Snap Reactions: Notes on the Seahawks’ snap counts from Monday’s win over the 49ers

In one of the games of the season, the Seahawks defeated the previously undefeated 49ers, 27-24. It was a bizarre, hard-fought, strenuous game for both sides, but as it pertains to snap counts, the craziest thing was Seattle getting the ball three(!) times in a 10-minute overtime. We’ll get into what stands out below:

• The disparity between Chris Carson and Rashaad Penny’s playing time is startling: Chris Carson, with 96 percent of the offense’s snaps, to Penny’s four percent. Penny needs to be worked in more often.

• Malik Turner saw considerably more snaps than David Moore, playing 47 percent to Moore’s 27 percent. Turner makes things happen every single time he’s on the field, but to see him jump ahead of Moore was surprising.
• Josh Gordon played about where one would have expected in his debut, coming in at 38 percent of the offensive snaps. Again, playing more than Moore in his first game—and in a return from injury—is a little foreboding for Moore’s place in the offense.
• Quandre Diggs played every snap on defense in his debut, and made an immediate impact—most notably with an interception.
• Jadeveon Clowney, in a massive performance, saw 82 percent of the defensive snaps, which is about 10 percent above his season average—but needed.
• Jamar Taylor’s snaps dropped about a half dozen from the victories over the Falcons and Bucs, as he came down to 32 percent of the defense’s snaps.
• Finally, the biggest wrinkle from Week 10 was the insertion of Shaquem Griffin into the lineup on third downs as an edge rusher. Though Griffin only saw 16 percent of the defense’s snaps, his speed was desperately needed. Ezekiel Ansah was seemingly benched for Griffin, and ended up playing the same number of snaps.

Seattle will now go on their bye week before returning to action in Week 12 against the Eagles in a game with serious NFC playoff implications.