Kris Richard takes the blame, points to possible reason for Seahawks’ communication breakdown

RENTON – No matter what caused the communication breakdown at the end of Seattle’s loss to Carolina, Kris Richard acknowledged that the buck stops with him.

“Ultimately, when there’s a breakdown in the secondary, I coach the secondary. When there’s a breakdown on the defense, I’m the defensive coordinator,” he said. “So it absolutely starts and stops with me. We’re going to get it fixed.”

Richard spoke Tuesday, two days after the Seahawks lost to Carolina after Cam Newton threw the go-ahead touchdown pass with 32 seconds left to a wide-open Greg Olsen in the end zone. It was immediately evident that there was a mix-up in Seattle’s defense, and the explanation afterward was that some players were in the wrong coverage.

While Richard accepted the blame, he also pointed to what may have actually caused the miscommunication when he was asked how a similar situation can be avoided in the future.

“Get to the huddle,” he said. “We get to the huddle, we get our call from our Mike linebacker, we give ourselves a good chance to compete.”

Asked if that happened before the play in question, Richard said: “It didn’t seem like it.”

Danny O’Neil’s postgame column detailed how Seattle’s secondary wasn’t on the same page. Cornerback Richard Sherman was playing the coverage that Seattle intended and expected help over the top, but safeties Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas were playing a different coverage and thought Sherman was responsible for the area of the field in which Olsen got open.

So where did the mix-up occur?

Richard’s comments suggested it may have been because not everyone was in the huddle, where the defensive play-call is communicated via a speaker in the helmet of the middle – or Mike – linebacker, who then relays it to the other 10 players. Defenders can also get the play-call via hand signals from the sideline. That can be an alternative in some cases, such as 2-minute situations when the offense’s fast pace doesn’t allow time for the defense to huddle.

K.J. Wright said Tuesday that he called a huddle before the play, which came after Newton spiked the ball to stop the clock. But those who weren’t in the huddle may have instead looked to the sideline, only to get the wrong signal and end up playing the wrong coverage.

Richard said the call was never changed once it was initially made, and it wasn’t a matter of the call coming in too late for anyone to get it.

“We just didn’t not execute, and ultimately that’s my responsibility. That’s where it comes down to. So I stand up and I absolutely accept full responsibility for what happened at the end, and it will not continue,” he said. “We must get better. Again, we are examining each and every single possible thing that we can do to fix it, starting with me.”

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