Category Archives: X’s & O’s

Week 2: San Francisco, X's & O's

After same start as 2016, will Wilson run more?

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Logo -- San FranciscoThe Seahawks are off to the same poor start on offense as 2016, and it’s really up to Russell Wilson to decide whether they take basically the same course as last season or do it better.

In 2016, Seattle scored one touchdown in 22 possessions vs. Miami and the L.A. Rams. This year, the Seahawks have one TD in 21 possessions vs. Green Bay and San Francisco.

In 2016, with new starters at four line spots, running backs averaged just 3.2 yards per rush in the first two games (149 yards on 47 carries), and the line gave up five sacks and 18 QB hits. This year, again with new starters at four line positions, running backs are averaging 3.6 yards per attempt (147 yards on 41 carries), and Wilson has been sacked six times and hit 17.

The Hawks converted 31 percent of their third downs (9 of 29) in Games 1 and 2 in 2016; they are at 35.5 percent (11 of 31) this year.

As you can see, it’s almost a carbon copy. The big difference: Wilson is healthy. Will the Seahawks use that to their advantage?

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Franchise history, State of the team, X's & O's

Are Hawks capable of building a talented, consistent O-line?

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Pete Carroll has said he wants to create continuity on Seattle’s offensive line.

He said he thinks Seattle’s young guys are going to improve and he hopes Luke Joeckel becomes part of the core. As he said after Joeckel signed, “Now that we have a good young bunch of guys, we’re going to try to keep this thing together.”

It’s debatable whether they have enough good guys yet, but the bigger question as pertains to Carroll’s stated goal: Will they ever be able to keep a quintet together in Tom Cable’s zone blocking system using their scattershot approach?

Whether it’s bad drafting, a bad scheme or just bad luck, Carroll’s Seahawks have had terrible fortune on the offensive line — typically fielding one of the weaker units in the NFL and annually needing to overcome its deficiencies just to get to the playoffs.

Why has it been so terrible? John Schneider and the coaches have consistently pointed to the disconnect between college and NFL offenses and the CBA-mandated lack of practice time.

But every team faces those issues. For Seattle, it has been more than that. It has been a complete inability to field a healthy, consistent line — and a total failure to set up a line of succession.

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Free agency, Video, X's & O's

A scouting report on Luke Joeckel

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Logo -- Free agencyPete Carroll said Luke Joeckel is a left tackle who can play left guard, and the coach said he hopes Joeckel plays well enough to get a long-term deal from the Seahawks next offseason.

Davis Hsu looked at a few games from last season, before Joeckel suffered an ACL injury, and came up with a bit of a pro scouting report on the No. 2 pick in the 2013 draft:

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Free agency, The roster, X's & O's

Carroll: ‘I want to be physical’

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Logo -- Free agencyIn his radio interviews Tuesday, Pete Carroll stated what already has become very clear in the first week of free agency: The Seahawks are going to get back to their ground-and-pound ways.

The signings of Luke Joeckel and Eddie Lacy, along with the hot pursuit of T.J. Lang, were clear signs the Hawks want to get their running game in gear again, and Carroll has made that his No. 1 offseason priority.

“I want to be physical,” he told KJR’s Ian Furness. “I want to make sure that everybody that plays us has to get ready for a hard-nosed football game at the line of scrimmage.

“When our running game is right and we’re balanced out, we’re the most dangerous team,” he added. “I’m going to do everything I can to keep it that way.”

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Week 6: Atlanta, X's & O's

Can the Hawks catch the Falcons’ backs?

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atlanta-logoOver the offseason, the Seahawks talked about tweaking their defense to account for the short passing attacks some savvy offenses have used to beat them.

Although Miami and the Jets worked the short game with some success in the first month, they didn’t do it well enough to beat the Seahawks. But now the Hawks are about to face their first big test against a quarterback and skill players who are capable of beating them the way Tom Brady, Philip Rivers, Aaron Rodgers, Andy Dalton and Cam Newton have in recent seasons.

Sure, Atlanta’s 300-yard man, Julio Jones, will have a fun matchup against Richard Sherman. But the Falcons the Hawks need to be most concerned about are running backs Tevin Coleman and Devonta Freeman.

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Training camp, X's & O's

With Sweezy gone, Britt makes ‘technical jump’

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Training camp logo2Justin Britt played a surprisingly good first game at center in Kansas City, earning the praise of Pete Carroll for how he handled Chiefs Pro Bowl defensive tackle Dontari Poe.

It may have been Britt’s coming-of-age moment. And one of the keys apparently was the departure of J.R. Sweezy.

While Carroll didn’t exactly say it that way, he told 710 ESPN that Britt has improved his technique and is no longer trying to be a brawler like Sweezy.

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State of the team, Training camp, X's & O's

Record-setting defense plans to get better

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Earl Thomas and Pete Carroll (The Seattle Times via Twitter)The Seahawks’ defense has put together an unprecedented run — becoming the first modern NFL team to go four straight years as the No. 1 scoring unit.

After Seattle shut down Arizona 36-6 in the 2015 season finale to clinch the top spot again, a beaming Pete Carroll said, “I don’t know if there is a record that I could be more proud of than to see our guys go for four straight years and lead the league in scoring defense. I think that is a remarkable accomplishment by a bunch of guys dedicated to the program and what we are doing.”

Carroll’s defense also has given up the fewest yards over the last three years, ranking first in the 2013 and 2014 Super Bowl years and second last season.

That’s a pretty darn good run of defense — and yet the Seahawks know they can become more consistent if they can cover their Achilles’ heel.

Because they have so many veterans on the unit now, the coaches apparently are finally planning to address the soft underbelly of their defense, which has been prone to giving up big chunks of yards and too many touchdowns to tight ends, running backs and slot receivers.

Their plan to fix that issue figures to be one of the big stories of training camp, which begins Saturday.

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Coaches, X's & O's

Shanahan: Griffin needs to play like Wilson

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Wilson against Detroit 2015Russell Wilson was drafted 73 picks after Robert Griffin in 2012, but the third-round quarterback has far outplayed the No. 2 overall pick the past three years. While Wilson has established himself as one of the NFL’s elite franchise quartermen, Griffin has turned into a journeyman.

Mike Shanahan admittedly shares some of the blame for Griffin’s initial failure in the NFL, and he points to Wilson as the way Griffin should have played in Washington.

With Griffin now in Cleveland and Shanahan in his third year out of the NFL, the coach who drafted Griffin told MMQB that Griffin can play like 2012 — if he plays like Wilson.

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State of the team, Week 8: At Dallas, X's & O's

This is Seattle’s worst offense under Wilson

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3 strikesRussell Wilson and the Seattle offense are getting lots of credit for a 17-play drive that yielded the winning field goal in Dallas — the first time in four chances this season Wilson has led a game-winning drive in the fourth quarter or overtime.

But let’s not let one very inefficient winning drive confuse the facts: This is the worst offense the Seahawks have had with Wilson at quarterback.

The Seahawks scored just once in the skintight 13-12 win in Dallas — the fourth time in eight games they have tallied one TD on offense. In the four other games, they have scored just two TDs. They have yet to score three touchdowns in a game.

In fact, they are the only offense in the league not to put up a TD trifecta. New England has done it in all seven. Arizona has done it five times. Even Oakland has done it four times and Jacksonville three.

Pete Carroll likes to say “it can’t be pretty and perfect all the time” or some silly copout like that, but does it really have to be so ugly and imperfect every damn game? The answer, Pete, is no. No, it doesn’t. If you knew anything about offense, you would have figured that out by now.

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