-for-30 passing day with 233 yards and a touchdown to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. That gave Seattle the lead for good at 10-7 in the first quarter.
For the second consecutive game, the QB that led the NFL in interceptions into late November did not turn the ball over.
“I thought we played a complimentary game today,” Macdonald said. “The ball wasn’t in jeopardy. Geno didn’t take any sacks.
“So that’s what it’s going to take to win, especially late in the year. ”
With the way Macdonald’s defense is playing, that’s the formula for how the Seahawks will keep winning: Allow two, one or zero touchdowns as they have the last four games, and don’t turn the ball over.
An un-pressured Smith is the best Smith for Seattle’s now-bursting playoff hopes.
“I thought they played phenomenal. The way they played, we can win every game we play,” the quarterback said of his offensive linemen.
“I think our offensive line is only getting better. We have some young guys out there who are stepping in and stepping up. I thought Sataoa played a great game, and then obviously getting Abe back has been a benefit for our offense.
“They’ve got to keep it up. They got to keep it up. Yeah, they set the standard. So they’ve got to keep it up.”
Ryan Grubb’s schemes
Macdonald credited Grubb with an ideal game plan. It was running largely inside and ball control with check-down passes beneath Arizona’s zone coverage, in the Seahawks’ second meeting with the Cardinals in three weeks.
“One, we had a great plan,” Macdonald said. “Hats off to the offensive line. I thought they blocked their tails off.
“I think what you’re seeing is just continual progress on all of our processes and our guys getting on the same page. This is something that we need to build off of moving forward, but the guys did a great job.”
Smith-Njigba credited Grubb’s formation and play call for creating the touchdown that gave Seattle its first lead of Sunday’s game.
Ernest Jones IV, a revelation to the defense, intercepted Arizona’s Kyler Murray on a pass directly to the linebacker in his hook-curl zone in the first quarter. That gave the Seahawks a drive start at the Cardinals 19-yard line.
Before the next snap, Grubb put Smith-Njigba in the slot on the right side, inside widest receiver to that side Tyler Lockett. That alignment got Smith-Njigba, the Seahawks’ leading receiver this season, matched up on third Cardinals cornerback Garrett Williams.
That, for Smith-Njigba and the Seahawks, was a mismatch.
The Cardinals’ primary outside cornerback ran with Lockett outside. Smith-Njigba ran down the hash marks at Williams, then easily beat him to the outside with a flag route to the back, right corner of the end zone. Smith’s pass was accurate over Smith-Njigba’s shoulder to the outside for an easy, 19-yard touchdown and 10-7 Seahawks lead.
“It was a great scheme by Coach Grubb,” Smith-Njigba said. “Got on the (inside cornerback). He was on his heels, and then (I) just broke to the corner. Geno put it in the right place.”
Smith-Njigba says when he sees a third, inside cover man on him, be it a safety, a nickel cornerback or whomever, he feels he’s about to win the play.
“Yes, sir,” he said. “That was a play we practice a lot in practice. And it came to fruition.”
So is the plan Macdonald, Grubb and — on the fly Sunday — Huff has devised for a suddenly revived offense that is beginning to disprove its many doubters.
“We feel good right now,” Smith-Njigba said.
“We want to, first, prove ourselves right — and prove everybody else wrong.”
This story was originally published December 8, 2024 at 8:22 PM.
