How Seahawks’ play-calling took step back as win streak snapped

Dec 16, 2024, 2:57 PM | Updated: 10:56 pm

Seattle Seahawks Sam Howell sacked Green Bay Packers 2024...

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Howell gets sacked by the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

(Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

BY CAMERON VAN TIL

Seattle Sports

The Seattle Seahawks entered Sunday night looking to build on their most complete offensive performance of the season.

Instead, their offense took a step back with one of its worst showings of the year.

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The Seahawks were held to a season-low 208 total yards in their 30-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers – a stark contrast from their balanced and efficient 409-yard output in last week’s 30-18 win over the Arizona Cardinals. Sunday’s loss snapped a four-game win streak for Seattle.

Part of the problem, of course, was starting quarterback Geno Smith suffering a knee injury midway through the third quarter, which forced backup Sam Howell to play the rest of the game. But even before Smith’s injury, the Seahawks had mustered just six points and 156 total yards.

“Offensively, that’s where I’m the most disappointed,” former NFL wide receiver Michael Bumpus said Monday on Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy. “… They kept trying to do the same things essentially, and it just wasn’t working for them.”

The biggest issue was in pass protection. The Seahawks surrendered seven sacks, with Smith taking three sacks and Howell taking four. It was a major regression from the previous week, when Seattle’s oft-criticized O-line didn’t allow a sack for the first time all season and paved the way for a season-high 176 rushing yards.

During Monday’s Blue 88 segment on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk, former NFL quarterback Brock Huard lamented the Seahawks’ play-calling. Seattle finished with 42 designed pass plays and just 14 designed run plays, with three of those run plays coming during a throwaway possession in game’s final two minutes. Backup running back Zach Charbonnet, starting his second straight game in place of the injured Kenneth Walker III, had just eight carries Sunday after rushing for a career-high 134 yards the week prior.

The Seahawks’ run-pass ratio was no doubt impacted by their early 14-0 deficit, which forced them to play catchup the rest of the way. But even so, Huard wanted to see much more of a balanced game plan. He felt that would have helped mask the deficiencies of Seattle’s offensive line, which suffered another blow when center Olu Oluwatimi exited with a knee/quad injury in the second quarter.

“Sean Payton’s 101 is ‘I protect my biggest deficit,'” Huard said, referencing the current Denver Broncos and former New Orleans Saints head coach. “I don’t put that tape on to start the week and go, ‘Ooh, mismatch. Ooh, we’re gonna win this one. Ooh, I like this mismatch.’ He puts on that tape and goes, ‘Where do I need to protect against my biggest deficiency so we’re not totally exposed and can’t function?’

“And I honestly thought the last four weeks or so, we saw a bunch of that. You gotta protect these guys up front. They can’t be absorbing everything all the time and all this dropback (passing) game. You’ve gotta help your guys up front. And man, last night was a step back in that way. … Green Bay’s (pass rush) just teed off – largely from beginning to end.”

The run scheme

Bumpus feels the Seahawks should have schemed more runs up the middle, rather than trying to attack the edges of Green Bay’s defense.

“(They) decided to attack the edges against this team, and I don’t understand why,” Bumpus said. “I told y’all on Friday: The thing that scares me the most about this (Packers) defensive line is when they start going east to west. I said if you can just get downhill and build on that guard-tackle pull that you showed, I think you have a chance to establish a run. (They) didn’t do that.

“Maybe they felt that they couldn’t handle the (Packers’ interior defensive linemen) and that they could set an edge,” he added. “But after (their tight ends) got pushed back a few times, I thought they would switch some things up.”

Ultimately, Huard felt the lack of production on the ground and a less varied game plan overall left the Seahawks’ offensive line in a vulnerable spot while trying to hold up in pass protection.

“Seven sacks, that just can’t happen,” Huard said. “I need draws, I need misdirection, I need movement, I need gap scheme, I need gap protection.

“It was like you’re sitting in the corner (of a boxing ring),” he added. “Get out of the corner. Get in the middle of the ring. Give yourself a fighting chance. If you’re gonna get in the corner and just take blow after blow after blow, you’re not gonna have much of a chance to function consistently.”