Richard Sherman is frustrated, and handling it very poorly

Richard Sherman doubled-down today on his comments after Thursday’s game. He was wrong then. He’s wrong again now.

Richard Sherman made a major mistake on Thursday. No, that isn’t a reference to some blown coverage or anything; his mistake was how he handled himself on the sidelines and in his post-game presser.

Sherman went after offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell for calling a pass play from the 1 yard line.   The pass was incomplete, and Wilson completed a TD pass to Doug Baldwin moments later.

Sherman ranted about it after the game, invoking the end of Super Bowl 49 to justify his tantrum. He threw both Bevell and Russell Wilson on the proverbial bus.

Sherman is frustrated with Seattle’s offense. They are too inconsistent. They don’t score enough. He’s not wrong to be frustrated. Aren’t we all frustrated with the offense this year? He’s just handling it poorly.

Here’s the thing though: as much as we might philosophically agree with Sherman’s take on running from the 1, the data doesn’t back him up here. The truth is that the Seahawks aren’t better off running the ball.

The Seahawks suck at running the ball this season. Getting Rawls and Wilson healthy hasn’t fixed the issue either. There is no reason for the Seahawks to commit to running it from the 1 when they aren’t likely to have any success doing so.

The issue for the Seahawks is that their offensive line is terrible. They believe that Wilson is more likely to be able to negate that than the backs are. For the most part, they are correct.

On 3rd and 4th down, with 1 or 2 yards to go, the Seahawks have been significantly more likely to convert when a pass play is called vs a run play. According to Pro Football Reference:

Pass play call: 14 of 26 (60%)
Run play call: 9 of 22 (40.1%)

Sherman was wrong in a football sense. He was also wrong as a teammate.

There is nothing positive that could come from Sherman’s episode on Thursday. There was even less to gain with him doubling down on his folly in today’s press conference. Pete Carroll wasn’t happy with Sherman before, and there’s no way that he’s going to like this.

Sherman is now threatening the press members credentials for asking legit questions that needed to be asked. Sherman had to know the questions were coming, and was likely prepped for them by the team’s PR staff.

Sherman handled these tough questions poorly. He then lashed out and made threats that he has zero power to make true. He screwed up. There is no other way to spin this.

Guess what? He’s human. We’ve all let our emotions and pride get the better of us at times.

Next: Seahawks control NFC playoff destiny

I’m a massive supporter of Sherman, but he’s wrong here. He’s wrong from a football standpoint, and he’s wrong from a human standpoint.

Now Sherman is angry, and he’s making mistakes. Hopefully those mistakes don’t carry over to the game this Saturday.