All signs point to dynamic duo in the Seahawks backfield
The Seahawks are poised to have one of the best running back duos in NFL history. Go ahead, laugh. Carson and Penny will deliver the punchline.
The Seahawks had been talking about getting back to the running game for years. They finally did it in 2018, as Chris Carson fulfilled the promise he showed in his rookie year. Rashaad Penny only showed flashes of the form that made him the NCAA’s leading rusher at San Diego State, but there’s good reason to think both will come back stronger than ever in 2019. In fact, there are great reasons for this optimism. But first, is the run really important in today’s NFL?
In a word, yes. Certainly for Seattle. The Seahawks run-heavy offense has been derided as plodding and outdated in some quarters. That’s demonstrably wrong. In their ten wins, Seattle ran the ball for 1,637 yards. You don’t need to break out the slide rule to see that’s an average of163.7 yards. In their six losses, the Hawks rambled for 923 yards, an average of 153 yards. Not a big difference, but consider that 273 of those yards came in the second loss to the Rams. That’s nearly a third of their rushing total in those losses.
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Replace that anomaly with the 73-yard debacle in Dallas, and Seattle averaged just 120 yards in their losses. Don’t worry, I’m well aware that the Seahawks piled up 463 rushing yards against the Rams, yet lost twice. We’ll get to that, trust me. It isn’t the Hawks fault that the Rams were terrible against the run in the regular season. To be fair, it didn’t exactly matter to Los Angeles that much, did it?
You can look at the importance of the Seahawks running game another way. When Carson, Penny et al were shut down and held to under 100 yards on the ground, Seattle had a less than robust record of 1-3, counting the playoff loss. Their sole victory in these circumstances came in Carolina. Seattle scored twice in the last 3:26, and hit the winning field goal as time expired. It was a big win, but it was far from easy.