Seahawks offense has a coaching problem

Run-Pass Ratio

I don’t like commenting on offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, because the vast majority of the the stuff he gets blamed for has nothing to do with him. Fans act like he’s the worst OC in the NFL, which is absolutely not true.

That isn’t to say that Bevell is perfect either. He’s far from it. He’s fairly middle-of-the-road overall. I just don’t like to feed the trolls who spew venom and don’t know football.

With that disclaimer out of the way, it should be noted that Bevell called a poor game last Sunday.

For starters, the Seahawks running backs only ran the ball 14 times. That’s far too few for a Sunday in which Seattle was ahead for most of the game. Seattle’s running backs also averaged 4.5 yards per rush, so it cannot even be argued that the running game was abandoned because it was ineffective.

Sure, some of this issue was down-and-distance problems because of penalties. Some, but not nearly enough to create the unbalanced numbers that we saw from Seattle’s offense.

Pete Carroll mentioned this both after the game and in his early-week press meetings. The Seahawks are expected to get back to a much more balanced run-pass ratio starting this week.

3rd down play selection

Bevell also doesn’t seem to have a viable plan for when the Seahawks offense facing third and long. Because of the trash O-line play, they are in that situation quite a bit. Half (6 of 12) of their possession vs Arizona ended with facing 3rd-and-13 or more. There were three more last week against New Orleans.

The draw/screen plays are for field position and are about trusting the defense. That’s a strategic choice that comes from Pete Carroll. No matter what some fans think, those aren’t an issue.

The real issue comes on the plays when Seattle is actually making an effort to pick up the 1st down. In these instances, too often the play designs only barely get the ball to the sticks, if they get there at all.

Here is an example from early in Sunday’s game vs. New Orleans. The Seahawks faced third-and-16. The kept an extra blocker in to help Wilson, and ran four 14-15 yard curl routes.

Wilson completed the pass to Graham, and he was predictably tackled two yards short of the first down. It didn’t matter which receiver Wilson threw to, the play design and coverage meant that Seattle wasn’t going to be able to pick up the first here.

There aren’t many plays that will get you 17 yards when the defense is dropping everyone into coverage and sitting right at the sticks. This play isn’t one of them. Calling 14 yard play on third-and-16 isn’t setting the players up to succeed.

Overall, the Seattle’s coaches haven’t been setting the players up to be successful. Tom Cable unit has been abysmal so far this season, and he’s making their jobs unnecessarily difficult. Bevell isn’t playing to Seattle’s strength, and looks unprepared to cope with the consequences of Cable’s bad line.

Combined, those two coaches have been contributing to the struggles of the Seahawks offense.