Chalk Talk: Issue evident on Lynch’s touchdown run

By Brady Henderson

Seattle’s win over the Giants marked the fourth straight game in which Marshawn Lynch has been held to fewer than 75 rushing yards.

He finished with 47 of them, two coming on a touchdown run that as Brock Huard explains in this week’s edition of “Chalk Talk” was indicative of what’s been wrong with Seattle’s running game.

The situation: Seattle was leading 3-0 in the second quarter when Richard Sherman’s first interception gave the Seahawks possession at their own 38-yard line. Six plays and 60 yards later, it was second-and-goal from the Giants’ 2.

The play: Seattle lined up with Russell Wilson under center, Lynch alone in the backfield and a trio bunched to the right. Lynch took a pitch and ran through an arm tackle before he was stood up at the 1, at which point things got ridiculous. We’ve seen Lynch gain significant amounts of his yards on second effort, but it was more like third or fourth effort that helped him reach the end zone as he backed his way in amid a pile of defenders.

The statement: “It was a really good finish,” coach Pete Carroll said when he joined 710 ESPN Seattle’s “Brock and Danny” Monday.

It needed to be with the execution – both on that play and for much of the game – not quite right.

“We made some mistakes, missed a couple this’s and that’s and [allowed] some penetration, and those guys took advantage of it,” Carroll said “… It’s an area that we’ll continue to stress. We want to run the ball better and we want to run the ball with great authority, and it’s going to be really hard in these next weeks. It’s going to be really hard against these guys.”