The Seattle Seahawks told everybody this offseason that they were going to be a physical running team. Head coach Mike Macdonald said as much in his opening press conference, and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb echoed that sentiment all summer. Reports coming out of training camp indicated that the Seahawks had very intention of making starting running back Ken Walker "the guy" in their offense despite a loaded wide receiver corps and a criminally-underrated starting quarterback.
However, after five games played Seattle has really only committed to running the ball in three or four quarters this season - and the imbalance has become a serious problem in more than one game. Yesterday's 29-20 surprise home loss to the New York Giants illustrates the point perfectly.
Seahawks abandon the run again vs. Giants
After falling behind early, Grubb abandoned the run and embraced a pass-heavy attack, despite Geno Smith being under constant duress in the pocket as Seattle's offensive line buckled again and again vs. the Giants' pass rushers. Smith was sacked seven times and took 10 quarterback hits in the end.
Despite all that pressure, the Seahawks made him throw the ball 40 times, compared with just 11 run plays - and a couple of those were desperate scrambles by Geno Smith, who finished with a team-high 72 rushing yards. Meanwhile, Walker finished the afternoon with just 19 yards on five carries.
When it was over, Macdonald admitted that it was fair to question the team's usage of Walker, according to Mike Dugar at The Athletic.
Mike Macdonald on Seahawks run-pass problem
"In response to a postgame inquiry about Walker’s usage, Macdonald said, 'That’s a fair question. You’re right, we need to get the run game going... We need to get Ken the ball more.'"
For the season, the Seahawks are the pass-happiest team in the league, throwing the ball on 67.39% of their offensive snaps. That's almost three points higher than the next team on the list, where the Cleveland Browns are stuck playing from behind most of the time with the ghost of Deshaun Watson.
Seattle's ratio breaks down to 199 total pass attempts for Geno Smith and 105 total runs between Walker, Zach Charobnnet, Kenny McIntosh and everybody else on the team. And remember, a good bunch of those runs were not designed plays but examples of Smith having to run for his life after his pocket broke down.
There's nothing wrong with passing the ball, especially when you have the personnel to do it. The Seahawks have most of the pieces, but when their offensive line is protecting this poorly it's difficult to justify that kind of split. We'll have to wait and see if Thursday night's game against the San Francisco 49ers shows any change.
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