Seahawks' Offense Remains Too One-Dimensional Entering Closing Stretch

Earlier in the season, the Seahawks couldn't run the ball, making a pass-heavy approach a necessity. But that wasn't the case in a loss to the Packers on Sunday.

Dec 15, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Green Bay Packers defensive tackle T.J. Slaton (93) tackles Seattle Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet (26) for a loss during the first quarter at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images / Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

SEATTLE, Wash. - There's no such thing as an NFL team not wanting to get off to a fast start, but for Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald, the emphasis on starting quickly took on new meaning heading into Sunday's prime time home matchup with the Green Bay Packers.

Prior to kickoff at Lumen Field, the Packers entered Week 15 ranking in the top five in the league in points scored in the first quarter and first in the league in points allowed in the first quarter, consistently getting off to strong starts out of the gate. For the Seahawks to have a shot at extending their winning streak to five games, Macdonald felt it would be imperative to curb that trend and prevent the visitors from racing out to an early lead as they have done so many times this season.

Unfortunately for Macdonald, however, Seattle couldn't fulfill that mission on either side of the ball, allowing Green Bay to march right down the field for a pair of first quarter touchdowns to build a quick 14-0 advantage, setting the tone for an ugly 30-13 beatdown that knocked his team out of first place in the NFC West with three games left to play.

"You want to feel like you're ahead of the game and we just didn't start fast enough," Macdonald said after the game. "So we'll look at why and figure out schematically what we can do better. I've got to put them in better positions; we got to have a better plan on offense and special teams. We know that. It just wasn't good enough. Our job is to figure out why and fix it so we can move forward."

Defensively, the Seahawks took several punches in the opening 15 minutes as the Packers force fed star running back Josh Jacobs behind a talented, physical offensive line. The veteran received the football on nine of Green Bay's first 10 offensive plays, accounting for 44 yards on eight total touches on the opening scoring drive that culminated with him plowing into the end zone for six points.

But while the defense got off to a sluggish start, Seattle's offense didn't do near enough when they had the football, and the game plan didn't help the situation at all. In what has become a far too common trend this season, even with so much time remaining to claw back into the game, coordinator Ryan Grubb pivoted back to a pass-heavy approach, dialing up pass calls on 15 of the team's 22 first half snaps.

Predictably, the unwillingness to get under center and run the football allowed the Packers to get after Geno Smith with an aggressive defensive line and extra rushers coming unblocked into the pocket. While the quarterback completed 11 out of 13 passes for the half, he also took two quick third down sacks from Edgerrin Cooper and Rashan Gary that ended promising drives, and both of those plays came on manageable third downs with four or less yards to gain.

From Macdonald's vantage point, the Seahawks simply didn't run well enough early as they fell behind by 14 with the defense struggling, which may have forced Grubb to retreat into air it out mode before they truly needed to.

"We didn't run it effective enough, and I think we still felt like we could stick with our plan to a large extent," Macdonald explained. "We knew this team starts really fast. Defensively we didn't hold up on our end of the bargain about quelling that start on how these guys operate. We will look it the tape see where we fell short and move on."

Statistically, however, Seattle had decent success on the ground in limited opportunities in the first two quarters. Starter Zach Charbonnet ran for 19 yards on four carries, while Kenny McIntosh pitched in six yards on two carries with the duo rushing for north of four yards per carry.

Those numbers would suggest that the Seahawks pivoted away from the run far too early, especially considering they still had 45 minutes of game time to be able to slowly grind their way back into the game with the full playbook at their disposal. This left the offense too predictable and made life easy for the Packers to dial up pressure packages and capitalize on an offensive line that has been a sieve for most of the season.

Even in the second half, Charbonnet's 24-yard touchdown on a buck sweep moved Seattle back within 10 points with more than 10 minutes to play. But after the defense pitched a quick three and out, Grubb called three straight pass plays with backup Sam Howell in the game, producing two incompletions, a five yard completion, and a punt that drew boos from the sellout crowd, and the starter inexplicably didn't see another carry the rest of the night.

In addition, the unwillingness to stick with the ground game, particularly in under center formations, continued to have an impact on the lack of play action passing plays for Smith. Coming into the game, he ranked 29th out of 30 quarterbacks in play action rate on drop backs (16.3 percent), and he only attempted four such throws on Sunday night, completing three of them for 55 yards and nearly 17 yards per completion.

Through 14 games, the Seahawks have been able to beat average or bad teams without the benefit of a consistent rushing attack or usage of play action concepts. But when they have had to elevate their play against better teams such as the Packers, Bills, or Lions, they haven't been able to heed the call, in large part due to the lack of balance and one-dimensional play calling either by choice or out of necessity based on game flow.

As further illustrated on Sunday night, Seattle won't be ready for the spotlight against top-tier teams without fixing that problem. For as good as Smith has been avoiding pressure and making plays behind a shaky front line, dialing up pass plays at a 70-plus percent clip isn't an approach that will yield desired results against the NFL's elite, and they will have a difficult time winning in that fashion against Minnesota or the Los Angeles Rams in two of the final three games.

Until the Seahawks are able and willing to stick to the run more consistently and mix in more play action off of it to play complementary football on offense, even considering how well the defense has played for most of the past month, there's a hard cap on the team's upside as little more than a fringe contender.

More Seahawks News

'I've Got to Be Better': Sam Howell Endures Historically Poor Seahawks' Debut

5 Turning Points in Seattle Seahawks' Disheartening Loss to Packers

Game Recap: Injuries, Turnovers Doom Seahawks in Primetime Loss to Packers

Rapid Reaction: Seahawks Lose Geno Smith, NFC West Lead in Ugly 30-13 Loss to Packers

Seahawks C Olu Oluwatimi Doubtful to Return vs. Packers