Greg Knapp's Playbook: Shotgun Screen to Darren McFadden

by John Morgan on Jan 8, 2009 3:44 PM PST in Seahawks Player Analysis

I anticipated Seattle signing Greg Knapp so I recorded tape of the Raiders. I have not yet watched most of that tape. This is not meant to be a comprehensive look at Knapp the play caller, that will come later, but rather a play by play look at Knapp's playbook.

This one stuck out early for me, because it's the first play I saw that I could surely say I'd never see Mike Holmgren run. The first of many.

Four WR, RB, SG. Three wide receivers left, one right, running back right. That's Zach Miller and Todd Watkins in a semi-bunch to the left.

Three things that jump out at me right away are:

Shotgun!
Spacing, especially the tight spacing between Miller and Watkins in the slot.
The unbalance left.

Miller motions in. This make the formation less risky and more balanced. You might notice both tackles are semi-upright. That's not something we see too much in Hawk land.

Here we go:

Snap.

Wide Receivers and Miller clear, each running deep except Johnnie Lee Higgins who runs a quick out. When I say "clear" I mean decoy the linebackers and defensive backs away from the play.

The three interior linemen pull, Darren McFadden runs something between a cross and a hook and JaMarcus Russell targets him for ten and the first. The only lineman who successfully gets out in front of McFadden is Robert Gallery.

The execution isn't phenomenal, but it's a good play call. It's also not a play call Seattle fans or Matt Hasselbeck is real used to seeing. That's good and that's bad.

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Interesting...

If nothing else, it’ll be fun to see how our [somewhat aging] offense looks next season. If Matt’s not done (and I have no idea at all on this subject), it will be fun watching him run a somewhat different sort of offense. Hopefully it turns out well.

by AtomicGarden on Jan 8, 2009 4:10 PM PST reply actions

So...

The Shotgun is no longer a gadget play for the ’Hawks?

by BrianL on Jan 8, 2009 4:18 PM PST reply actions

Yeah, that was week 4

But I assume they were still using his playbook.

by John Morgan on Jan 8, 2009 4:53 PM PST up reply actions

Nice breakdown.

The Seahawks have enjoyed a pretty amazing DVOA in the shotgun over the last two seasons, though the Sample Size Alert is enormous.

by Doug Farrar on Jan 8, 2009 4:49 PM PST reply actions

2007 -- Four receivers, one back, shotgun

DVOA

1. SEA 74.6%
2. DAL 69.0%
3. SF 68.8%
4. GB 61.4%
5. NE 59.4%

Of those teams, the Pats and Packers ran it a lot (New England has been over 70% shotgun the past two seasons).

by Doug Farrar on Jan 8, 2009 4:52 PM PST reply actions

What's not to like?

I mean seriously. You allow the QB to see the rush from its inception — from farther away. Obviously, you limit what you can do in the running game. But yeesh, it’s difficult to understand how it took the staff so long to put in a package.

One other comment: it’s odd, and I could be misremembering, but it seems like the screen was a weapon Holmgren went to less and less during his tenure in Seattle. It was a staple of the Ricky Waters era, and even early in Shaun Alexander’s career (I’m thinking of the Minnesota game when Hutch broke his leg). Of course using a shotgun with 4-wides and an unbalanced line to run a screen would be an unthinkable heresy for Holmgren, but formations aside, it seems like the screen game slowly disappeared as we transitioned from Trent Dilfer to Matt Hasselbeck. I don’t think that was any disdain for the play on Holmgren’s part as much as an acknowledgement that Hass doesn’t seem to throw screens particularly well. (I didn’t notice that until seeing a few game with Wallace, where it seems like the play made something of a return.)

I would be glad in principle to see the screen make a return as a staple in the offense, but I fear it may be one of those things we’re not good at as long as Hass remains the starter. (It reminds me of Jerry Glanville talking about how June Jones had to take the flare pass out of the offense when Moon was his QB in Houston. He said it was the one throw that just gave Moon trouble.)

"Those who fear disorder more than injustice inevitably produce more of both." -- Rev. William Coffin

by dcrockett17 on Jan 9, 2009 4:50 AM PST up reply actions

Dropping back allows you getting better rhythm

for timing routes. It also allows you to disguise play action better.

You may gain some yards on the ground, but eventually Lofa will end up biting you in the ass.

by Scruffy Lefty on Jan 9, 2009 7:52 AM PST up reply actions

I always thought it had more to do with Shaun than Hass

I remember it still being there in ‘03 & ’04, although less frequent. But I don’t recall Hass having any major problems throwing it, mainly Shaun flubbing it. And I’m not an irrational Shaun hater, but even in his prime I don’t think the guy was 100% on board with the passing game. Mo was better at that, but Holmgren would never platoon them enough to keep it part of the gameplan. I always thought our gradual morph from the traditional split-back screen game WCO into more of an I-back running team from ‘03 to ’05 was a huge adaptation for Holmgren and was done take advantage of an MVP caliber RB who had a skillset that Holmy really wasn’t used to dealing with.

After Shaun got hurt, I saw the screen come back a little more with Mo in ’06. But at that point, we had lost a couple of our most effective pullers on the OL (Hutch & Tobeck) so I suspect breaking in new OL starters may have made him shy away from it.

I guess my whole point is, I don’t think there’s anything Hass-specific that’s kept us from running the screen. And I also hope it makes a comeback under Knapp.

by jteckmann on Jan 9, 2009 1:12 PM PST up reply actions

Shaun was fricking awful at tracking a ball in the air

I think it has something to do with his stride.

So screens could very easily be disastrous with all those defensive linemen floating around.

by djafrot on Jan 9, 2009 1:39 PM PST up reply actions

Yeah, it had a lot to do with Shaun, too.

I was re-watching XL the other day, and holy crap was he one dimensional. Laughably useless at picking up the blitz, and Vernon Davis hands before Vernon Davis was in the NFL.

by Fearless Frog on Jan 9, 2009 8:26 PM PST up reply actions

Is there a sample size issue there?

I’d be curious to see a breakdown of how many times each of these teams ran this formation.

by Phil Hatzenbuehler on Jan 9, 2009 9:22 AM PST up reply actions

Shaun's catch total went down...

…every year from 2002 through 2006. Holmgren started to ride that horse, and the offense morphed from the Green Bay/San Francisco model to something that resembled what Shanahan had going with Elway and Terrell Davis in their Super Bowl years. It was very much like that in 2005.

by Doug Farrar on Jan 9, 2009 5:08 AM PST reply actions