Schlereth: Charbonnet gives Seahawks’ offense something ‘different’

It didn’t take long for Seattle Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet to return to form.

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Playing in just his second game back since suffering a torn ACL in a Jan. 17 playoff win over the San Francisco 49ers last season, Charbonnet put together a strong performance on Sunday, rushing 16 times for 77 yards and adding a 9-yard reception in Seattle’s 17-3 win over the Arizona Cardinals.

Not included in Charbonnet’s final numbers was one of the more impressive plays in his four-year career that had some shades of Seahawks legend Marshawn Lynch.

With Seattle leading 17-3 early in the fourth quarter, Charbonnet caught a pass in the right flat, immediately stiff-armed a defender, juked another defender about 10 yards down the field, shook another tackle and then got past two more defenders with a stiff-arm and spin move for a 25-yard gain that was called back for an unnecessary roughness call on the offense.

Zach Charbonnet threw him out of the way 😳

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When longtime NFL analyst and former offensive lineman Mark Schlereth joined Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob on Monday, he shared how impressed he was with Charbonnet’s performance.

“I thought he was sharp, man. I thought he was explosive, I thought he was powerful,” Schlereth said. “Even the one that got called back on the unnecessary roughness… (was) one of the great runs – spinning, running people over, doing all kinds of stuff.”

With Charbonnet back in the fold and taking on a larger workload against the Cardinals, Seattle was able to do something it hasn’t done much this season in leaning on its running backs for a touchdown drive.

The Seahawks’ first scoring drive to go up 7-3 in the second quarter saw Charbonnet and rookie Jadarian Price pick up the first 53 yards of the 58-yard scoring march. That included runs of 6, 8, 9 and 6 yards from Charbonnet added up to half of the yardage on the drive.

Schlereth called Charbonnet the “catalyst” of the drive and said he provided an impact he hadn’t seen in Seattle’s run game this season.

“I just thought he looked really good coming off that ACL (injury). He looked way different,” Schlereth said. “Like, I don’t know about last year, but he just looked different in that offense than anything I’ve seen all season long out of the running back position for them. So, that was really nice to see and that’s going to be something obviously that will take some pressure off that offense. And when you can run like that and you can have that kind of impact, I think it bodes really well for the Seahawks and the Seahawks’ offense.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or watch the video at the top of this post. Listen to Wyman and Bob weekdays from 2-7 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

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