Inside the Seahawks: ‘Don’t Tell Marshawn’

The Seahawks' running game has been hammered by injuries, putting the ball in the hands of Russell Wilson. Plus, more on today's playoff opponent.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Seattle Seahawks have no running game.

“Don’t tell Marshawn that. Don’t tell Marshawn that,” replied Seahawks coach Pete Carroll during his conference call.

Seattle thrived for most of the season behind the power running of Chris Carson and the big-play passing of Russell Wilson. Carson, who finished in the top five in the NFL in rushing yards, yards after contact, yards after contact per carry and broken tackles, suffered a broken hip during the Week 16 game against Arizona. With explosive backup Rashaad Penny on injured reserve with a torn ACL, Seattle’s elite running game vanished.

In hopes of providing some balance for the playoffs, which will continue with Sunday’s NFC Divisional playoff game at Lambeau Field against the Green Bay Packers, Carroll and his boss, general manager John Schneider, threw a Hail Mary of sorts with blast-from-the-past signing Marshawn Lynch. While Lynch has scored in both games, he’s carried 18 times for 41 yards. In the wild-card win over Philadelphia, Travis Homer (11 carries, 12 yards) and Lynch (six carries, 7 yards) combined for 17 attempts for 19 yards. Take Homer’s 12-yard run out of the equation, and the other 16 carries mustered 7 yards.

“I think you saw just on the touchdown run what he’s capable of,” Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine said of Lynch’s bruising scoring run against the Eagles. “So, we don’t see him as a guy that’s not capable of doing what he’s done in the past. He’s certainly on our radar.”

Carroll said Lynch will get a bigger piece of the offensive pie against the Packers.

“Yeah, we’re trying to discover it a little bit as we’re going through it,” Carroll said. “We know what we want to do and how we want to get there and what it looks like when we mix it. It just hasn’t been quite as good as we want it to be. Marshawn’s now practiced for two weeks and he’ll add what we can add and we really like what Homer’s done. Last week against Philadelphia, we just got stymied and we couldn’t get going. Fortunately, Russ threw the ball all over the yard and helped us win the game.”

IN RUSS THEY TRUST

Russ, of course, is Wilson. All he’s done is make big plays and win games. This season, he became the first quarterback in NFL history to start his career with eight consecutive winning seasons. During that span, he led the Seahawks to 86 wins – tied with Tom Brady for the most in NFL history.

In NFL history, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers ranks No. 1 in career passer rating and Wilson ranks second. This season, Wilson threw for 4,110 yards with 31 touchdowns and five interceptions and posted a 106.3 rating. With no running game to speak of, he accounted for 95.0 percent of Seattle’s offensive output against the Eagles.

“He’s ready to do that anytime we need him,” Carroll said. “He’s always been willing to carry the whole thing on his shoulders if we need to. We like to play balanced football for all the right reasons because that’s the way Vince (Lombardi) said we should do it. But when it doesn’t happen, part of being a balanced team is you can turn to what you need. If the weather was really bad, we can turn to the running game. If we’re not able to run the football, we can go to the passing game. You don’t know what’s going to happen on any given day. That’s how we’ve always structured our approach.”

The question is whether Wilson can thrive against Green Bay’s defense if he has to carry the load. During the regular season, Wilson was arguably the NFL’s best play-action passer. According to Pro Football Focus, he was No. 1 in completion percentage (71.2) and passer rating (124.4), was No. 2 in yards per attempt (9.4) and had 10 touchdowns vs. zero interceptions. On play action, D.K. Metcalf poses a king-sized problem.

“This guy’s MO has been to make big plays in clutch situations since he’s been in the league,” veteran defensive back Tramon Williams said. “Guys don’t understand how he does it but he seems to do it all the time at the right time. We understand that. We’ve watched the film, we’ve broken down the film, we understand that they’ve got some talented players.”

TWO HANDS ON THE BALL

Seattle was third in the NFL with 32 takeaways while Green Bay was second with 13 giveaways.

On a cold night at Lambeau, fumbles could be a major key. Green Bay fumbled 15 times, including four by Rodgers, three by Aaron Jones and two each by Davante Adams and Geronimo Allison. That was tied for the fifth-most in the league. Seattle, on the other hand, forced 26 fumbles, tied for the fifth-most in the league. Jadeveon Clowney led the way with four.

“The thing about them is they’re real good at forcing fumbles,” said tight end Jimmy Graham, who fumbled at Minnesota. “We’ve just got to focus on taking care of the ball. That’s one of our big focuses is just make sure when you have that catch, secure the catch and focus on where that ball is and don’t leave it out there or lean for the offense, because they’re taught to punch the ball out, they’re taught to strip the ball out. There are certain zones where they’re really looking to dislodge the ball.”

In the last three games, the Packers put the ball on the ground five times.

“That’s something we emphasize every week,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “They’re not an overly complex defense. They’re only going to run a few different coverages and fronts, but what they do so well is they are so fundamentally sound, they don’t give up the big plays, and they’re on all of the little details of attacking the football. You see these guys constantly punch and rake and get the ball out, and they do a great job of that. So our guys, anytime you’re a ball-carrier, you have to be mindful of that when anybody’s around you or, shoot, a lot of times it’s the guy you don’t see. We have to be mindful of that when you’re carrying the football.”

BYE-BYE, LEGION OF BOOM

When Seattle reached back-to-back Super Bowls and beat the Packers in the 2014 NFC Championship Game, it was fueled by its legendary Legion of Boom defense. In 2013 and 2014, the Seahawks finished first in points allowed. This year, they finished 23rd. It’s a unit that, other than turnovers, is ordinary or worse in every phase, including 26th in total defense, 26th in the red zone and 30th in sack percentage.

The familiar names are linebackers Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright. They were the leading tacklers in 2014 and the leading tacklers in 2019. This year, Wagner led the NFL with 159 tackles.

“He’s smart and athletic,” Graham said. “He really understands how to sniff out certain plays. With his principles, he’s fast to the ball and, when he sees it, he’s downhill on it. Unlike a lot of guys, he’s also extremely fast. He’s able to run with guys up the seam and stay on your hip. He understands leverage. He’s one of the smartest linebackers I’ve ever been around.”

While Wagner was picked for his fifth consecutive All-Pro team, Wright is perennially underrated with only one Pro Bowl (2016) on his resume. He chipped in 132 tackles, three interceptions and 11 passes defensed.

“I think they’re exceptional athletes,” LaFleur said. “I think they know exactly what they’re trying to do. I think they do a great job of knowing what the opponent tries to do. You can see how fast they diagnose things. If you give them a tell, they’re going to take it, and the way they trigger and play certain concepts, they’re just exceptional players. They’re two of the elite at their position.”

The fresh face is Clowney, who they stole from the Texans on Aug. 31 for Jacob Martin (11 tackles) Barkevious Mingo (one) tackle and a third-round pick. Clowney had only three sacks but had the four forced fumbles and 48 total pressures, according to PFF.

“Oh, man, he does everything really well,” right tackle Bryan Bulaga said. “He has great movement on the line of scrimmage with his run game. He’s able to jump in and out of gaps, strong against the run and in the pass game, he has an array of moves. He can do everything. So, he’s a really smart player, too. You can see it. He’s a guy that’s going to be a test the entire football game.”

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