by Agent 86 » Mon Sep 20, 2021 9:50 pm
Pretty good recap from the same Athletic writer. I obviously agree with the part about a possible switch at RCB next week.
By Michael-Shawn Dugar Sep 20, 2021 31
The Seahawks woke up Monday morning as the last-place team in the NFC West, a reminder that the margin for error in this division is razor thin. Seattle was the first team in the division to lose a game, though all four played one-score games Sunday. The Seahawks rank second in the NFC West in Expected Points Added per play, behind only the Rams, according to RBSDM.com, but all four teams are ranked in the top 10. Seattle is last in the division in defensive EPA, and its rivals all sit in the top half of the league.
The regular season is only two weeks old, so it’s not time to panic as much as it’s time to be on notice. Squandering two-touchdown leads at home in the fourth quarter is disastrous in any circumstance, but doing so while in the league’s toughest division should only increase the level of urgency Seattle plays with in Week 3 against an 0-2 Minnesota team that knows how to give the Seahawks fits. Before we get to the Vikings, though, here are some additional notes and observations after re-watching Seattle’s 33-30 overtime loss to the Titans.
Seattle’s first-half offense was less imaginative Sunday than it was against Indianapolis in Week 1, with not as much misdirection built into the play designs. This changed in the second half, which featured Tyler Lockett and Freddie Swain running pre-snap motion and a few other forms of trickery after the snap to keep the defense on its heels. From a schematic standpoint, the offense in the second half Sunday looked similar to the product from Week 1 against the Colts — the plays just weren’t executed as well on Sunday. On one snap, for example, Lockett simulated a fly-sweep motion across the formation, but he and Russell Wilson appeared to have their wires crossed and the quarterback ended up keeping the ball and losing 3 yards on a broken play.
The play designs weren’t as stale or as stagnant as they appeared watching the game live. The real problem was the execution. Plays designed to stretch the defense horizontally require legitimate blocking from receivers and tight ends, and that didn’t happen in the second half. On a screen pass to Chris Carson for instance, DK Metcalf was flagged for offensive pass interference and holding, though only the former was accepted. On Carson’s third-and-2 run that got stuffed in the third quarter, the right side of the formation just allowed a pair of free rushers a shot to stop Carson in his tracks, forcing a punt. Shane Waldron could have called the best game of his life in the second half, but that doesn’t matter when the players aren’t performing.
That said, the first half of the game felt like it had a lot of ego attached to it offensively. Seattle clearly felt it could line up and just beat the Titans up front, no misdirection required outside of the traditional play-action calls. Missing receiver Dee Eskridge (concussion) may have played a role but Lockett after the Colts game said the goal in this new offense is for the players to be interchangeable, meaning everyone can do a little bit of everything. If that’s the case, then losing one player shouldn’t dramatically impact the scheme.
Gerald Everett had one catch for 3 yards and that was all the production Seattle received from its tight ends in the passing game. That’s going to occasionally be the case in an offense that has Lockett, Metcalf and Carson, especially when Seattle only has seven red-zone snaps. There are only so many targets to go around. But it’s strange that Seattle didn’t try and get the ball in Everett’s hands and allow him to create yards after the catch. This became even more puzzling late in the second half when it became clear the run game wasn’t going to be effective and Metcalf was playing with a gimpy leg (Pete Carroll later revealed Metcalf had knee soreness). Seattle used 12 personnel (two tight ends) on just 12 plays while using 11 personnel (one tight end, three receivers) on 35 of the team’s 52 offensive snaps, according to TruMedia.
Ahead of the game I wrote about the significance of Seattle’s faith in fourth-year cornerback Tre Flowers, the team’s starter on the right side. This gamble was a failure against Tennessee. Flowers gave up four catches for 102 yards, half of that coming on a long ball to Julio Jones in the first half. The No. 1 rule for cornerbacks in the Seahawks’ offense is to cut out explosive plays and that did not happen Sunday.
Seattle believes Flowers is a changed man this year but based on what has transpired through two games, Carroll can’t preach the “Always Compete” mantra in that building if there’s not an open competition for the right cornerback job this week. Sidney Jones and John Reid deserve an opportunity to show what they can do at that spot. This may result in Flowers outperforming them in practice and maintaining the job, and if that’s the case, so be it. But Carroll and his defensive staff should enter Wednesday’s practice as if they do not have a starter at right cornerback and whoever grades out the highest by Friday afternoon should suit up against the Vikings. Through two games of the regular season, Seattle’s roll of the dice at that position is not paying off.
Seattle’s pass-rush did not perform well against Tennessee. Ryan Tannehill faced pressure on 14 of his 45 dropbacks, according to TruMedia. Defensive tackle Kerry Hyder, starting in place of the injured Bryan Mone, led the team with three quarterback hits in 30 pass-rush snaps. Defensive tackle Al Woods was credited with three pressures. None of Seattle’s edge rushers were credited with more than one pressure or QB hit, and Alton Robinson was the only defensive end to record a sack. After Tennessee got bullied by Arizona’s defensive line in Week 1, Seattle was expected to have similar success against a unit that didn’t have left tackle Taylor Lewan on Sunday and lost guard Rodger Saffold to a shoulder injury. Seattle is going to suffer more painful losses if the front line isn’t getting to the QB in obvious passing situations.
“We really thought that we would get more pressure just watching what happened last week,” Carroll said Sunday, “but they did a nice job and we didn’t do as well as we needed to.”
Woods was effective throughout the game. The veteran defender finished with five solo tackles and seven total. He had the only sack that involved actually winning a rep against an offensive lineman (Robinson blew by a tight end and Bobby Wagner was unblocked), notched a tackle for loss in run support and had a tackle for no gain against Henry. The coach’s film will paint a fuller picture, but for the moment it’s safe to say Woods and Wagner were Seattle’s two best defenders on Sunday. Wagner had a franchise-record 20 tackles — a product of Tannehill emphasizing quick, underneath passing — and made plays all over the field. He had a three-play sequence on Tennessee’s first possession in overtime that really jumped out. Wagner recorded a solo stop on Henry after a gain of 6 yards on first down, then he dropped Henry for no gain on the next snap and ended the drive in coverage against receiver Chester Rogers on third down. Hyder and Ford also played well.
Wilson didn’t have much luck throwing in the direction of second-year cornerback Kristian Fulton, who was matched up with Metcalf for a majority of the afternoon. Fulton appeared to be up for all that comes with going against an alpha like Metcalf, who has a tendency to trash talk and get physical with his opponents. This worked in Tennessee’s favor on one occasion in the first half: Metcalf was flagged for holding Fulton on a quick pass to Swain and unnecessarily shoved Fulton into Seattle’s bench, causing a brief skirmish. Metcalf was taken out for the ensuing third-and-14 play, which ended in a sack. Wilson also overthrew Metcalf in the end zone with Fulton in tight coverage in the first half, and it was Fulton in coverage on third-and-3 when Wilson targeted Metcalf up the sideline in the fourth quarter. Rarely do cornerbacks get a “win” against Metcalf in this way but Fulton seemingly did a good job making sure the third-year wideout didn’t kill the Titans outside the numbers, which is why Metcalf averaged just 8.8 yards per reception on 11 targets. On the flip side, credit goes to the staff for moving Metcalf around to get favorable matchups in the middle of the field away from Fulton so he could still play a significant role in the offense.
Seattle’s offensive tackles performed well in pass protection, which makes the late-game loss of right tackle Brandon Shell an issue for the offensive line. Shell has an ankle sprain, the severity of which is not yet known. Jamarco Jones was Shell’s backup on Sunday, though undrafted rookie Jake Curhan should be considered a legitimate candidate to start against the Vikings in the event Shell’s ankle needs time to heal.
“The MRIs were pretty positive for hopes that he’ll be OK,” Carroll said of Shell Monday morning on 710 KIRO-AM radio.
Lockett through two weeks is second in receiving yards (278), fourth in yards per reception (23.1) and eighth among non-running back pass catchers in yards after catch (83), according to TruMedia (these rankings do not include Monday night’s Packers-Lions game). Only the Bucs’ Rob Gronkowski has more receiving touchdowns than Lockett, who is also averaging 6.92 yards after the catch per reception, perhaps the most interesting figure thus far. Despite being a dynamic player with the ball in his hands, Lockett doesn’t accumulate many yards after he catches the ball, often choosing to go down and protect himself from dangerous hits. He’s trying to change that this year, as he demonstrated during his 63-yard touchdown on Sunday. If he becomes more of a YAC threat in Waldron’s offense, that will make his connection with Wilson even harder to stop as the season progresses.
it’s as direct a criticism as I’ve ever heard PC level at him
there’s lots of mental scars in my almost 62 year old brain . The earliest was probably the 86 team that started 5-2, lost 4 in a row and flipped a switch blowing everyone else away . That included the donkeys something like 41 to 10 in the kingdome to end 10-6. Then they watched KC defeat the Steelers without scoring on offense , the last of about 4 play in scenarios that all failed and sat home watching the postseason on TV. The giants beat the Broncos in the super bowl. Seattle beat both participants that year . The all pro corner of the Raiders Mike Haynes , one of the teams Seattle drubbed in the stretch I believe made a statement after the brackets were set . “The Seattle Seahawks were the best team in the league at the end of the regular season . It’s very fortunate they aren’t in the tournament “