For Russell Wilson to Resume Cooking, Seahawks Need More From Rushing Attack
RENTON, WA - During the first five games of the 2020 season, the Seahawks raced out to their first 5-0 start in franchise history behind a brilliant start by quarterback Russell Wilson, who threw a league-best 19 touchdown passes during that span.
Finally embracing the "Let Russ Cook" movement, Seattle ranked among league leaders in first down passing percentage, moving away from the run-centric offensive approach the team had deployed throughout coach Pete Carroll's decade on the sidelines. Defenses couldn't seem to find any answers, as Wilson threw at least four touchdown passes in three of the first five games orchestrating the NFL's highest scoring offensive attack.
But over the past three games, with running backs Chris Carson and Carlos Hyde sidelined, it shouldn't be a coincidence Wilson's five-star restaurant has hit a rough patch without a viable run game to set the table first.
"I want to balance this out more," coach Pete Carroll told reporters on Monday. "It has felt somewhat out of balance the last couple weeks and I [would] just like to get it back into shape and everything fits together like we like."
Since Carson exited in the first half of a Week 7 loss to the Cardinals with a mid-foot sprain and Hyde suffered a hamstring strain later in the same game, Seattle's running backs have rushed for just 194 yards on 61 carries in 14 quarters of play, averaging barely over three yards per carry.
With opponents showing little regard for a Seahawks' ground game currently led by Alex Collins, rookie DeeJay Dallas, and Travis Homer and the team abandoning the run too quickly after falling behind early, defensive coordinators have been successfully throwing the kitchen sink at Wilson with exotic blitz concepts. In the past two weeks alone, the star quarterback has been under constant duress, getting hit 26 times and absorbing 11 combined sacks in losses to the Bills and Rams.
As a result of this defensive onslaught, Wilson has clearly been rattled the past two weeks unlike any point in his career, uncharacteristically throwing four interceptions and losing three fumbles. Over the past four games, he's turned the football over 10 times and after throwing just five interceptions in 2019, he's already doubled that total through nine games this season.
Certainly, as Carroll pointed on Monday, the Seahawks need to do a better job of identifying blitzers and communicating along the offensive line in pass protection. Under center, Wilson also has to do a far better job getting the football out to his hot read when teams choose to bring more rushers than his line can block.
But ultimately, Seattle's biggest issue offensively the past several weeks has been a relative lack of balance. Without Carson or Hyde, teams simply aren't respecting their run game and this has put both the offensive line and Wilson in a near-impossible spot trying to orchestrate a one-dimensional aerial attack.
"We gotta function at a high level again," Carroll said. "We need to continue to run the football, we need that as part of our offense. We need to do more than we did yesterday and we want to continue to always work for balance."
In Sunday's loss to the Rams, the Seahawks found initial success running the football on their opening drive. Though Collins only toted the rock three times, he rushed for 20 yards, including breaking a tackle and finding the end zone for a 13-yard score to give Carroll's squad an early 7-3 lead.
But after falling behind 17-7 midway through the second quarter, Collins and Dallas combined to run the ball only eight times for 29 yards the remainder of the game. Wilson wound up dropping back to pass 43 times and led by three sacks from edge rusher Leonard Floyd, the Rams capitalized by sacking him five times in the second half alone, preventing the Seahawks from pulling off a comeback.
With a rematch against Arizona looming quickly on Thursday night, Seattle could certainly use Carson or Hyde to bolster their run game and take some pressure off of Wilson against a talented division rival. Just the mere presence of either back would add another element Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph must account for.
But while Carroll is confident Hyde will be able to practice and play this week, he knows the Seahawks must be better prepared to go without either player again and show more confidence in their other backs. In particular, Collins could be in line for another start and if he's in the lineup, expect him to have a major role in the game plan as the team pursues much-needed balance to help Wilson get back to cooking up MVP-caliber cuisine.
"We don't have any choice, you know? That's all we got. I expect one of those guys - I think Carlos is going to make it for this week and we'll see about Chris - that'll help us out. But in the meantime, I thought we got really good play out of Alex. I thought he looked good. We can use him more and find more ways to make sure that he's a factor."
