Seattle Seahawks: 5 takeaways from Wild Card loss to Rams

Poor offensive play-calling

In the first quarter of this game, the Seahawks ran 6 plays and gained -1 yards. Now, the penalties did not help as they kept backing themselves up. But, the play calling also played a large factor in this. Throughout the regular season, the Seahawks scored 6 touchdowns on their opening offensive possession (league-high). Meaning, the Seahawks had the best first drive offense in the league.

They were able to acquire that success by opening the playbook up on the first drive. The scripted runs and play designs allowed the Seahawks offense to gain momentum early on. Against the Rams in the Wild Card round, it seemed as if the Seahawks didn’t know what to call. With two straight three and outs, you would think this offense would make a change to the play calling. Whether it be run the ball more or throw more quick passes, something to move the chains.

After the early December loss to the Giants, many were critical of this Seattle offense for failing to take what was given to them. As I referred to it, death by a thousand cuts. Essentially, slowly working your way up the field with short routes. In fact, early in the season, we saw the Seahawks dump it off to Chris Carson multiple times. Even if he just picked up two or three yards, he was bringing them closer to the first down marker.

Another crucial element in this game that was quite frustrating to watch was the lack of up-tempo offense. It was obvious in the first two Seattle drives, that the Rams pass rush was having their way. One way to slow that down is to run more up-tempo drives on offense.If they were to go no-huddle, the Rams wouldn’t have been able to substitute and as a result, their defensive line would have slowed down. Russell Wilson touched upon this after the game and expressed some frustration in the lack of urgency in the play calling.