Once again, we're back at it with some analysis of what types of personnel groupings and formations the Seahawks used in their 38-14 win on Sunday against the Bears. Big thanks to Chad Davis of DraftBreakdown.com for compiling these numbers, they're extremely helpful and illuminating for what the Seahawks are doing on both sides of the football. Let's get right into it.

The Seahawks ran 65 offensive plays, three less than last week's 68 against the Rams, but a big jump from the 52 they ran against Philly. The offensive play-calling ratio was 33:31 in favor of the run, another pound it out on the ground day despite their 1.8 yards per carry. Seattle won the time of possession battle 31:27 - 28:23 and had 286 yards of total offense to Chicago's 221.

The Hawks did all this in a little bit different fashion than the last few weeks, relying much less on the "22" set and more so on the traditional "11" and "12" sets you're probably more used to seeing. Seattle went heavy with their two running back, two tight end set ("22") only nine times this week, as compared to 20 times last week against St. Louis and 25 times two weeks ago against Philadelphia.

In total, the Hawks used two tight ends in only 23 plays (37%), down from 70% against the Eagles and nearly 50% against the Rams. It just goes to show they're flexible in their approach to running the football and it doesn't necessarily mean we're going to see Stanford's offense on the field week in and week out. The variability in the use of different formations also makes it tougher for opposing defenses to gameplan, so that's a positive.

The Hawks continued to heavily feature Michael Robinson, as they ran plays out of their "21" set, two running back, one tight end, 13 times this week, up from six last week and five the week before.

Seattle spread things out with an empty backfield ("01") twice and went four-wide at receiver with a running back in the backfield ("10") once. The passed on all three of these looks. On the other end of the spectrum, they ran one play with two running backs and three tight ends from the 2-yard line and that resulted in a Michael Robinson touchdown pass.

Offensive Personnel Information

2 out of "01" (0, RB, 1 TE)...2 passes
1 out of "10" (1 RB, 0 TE)...1 pass
26 out of "11" (1 RB, 1 TE)...10 runs, 16 passes...both Lynch TDs
13 out of "12" (1 RB, 2 TE)...7 runs, 6 passes
13 out of "21" (2 RB, 1 TE)...9 runs, 4 passes
9 out of "22" (2 RB, 2 TE)...6 runs, 3 pass
1 out of "23" (2 RB, 3 TE)...1 pass...Robinson TD
A tight end was used in 64 of 65 plays

Notable Snap Counts...

Golden Tate continues to be the go-to receiver in this offense now that Sidney Rice is on the Injured Reserve. He saw 52 snaps on Sunday (80%), and made the most of it by catching four passes on a team high seven targets, for 61 yards, a career high. This number is actually down one snap from last week but the main takeaway here is that Tate has earned so much playing time with his consistency and big-play potential. It's a huge development considering early in the year he was probably seeing the field once or twice a game.

On the other end of the spectrum, Mike Williams continued to yield snaps to Ben Obomanu and Doug Baldwin. Mike played in 16 of 37 offensive snaps before getting injured, most of those coming in the first quarter. The obvious question with BMW now becomes whether or not he'll be back next season. After catching only 18 passes this season and battling injuries along the way, one has to wonder what his future role on the team will be. I'm definitely not advocating that the Seahawks part ways with him - he's one of my favorite players and I think still has potential to be dangerous on the field - but we've seen this team be pretty cold-blooded with some fan-favorites in the past in favor of youth, so who knows.

Doug Baldwin logged 29 snaps, only drawing two targets and catching one for 13 yards. You have to believe he's stewing about this and I could see him having a big game next week against San Francisco. Ben Obomanu quietly got more snaps than Baldwin in this one, checking in for 40, and caught that one arching 43-yard pass down the sideline. Deon Butler got some late-game action, logging 14 snaps in the 2nd half. He was targeted twice, catching both for 19 yards.

As stated above, a tight end was used in 64 out of the Seahawks 65 offensive plays, and as could be expected, Zach Miller was the workhorse. The TE2/TE3 conversation could be brought up again this week, I suppose, as Anthony McCoy and Cameron Morrah essentially shared snaps, with McCoy seeing 15 snaps and Morrah 17. This is a change from the last few weeks when Morrah was getting the vast majority of TE2 snaps. Competition competition competition I guess.

As for running backs, Justin Forsett saw an increased workload, checking in for 19 plays, which was an improvement from 16 last week and 8 the week before. I imagine this is a combination of giving Lynch a rest late in the year and hoping to see more of what they have in Forsett. As you probably know, J-Force is not under contract next year so it will be very interesting to see what they do with him over the offseason.

Leon Washington continued to see very little action on offense, logging only five snaps, four in the fourth quarter.

Golden Tate played in 52 of 65 plays (15 in 1st quarter, 14 in 2nd, 12 in 3rd, 11 in 4th)
Mike Williams played in 16 of 65 plays (11, 2, 3, 0...16 of 37 pre-injury)
Doug Baldwin played in 29 of 65 plays (4, 10, 7, 8)
Ben Obomanu played in 40 of 65 plays (2, 10, 11, 17)
Deon Butler played in 14 of 65 plays (0, 0, 7, 7)
Zach Miller played in 56 of 65 plays (15, 13, 14, 14)
Anthony McCoy played in 15 of 65 plays (3, 0, 4, 8)
Cameron Morrah played in 17 of 65 plays (4, 4, 5, 4)
Marshawn Lynch played in 40 of 65 plays (13, 5, 13, 9)
Justin Forsett played in 19 of 65 plays (2, 9, 2, 6...7 on 3rd down)
Leon Washington played in 5 of 65 plays (1, 0, 0, 4)
Michael Robinson played in 22 of 65 plays (5, 3, 7, 7)

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This comes a little late this week obviously - Chad wasn't able to do his customary charting and I was a bit slammed for time. I managed to get the charting done today so I figure it makes sense to throw these numbers up before this week's game. I'm going to keep this fairly simple though, and we can delve further what they mean during the offseason.

Here's how the Seahawks used their personnel in last week's 30-13 win over the St. Louis Rams.

Offensive Personnel Information:

The Seahawks ran 68 offensive plays.

1 out of "01" (0 RB, 1TE)... 1 pass
3 out of "02" (0RB, 2TE)... 3 passes
1 out of "10" (1RB, 1TE)...1 pass
27 out of "11" (1RB, 1TE)... 7 runs, 20 passes
9 out of "12" (1RB, 2TE)... 3 runs, 6 passes
6 out of "21" (2RB, 1TE)... 6 runs
20 out of "22" (2RB, 2TE)... 13 runs, 7 passes.

Notes: I seem to be missing one play, sorry about that. Also, two of those "22" 'passes' were the Marshawn Lynch attempts to Mike Robinson.

Notable Snap Counts:

Golden Tate played in 53 snaps (13 1st Q, 14 2nd Q, 17 3rd Q, 9 4th Q)
Mike Williams played in 32 snaps (10, 7, 9, 6)
Doug Baldwin played in 18 snaps (8, 11, 5, 5)
Ben Obomanu played in 18 snaps (3, 5, 6, 4)
Deon Butler played in 16 snaps (3, 4, 5, 4)
Zach Miller played in 63 snaps (16, 18, 18, 11)
Anthony McCoy played in 8 snaps (0, 0, 3, 5)
Cameron Morrah played in 26 snaps (10, 8, 8, 0)
Marshawn Lynch played in 43 snaps (9, 9, 13, 12)
Justin Forsett played in 16 snaps (4, 8, 3, 1)
Leon Washington played in 3 snaps (2, 0, 1, 0)
Michael Robinson played in 26 snaps (6, 6, 7, 7)

Defensive Personnel Information:

The defense was on the field for 63 plays.

Base '4-3'... 40 plays
"Nickle"... 20 plays
"Goal Line" - 2 plays
A true 5-2 look - 1 play

Notes: The true 5-2 look I speak of consisted of Chris Clemons, Alan Branch, Clinton McDonald, Brandon Mebane and Red Bryant on the line with their hand on the ground. The rest of the set included Leroy Hill, David Hawthorne, K.J. Wright, Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, and Kam Chancellor. Essentially, McDonald replaced Brandon Browner. This is basically the Seahawks goal-line set but it wasn't near the goalline, just in a short yardage situation for the Rams.

Notable Snap Counts:

Chris Clemons played in all 63 snaps (40 base, 20 nickel, 2 goal-line, 1 5-2)
Brandon Mebane played in 50 snaps (40, 7, 2, 1)
Alan Branch played in 38 snaps (28, 7, 2, 1)
Red Bryant played in (38, 7, 2, 1)
David Hawthorne played in all 63 snaps.
Leroy Hill played in all 63 snaps.
K.J. Wright played in 43 snaps (40 base, 0 nickel, 2 goal line, 1 5-2)
Kam Chancellor played in all 63 snaps.
Earl Thomas played in all 63 snaps.
Brandon Browner played in 60 snaps, all but that 5-2 look and goal-line.
Richard Sherman played in 61 snaps, all but 'goal-line.' Atari Bigby replaced him there.
Raheem Brock played in 19 snaps (3 base, 16 nickel)
Clinton McDonald played in 28 snaps (14, 11, 2, 1)
Anthony Hargrove played in 13 snaps, all nickel.
Roy Lewis played in 20 snaps, all nickel.
Atari Bigby saw two snaps, replacing Sherman in the Hawks heavy '5-2' goal line look.

Check out the Formation Nation section to compare and contrast span counts over the last couple weeks. I'm going to go more in depth with this information over the offseason, obviously. Word.

Back at it again this week with some notes and thoughts on the Seahawks use of personnel and offensive/defensive scheming against the Rams on Sunday. Big thanks to Chad Davis of DraftBreakdown.com for charting the game - it's a big undertaking and it's much appreciated. 

Without further ado, here we go. The Hawks ran 68 offensive plays this week, one more than last week if you're not counting kneel downs. Two straight weeks with 65+ offensive plays is a good thing, and the time of possession is showing that improvement. The Hawks had the ball for 35:00, compared to St. Louis' 25:00, and that was just off last week's ToP of 35:01 against the Ravens. Interesting similarities for sure, and encouraging.

This week they used similar run-heavy strategy on offense, rushing it 39 times (57%) and throwing the ball 25 times (while getting sacked 4 times). Last week, they ran the ball 39 times (58%) and threw it 28. Will they keep up this pace? If so, that would probably be the highest run:pass ratio in the NFL outside of Denver. 

This week, the Seahawks continued to heavily utilize their tight ends. Only six offensive plays went without them, and thrice the Seahawks trotted three tight ends out on the field, running once and passing twice. The Hawks went with their spread look - 5 wide receivers - 3 times as well, and passed on all three of those plays. 

They used a 'no-back' look on four snaps, passing each time, obviously, and used their '10' personnel grouping of one running back and no tight ends three times, running it once and passing twice.

Probably most interesting in these groupings was the heavy use of two running back sets. The Hawks used their '21' and '22' packages 27 times and ran it 22 times out of those formations. Marshawn Lynch's touchdown was one such occasion and Lynch was actually lined up at fullback for that snap, which was an entertaining look. 

Here are the groupings:

Offensive Personnel Information

• 3 out of "00" (5 WRs)...3 passes
• 2 out of "01" (0 RB, 1 TE)...2 passes
• 2 out of "02" (0 RB, 2 TE)...2 passes
• 3 out of "10" (1 RB, 0 TE)...1 run, 2 passes
• 15 out of "11" (1 RB, 1 TE)...8 runs, 7 passes
• 13 out of "12" (1 RB, 2 TE)...5 runs, 8 passes, including Sidney Rice's TD.
• 3 out of "13" (1 RB, 3 TE)...2 runs, 1 pass
• 14 out of "21" (2 RB, 1 TE)...10 runs, 4 passes
• 13 out of "22" (2 RB, 2 TE)...12 runs, 1 pass, including Marshawn Lynch's TD.

Notable Snap Counts:

Again, the offensive line snap counts are omitted because there were no substitutions there this week. The first thing you may notice is the diminished role of Mike Williams in the Seahawks' offense this week. Williams saw only 31 of 68 snaps, down from 55/67 last week. He wasn't injured, as far as I saw, so this is definitely something to keep an eye on. He was targeted a team-high (tied with Sidney Rice) five times though, so he made the most of his snaps. It woudn't surprise me to see the Seahawks keep moving in this direction, rotating Golden Tate, Ben Obomanu, and Doug Baldwin in more frequently.

Tate was the biggest beneficiary of the Williams' absence, surprisingly logging 35 snaps, ten more than Baldwin and 11 more than Obomanu. Tate was targeted three times and caught one pass for 16 yards but I expect the Seahawks are resolute in their desire to develop him. 

Another interesting snap count would be that of Michael Robinson, who checked in for 27 plays (most likely his high for this season, though we'd have to double check that with Brian McIntyre's numbers, as he's been keeping track all year). That was a big jump from his 16 snaps last week, and as I noted above, the Hawks have been using their two-back power-I formation more frequently with Robinson lead-blocking for Marshawn Lynch. A possible corollary of this has been the Hawks' improvement on the ground. 

Zach Miller saw 57 snaps and 2nd year TE Anthony McCoy checked in for 35. Cameron Morrah played in only four snaps, three of which were the Hawks 3TE looks. Interestingly, the Hawks used at least one tight end on 61 plays but only targeted them once the entire game, a 10-yard Zach Miller completion. 

Finally, Justin Forsett saw 11-snaps, many in garbage time, but took advantage by rushing for 31 yards and a touchdown, including his 22-yard scamper into the endzone. Leon Washington upped his snap count by three from last week and saw 7 plays. 

Individual Offensive Snaps

• Sidney Rice played in 41 of 68 plays
• Mike Williams played in 31 of 68 plays (down from 55 last week)
• Doug Baldwin played in 25 of 68 plays
• Ben Obomanu played in 24 of 68 plays
• Zach Miller played in 57 of 68 plays
• Anthony McCoy played in 35 of 68 plays
• Cameron Morrah played in 4 of 68 plays
• Golden Tate played in 35 of 68 plays
• Marshawn Lynch played in 43 of 68 plays
• Justin Forsett played in 11 of 68 plays (6 on 3rd downs)
• Leon Washington played in 7 of 68 plays
• Michael Robinson played in 27 of 68 plays (season high?)

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I'm pleased to announce that Chad Davis of DraftBreakdown.com and I are going to be teaming up for the rest of the season to bring you some notes and thoughts on Seahawks' personnel groupings, offensive/defensive packages, and snap counts for each game, in an effort to help us better understand what the Seahawks are doing on both sides of the ball. 

Big, big ups to Mr. Davis for setting out on this endeavor, something that I think will be invaluable to we FieldGullers. If you haven't checked out DraftBreakdown yet, you really need to do so (hint, they're largely responsible for the video scouting clips you've all probably seen and provide an immense wealth of information for college football player scouting.

Anyway, on to the numbers.

According to Chad's charting (which he believes to be accurate, though not technically official; these should provide a snapshot but not be taken as gospel), the Hawks ran 67 offensive plays, excluding three kneel-downs. They ran the ball 39 times (63%) and threw it 28. 

Interestingly enough, the Hawks used a tight end on every offensive snap. Their most common grouping was with one running back, two tight ends, and two receivers, and they used that package on 27 snaps, passing ten times and running it seventeen times. 

They went no-back seven times, passing on all those snaps. They used two running backs and one tight end eleven times, and ran out of that formation on all but one snap. They used three "TEs" one time - Paul McQuistan technically the tackle eligible 'third tight end' and that play went for a Marshawn Lynch touchdown. 

Here are the groupings, snap counts, and pass vs run counts:

• 7 plays out of "02" (0 RB, 2 TE)...7 passes
• 17 out of "11" (1 RB, 1 TE)...10 passes, 7 runs
• 27 out of "12" (1 RB, 2 TE)...10 passes, 17 runs
• 11 out of "21" (2 RB, 1 TE)...1 pass, 10 runs
• 4 out of "22" (2 RB, 2 TE)...1 pass, 3 runs
• 1 out of "23" (2 RB, 3 TE)...Lynch TD... McQuistan 3rd TE

Notable Snap Counts:

First off, offensive line snap counts aren't listed because apart from Lemuel Jeanpierre taking over for an injured John Moffitt, the Hawks line stayed the same throughout the game. 

The steady, reliable Zach Miller played in all 67 of the Seahawks meaningful snaps. This is very unsurprising, as Miller is a very, very good blocking tight end and a Pro-Bowler when it comes to catching passes. I had no idea he was in for every single play though, so that was interesting to see. Similarly, Anthony McCoy still got a lot of game action, playing in 39 offensive snaps. 

Mike Williams came out briefly after getting flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct and I thought for a moment that he might not see the field again. Wrong. BMW played in 55 of 67 offensive snaps. Sidney Rice was in for 41 before getting hurt, and Doug Baldwin 15. Golden Tate benefitted with some playing time due to these injuries, seeing 24 snaps and catching three passes on three targets. 

Marshawn Lynch was obviously the workhorse, and appeared in 49 offensive plays. Justin Forsett was the third down back - all eight of his snaps coming on that down. This is very likely because of Forsett's versatility in the passing game and skill on blitz pickups. Much to many Seahawks' fans chagrin, Leon Washington got only 4 snaps, carrying the ball on three of those plays for 9 yards. 

Michael Robinson was in for 16 plays - and made the most of them. As Pete Carroll put it, "At the fullback position, Mike had his best game since we've been here. He really was effective. And he had the matchup of the century going against Ray [Lewis] and he did a very nice job. He didn't win them all - you're not gonna. But he was effective and had some key blocks. He dominated some blocks against their guys at times. So I was really fired up to see Mike play that well consistently and have such a big factor."

Individual Offensive Snaps

• Sidney Rice played in 41 of 67 plays (injured)
• Mike Williams played in 55 of 67 plays
• Doug Baldwin played in 15 of 67 plays (injured)
• Ben Obomanu played in 17 of 67 plays
• Zach Miller played in ALL 67 plays
• Anthony McCoy played in 39 of 67 plays
• Golden Tate played in 24 of 67 plays
• Marshawn Lynch played in 49 of 67 plays
• Justin Forsett played in 8 of 67 plays (ALL on 3rd downs)
• Leon Washington played in 4 of 67 plays
• Michael Robinson played in 16 of 67 plays

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