The Progression of the Seahawks' Rushing Game

by Danny Kelly on Dec 5, 2011 7:34 AM PST in Seahawks Scheme Analysis

The progression of Seattle's running game is really pretty remarkable.

The Seahawks have gone from having one of the most impotent rushing offenses in the league in the first eight weeks or so to possessing a seemingly effective and efficient ground game the last five. I think it's interesting to take a closer look at each week and compare the beginning of the year to what's happening now. I wrote about this a few weeks ago over at the Seattle site, so I'm borrowing some of that now, and wanted to update it a bit here.

Let's take a look:

Week One, At San Francisco: 22 rushes for 64 yards. 2.9 yards per carry. Marshawn Lynch rushed 13 times for 33 yards (at 2.5 ypc), Justin Forsett 3 times for 3 yards, and Michael Robinson once for 2 yards. The longest 'rush' was actually Ben Obomanu on an end-around for 13 yards.

Week Two, At Pittsburgh: 13 rushes for 31 yards. 2.4 yards per carry. Marshawn Lynch carried it six times for 11 yards. Justin Forsett, 3 for 10 yards, and Leon Washington, 1 time for a loss of 2. Tarvaris Jackson led the Seahawks in 'rushing' with 3 attempts (probably scrambles) for 12 yards. Yeesh.

Week Three, vs Arizona: 30 attempts for 122 yards. 4.1 yards per carry. Marshawn Lynch led the way with 19 attempts for 73 yards on a 3.8 ypc clip. His long run was 23 yards. Leon Washington carried the ball three times for 29 yards, including one 21 yard run. The Seahawks finally got a few 'explosive' plays out of their run game. That's something.

Week Four, vs Atlanta: 15 attempts for 53 yards. 3.5 yards per carry. Marshawn Lynch carried it 8 times for 24 yards, 3.0 ypc. Again, the Hawks never got any traction, playing from behind. Seahawks long carry here was 11 yards by Lynch.

Week Five, at New York: 29 attempts for 145 yards 5.0 ypc. This spells progress. Marshawn Lynch had a big day, rushing 12 times for 98 yards, 8.2 ypc. He padded this number with a 47 yard rush, the longest for the Seahawks on the year to that point. The Hawks averaged 5.0 yards per carry on the ground and got a big upset win.

Week Seven, at Cleveland: 17 attempts for 65 yards, 3.8 ypc. Lynch was a pre-game scratch and Leon Washington carried the ball 7 times for 39 yards to lead the Seahawks. That is 5.6 yards per carry but for some reason the Seahawks didn't run the ball with any regularity, instead passing 30 times with Charlie Whitehurst. Quite unsuccessfully, I might add.

Week Eight, vs Cincinnati: 20 rushes for 61 yards, 3.1 ypc. Lynch carried the ball 16 times for 24 yards. Ouch. Washington carried it twice for 34 yards, which I'll take. The Bengals have a very good rush defense but this game the Seahawks couldn't get anything going, and threw the ball 40 times, a ratio of 2:1 in favor of the pass.

This game coupled with the performance in Cleveland might have been a turning point for the coaching staff in deciding that running the ball was priority number one, outcome of the game be damned.

Week Nine, at Dallas: 30 rushes for 162 yards, 5.4 yards per carry. The Seahawks best rushing performance on the year, and probably in Pete Carroll's tenure. Lynch carried it 23 times for 135 yards (5.9ypc) and the Hawks finally ran the ball as much as they passed (30:30). They lost the game to a good Dallas team, but we saw glimpses of what this offense is capable of on the ground.

Furthermore, the Hawks ran the ball late in the fourth quarter while trailing, which demonstrated the steadfast dedication to creating that offensive identity.

Week Ten, vs Baltimore: 42 rushes for 119 yards, 2.8 ypc. The ypc in this game isn't much but the Seahawks rushed it 42 times to 27 passing attempts and demonstrated they could put a game away by protecting the lead with the run. By pounding the rock on the ground for the final five-plus minutes in the fourth quarter, the Seahawks did exactly what they had set out to do early in the season - create a lead then keep it by grinding clock and wearing down the defense.

I noted after Week Ten that with Paul McQuistan and Breno Giacomini taking over, things were likely, or possibly going to stall a bit. Did they?

Week Eleven, at St. Louis: 39 rushes for 126 yards, 3.2 ypc. Marshawn Lynch was the feature back, as usual. He carried the ball 27 times for 88 yards and a touchdown. Justin Forsett got some late carries and scored on a 22-yard run, boosting the total. Still though, a solid outing considering it was a whole new right side and the passing offense wasn't exactly lighting it up, - TJack passed for 148 yards on 14/24 and a 55 rating. Essentially, the run game won this one for the Seahawks, who also won ToP 35 to 25.

Week Twelve, vs Washington: 30 rushes for 124 yards, 4.1 ypc. Lynch with 24 carries, 111 yards on 4.6 ypc. Lynch also scored on a swing/screen pass for 20 yards.

The Seahawks passed for 30 times for 144 yards, again, pretty lackluster. The run game more or less carried the offense.

Week Thirteen, vs Philadelphia: 33 rushes for 174 yards, 5.3 ypc. Lynch, 22 for 148, 6.7 ypc and a touchdown. With the Seahawks' 172 yard rushing performance on Thursday, Seattle has now rushed for over 100 yards in five straight games, something they haven't done since 2005.

In other words, the last time the Seahawks accomplished that feat was courtesy of soon-to-be NFL MVP Shaun Alexander, on his way to 1,880 yards rushing with 27 touchdowns and a Super Bowl appearance as he ran behind future Hall of Famer Walter Jones and perennial All-Pro Steve Hutchinson.

Ok, so I'm not saying that the Seahawks run game is now as good as the 2005 Seahawks rushing attack - no where near-, but this rather sudden ability to run the ball with consistency is fairly incredible. Another look: -

Week1 - 64 yards
Week2 - 31 yards
Week3 - 122 yards
Week4 - 53 yards
Week 5 - 145 yards
Week 7 - 65 yards
Week 8 - 61 yards

At this point - the Seahawks were dead last in the league in rushing and only had a few outlier games, against the Cardinals Week 3 and against the Giants Week 5, where they flashed some brilliance. Then, something apparently clicked...

Week 9 - 162 yards
Week 10 - 119 yards
Week 11 - 126 yards
Week 12 - 124 yards
Week 13 - 174 yards

So what happened? For one, the no-huddle was essentially fazed out. Pete Carroll noted in interviews that the no-huddle didn't allow them to do all the things they wanted to do so it became less of a focal point after being one of the main tenets of their offense. Secondly, they simply decided to run the ball more.

I was one of the people that was in the school of thought that you can't just run it more to get your run game going. The Seahawks had an awful yards per carry average in the early part of the year - 22 rushes for 2.9 ypc, 13 for 2.4 ypc, 15 for 3.5 ypc, 17 for 3.8, 20 for 3.1...

It just wasn't working the few times the Seahawks decided to run. Lynch was running into piles. The line wasn't getting any push. It was my thinking then that the best way to build the run was to begin passing well - it seemed to work against the Giants in Week Five - the Seahawks passed for 315 yards and two TDs and opened up the running lanes en route to 145 yards on the ground at 5.0 ypc. So, until the Hawks had a passing offense worth fearing, the run game would suffer.

But, the next two weeks the Seahawks would pretty much prove me wrong.

Anyway, this piece sort of just wanted to ask the question, "what did they start to do differently?" "Why did the run game all of a sudden start clicking?" Charlie is putting together a piece on this for later today as well that explores this a bit but I wanted to throw it to you guys too. Let me know what you think.

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Comments

It really does take reps in the ZBS that Seattle uses

Seattle’s backside blocking especially left much to be desired early on, though IIRC Seattle was good in short yardage even early in the season. That can be a “peripheral” that can signal a good running game with increased carries.

Early in the season Seattle had so many zero or negative yardage carries due to missed or poorly executed blocking assignments. Some of Lynch’s best early season runs were just to get back to the line. Seattle’s run game is predicated on cutting off penetration and then getting lineman into the second level, and protecting the backside pursuit. It takes reps to do those things well.

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

by dcrockett17 on Dec 5, 2011 7:50 AM PST reply actions

I think in retrospect we can see the intense ramifications of the lockout

These youngsters have to adjust to the NFL game speed as well as learn all their assignments in the ZBS as well as all their assignments in pass pro all in four weeks before the regular season starts and then gameplan for the individual teams and how to defend against specific players as well as new schemes to exploit defensive holes?!?

The run-on rhetorical question was purposeful.

Heresy grows from idleness.

by Corax --Nevermore-- on Dec 5, 2011 8:22 AM PST up reply actions

Blocking schemes.

They finally learned them. Even the back ups.

Prior to the season we were all pretty much in agreement it would take about half a season for the line to get it together.

We beat the word “gel” to death.

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by hazbro24 on Dec 5, 2011 8:20 AM PST reply actions

Not yet

you see, our rookies before they got injured were really gelling, but not that their gelling has been interrupted by some major injuries that make their gelling on the o-line impossible, the backups now have to work on gelling as well as the rookies were starting to gel. If they can gel really well – and I’m not talking about gelling in the run game only but gelling in pass protection – then our backups will be in great shape and we’ll be able to have a second unit that has some gellin’ mojo, allowing us to run all over defenses in a gel-tastic way.

Heresy grows from idleness.

by Corax --Nevermore-- on Dec 5, 2011 8:24 AM PST up reply actions

that not on the first line should be now

Heresy grows from idleness.

by Corax --Nevermore-- on Dec 5, 2011 8:25 AM PST up reply actions

Let's hope to God that whomever fills in at LT can run block

Because it’s unlikely they’ll be able to pass block terribly well.

If we can keep the ground game productive, losing Russell will sting a bit less in the passing game.

But man … still what a huge loss. According to Football Outsiders, the Seahawks are best at running between the LT and LG.

Always up for some Twitter action @nandron. I only talk NW sports, though.

by Nick Andron on Dec 5, 2011 8:30 AM PST reply actions

Really?

My impression is we ran better to the right, not left.

by Highwatermark on Dec 5, 2011 8:39 AM PST up reply actions

Amazingly the first three of Seattle's longest runs this year have come from the right

I respect your opinion even though it's wrong.

by SSreporters on Dec 5, 2011 10:17 AM PST up reply actions

Weren't they all cutbacks, tho?

Lynch’s 40+ yard touchdown against Philly started left and cut back right after Miller and Morrah obliterated the backside pursuit.

Fans are typically idiots.

by The Typical Idiot Fan on Dec 5, 2011 10:23 AM PST up reply actions

It was a designed cut back

These are called counters.

His 40 yarder was a form of the counter where we bring the tighte end from the far side and basically “crack back” the DE.

by Oliudyen on Dec 5, 2011 2:20 PM PST up reply actions

Not to take away from the progression of the running game, but going through that list it really hit me once I got to week four.

We couldn’t run against the Niners, Falcons, and Steelers. Those teams are 1st, 3rd, and 7th against the run. In DVOA they’re 1st, 2nd, and 14th, respectively. Against Pittsburgh we just had to abandon the run early.

It seems like if maybe those three matchups weren’t bunched together in the beginning of the season, then maybe it wouldn’t seem as extreme a difference from the beginning of the year til now.

Clearly, Marshawn is running as good as anyone right now. He’s getting 2-3 more yards on carries than he used to get by having this relentless motor that says “get another yard” even if it’s not a significant yard. He seems to be taking this very seriously right now (contract!) and the Hawks are better for it. But at least you look at the Falcons and Niners as maybe the two best run defenses in the NFL and the Hawks understandably had little success. Against Dallas, the Cowboys were without Sean Lee and against Baltimore the success of the running game was mostly keeping the clock moving in the fourth quarter, with a long of 8. That’s where Marshawns “just get 1 or 2 more yards” really came in handy.

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by Kenneth Arthur on Dec 5, 2011 9:36 AM PST reply actions

Also the whole "toughest first half strength of schedule" thing

by jhmg16 on Dec 5, 2011 10:09 AM PST up reply actions

Very true, and I tried not to overstate the 'success'.

But considering this is the first time the Hawks have had 100+ five straight games since ‘05, there’s more at play here than strength of schedule, it seems. Something is clicking, it seems.

That said, the last five opponents, apart from Baltimore, have been advantageous to running. So there is a big grey area.

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by Danny Kelly on Dec 5, 2011 10:49 AM PST up reply actions

Still. Lots of teams play bad rushing defense teams and don't experience the kind of success that the Seahawks are.

It’s both.

by jhmg16 on Dec 5, 2011 11:15 AM PST up reply actions

Bittersweet but for the Better

It’s a damn shame that Okung couldn’t get his full season of reps and gametime this year. But this buys time for all three of our high-pick O-linemen to get all their booboos in order in time for a full off-season of reps with Cable.

While the probabilities for a run to the postseason are slimly there, I’m still intrigued by this team. That was the biggest thing that the Seahawks could have done this season from a fan-perspective, gain intrigue.

2 biggest questions: What will the Seahawks do in the draft? How will the Hawks deal with Beast Mode?

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by JLee2025 on Dec 5, 2011 10:06 AM PST reply actions

Moffitt, maybe...

But as I understand the injuries to Okung and especially Carpenter, off-season work, and maybe OTA work, will be scarce.

by Hawkdawg on Dec 5, 2011 10:20 AM PST up reply actions

What?

Damnit. FREAKING TRENT COLE!

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by JLee2025 on Dec 5, 2011 11:20 AM PST up reply actions

Dunno

I think Okung could probably be back by the time training camp/OTAs start up.

Heresy grows from idleness.

by Corax --Nevermore-- on Dec 5, 2011 11:26 AM PST up reply actions

If I had to guess...

From what I’ve seen this year, our “needs” go in an order something like so:

Quarterback > Defensive End > Wide Receiver > Defensive Tackle > Linebacker > Depth

QB should be obvious, and defensive end should be as well seeing as how we’re pretty bad at generating a pass rush with the front four. Run defense is fine, but better pass rush would be nice. Wide Outs are mostly good, but not complete. Sidney Rice is fine as a first string flanker, but as much as I love Mike Williams, does he really fit in as our starting split end? We have depth with Butler, Durham, Tate, Baldwin, and Obomanu, but only the last one could regularly be on the line with Rice. The other four are slot receivers.

Defensive Tackle for the same reason as defensive end. I love Red and Mebane, but even Mebane is having trouble getting to the QB. Finding another diamond like Bryant in the later rounds would be nice, but a good pass rusher to complement Mebane would be excellent. Linebacker would be just in case we can’t come to an agreement with Hill or if the team isn’t convinced Wright is the answer. Then, of course, depth. New center maybe, more of a meaty fullback than Robinson can provide, blocking tight ends seem to be a must, etc.

As for Marshawn Lynch, I think they offer him a nice contract and keep him. Might be the end for Forsett and Washington, tho.

Fans are typically idiots.

by The Typical Idiot Fan on Dec 5, 2011 10:22 AM PST up reply actions

How do you figure Butler and Durham to be slot receivers?

by bewrong on Dec 5, 2011 12:00 PM PST up reply actions

Butler is short and Durham is white

Duh!

by CMoney87 on Dec 5, 2011 12:31 PM PST via mobile up reply actions 2 recs

K

by B0w1-of-R1ce on Dec 5, 2011 4:15 PM PST via mobile up reply actions

It would be interesting to see how the progression coincides with the health of Gallery

Guy looks like a mauler to my untrained eye. Very happy with the signing.

by dlinsley on Dec 5, 2011 10:28 AM PST reply actions

Early injury and stupid dirtbag penalties aside, Gallery has been good.

Though Cable is the coach and teaching these kids how to play his system, Gallery provides a personal experience touch that can be imparted on the others. I think it’s working, too. I’ve seen Okung getting a little dirty and angry before his injury… not sure if that means anything. It will mean something if Moffit comes back and shanks some unsuspecting d-lineman tho.

Fans are typically idiots.

by The Typical Idiot Fan on Dec 5, 2011 10:34 AM PST up reply actions

or pulls some cool WWE suplex on a Defensive lineman

619 baby

Heresy grows from idleness.

by Corax --Nevermore-- on Dec 5, 2011 12:06 PM PST up reply actions

something to note

Look at the number of carries Marshawn had in the first half of the season. The one time he approached 20 carries he had a decent day (the only anomoly was the NYG games 12 carries for 98 yards). when Marshawn has 20 or more carries the run game has been respectable to great. The lockout and the young offensive line obviously played a role in the lack of running lanes, but I think that the lack of committment to the run game in the first half of the season played just as much if not more of a role. Marshawn Lynch wears defenses down. Every one of those runs were he fights to get back to the line in the first half wears the guys trying to tackle him out. This really opens things up in the second half for the run game.

by YPbeau on Dec 5, 2011 10:42 AM PST reply actions

I think it's the other way around

Lynch probably gets the ball more when he’s more effective and therefore his high carry games look better.

For that matter, I think people have been overstating Lynch’s importance. In the last game Tavaris actually did more to produce points than Lynch did according to EPA on advancednflstats.com. According to the same measure, the Eagles’ McCoy had a better game as well.

http://wp.advancednflstats.com/nflarchive.php?gameid=55340&team=SEA&year=2011

I think it’s fair to say it’s a passing league and wins and losses depend much more on the effectiveness of the passing game than the running game.

by bosfan on Dec 5, 2011 1:17 PM PST up reply actions

I'm going disagree with the advanced stats on this one.

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- Chuck Knox

by Azimeir on Dec 5, 2011 11:35 PM PST via mobile up reply actions

Continuing to run when you're down by more than two touchdowns isn't commitment - it's just silly.

It’s really too bad that Jeremy Bates was fired for the great sin of knowing when to stop running.

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by Brandon8 on Dec 5, 2011 6:30 PM PST up reply actions

Is that why Bates was fired?

Because I’d only heard it was “philosophical differences” and hadn’t heard directly from someone with inside knowledge about the situation.

by Greetings from the Lord Humongous! on Dec 5, 2011 7:38 PM PST up reply actions

I don't think running backs get stronger throughout a game, but

1) i think running backs may find a rhythm or get in the zone
2) i think offensive lines can similary find a rhythm
3) after a few good runs, the defense starts to react instead of attack

needless to say, success breeds success in a multitude of ways

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by pqlqi on Dec 6, 2011 2:49 AM PST up reply actions

The defensive line also gets tired and "softened up"

The Cowboys used to use a 2-back rotations with one back to break down the defense and another, fresher, back to mop up later in the game.

by Greetings from the Lord Humongous! on Dec 6, 2011 10:22 AM PST up reply actions

What I noticed was after the cleveland game.

It is two parts.
The first part is that Marshawn is hitting the holes full speed, instead of dancing around. He generates a lot of power so when he runs into someones back, he generally pushes the pile. This turns 1-2 yard gains into 2-3 yard gains.

The second part is the calls and formations. At the beggining of the year we ran a ton of inside zones. a bunch of 2 TE sets overloaded. We were asking our linemen to chip then get to the second level.
Now I see us using the FB a lot more. and we are doing power runs mixed with slices and pulling TEs. We are asking linemen to block man to man and chip with smaller quicker players.

Honestly I think this is a matter of Bevell getting used to his personel. Realizing that Lynch is not a major cut back guy, like Alexander, or Foster. Lynch is a power back, like Ray Rice, and needs to hit the hoels full speed. Our linemen are big and less athletic, so he realizes he cant use them in an inside zone scheme. Morarh and Robinson and Miller are all great pull blockers.

Also I have seen more outside runs, this could be Lynch also becoming more familiar with the offense and knowing when to cut inside or outside.

by Oliudyen on Dec 5, 2011 2:39 PM PST reply actions