Via Last Word on Pro Football, by Coleman Crawford
Russell Wilson had without doubt, the worst game of his career on Sunday afternoon. After throwing two interceptions in the first half, he added to the stat with three in the second half. Wilson threw 11% of his career interceptions on Sunday. Thomas Rawls, on the other other hand, continued to impress with his great vision, sharp cuts and continuing to gain more yards than blocked for him on a consistent basis.
The Good and the Ugly: Seattle Seahawks-Green Bay Packers
Third and two, Seattle 34, First quarter
Formation: Single set back with strong side right
Personnel: One running back, one tight end, three receivers
Green Bay was up by seven after an opening drive score the concluded with a 66 yard catch and run from Aaron Rodgers to Davante Adams. Seattle appears determined to get the running game going early. For their second run of the game, they show a bunch formation with Tyler Lockett split out to the left. Doug Baldwin (purple) motions out of the bunch to the slot so Wilson can determine whether the Packers are in man or zone coverage. Cornerback Quinten Rollins follows Baldwin, showing man coverage and moving a defender away from the point of attack for Rawls (red).
The blocking scheme for Seattle on this play is fairly simple to allow quick and solid execution. Tackle Bradley Sowell (orange) is assigned with the defender in the “B” gap, directly to his left. Guard Germain Ifedi (blue) is tasked with getting to the second level (linebackers) and blocking Joe Thomas. Jimmy Graham (white) is tasked with blocking Morgan Burnett. Offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell calls an inside zone run to the right side for Rawls.
The Packers come out in a nickel package, threatening a safety blitz before backing out of it. Due to Seattle’s formation, Green Bay is looking for a run, hence the linebackers and corner cheating up on the line of scrimmage. Initially they show a single high safety look with Micah Hyde. But safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix quickly retreats to a dual deep safety look after threatening to blitz.
After the Snap
Initial assignments post snap are executed extremely well. Sowell runs his man into the ground. Graham is in good position on Burnett and Ifedi is about to make a key block on Joe Thomas.The offensive line creates a large running lane with exceptional room to maneuver within. Rawls hits the hole with explosiveness and is continually looking to extend the run by setting up blocks and quick cuts. At this point in the run it appears he has open grass until he gets to the safeties.
Once getting to the second level things start to breakdown. Ifedi (blue) needs to make a second block on linebacker Joe Thomas. After giving a good initial shove to move Thomas, he resets him self in position to tackle Rawls. Graham’s man has come of his block attempting to chase down Rawls from behind. The two Packers deep men, Burnett and Hyde (yellow), are looking to close the lane and make a tackle. Rawls makes a nice cut to move himself out from behind Ifedi, preventing a costly self tackle.
Fighting Hard
Ifedi completely whiffs on his block and allows Thomas to make the first contact with Rawls. Thomas is soon followed by Burnett, Hyde and Clinton-Dix. Rawls is hit at the 42 and then swarmed, he continues to churn his feet and push to the 48 carrying tacklers with him. The second year running back converts a crucial third down and gains an additional 11 yards on the play.
If the Seahawks can continue to build on their improved running game with Thomas Rawls, and looking to add C.J. Prosise come January, they should be in good shape. The cause of their blowout loss to Green Bay this past week was not an issue of a weak rushing attack. Instead, it was the uncharacteristic turnovers for Russell Wilson and company.
Fist and five, Green Bay 45, 00:34 left in second quarter
Formation: Shotgun with three receivers to the left
Personnel: One running back, one tight end, three receivers
In Russell Wilson’s worst game of his career he threw five interceptions, two of which would have been touchdowns. His second interception came at the end of the second quarter, down by 18. Seattle was looking to cut the deficit to 11 points.
Set up on first and five because of an offside penalty it appeared Russell Wilson would work his magic to give the Seahawks some life. Seattle lines up with Wilson in the shotgun flanked by Alex Collins with Jimmy Graham to his right. With Tyler Lockett lined up inside of Jermaine Kearse and outside of Baldwin (red) it appeared Seattle would take a shot downfield.
The Packers defense, which had stymied Russell Wilson’s offense all afternoon, was ready for the challenge. Again, coming out in a nickel package Green Bay lined up with four players on the line of scrimmage and two linebackers behind them. With the two safeties back deep, it was apparent that the coverage would be either cover four or cover two. As the play developed, the Packers showed they were in cover four which means that the two safeties take the center of field and the outside corners follow their receiver down the sideline, if the receiver breaks into the middle of the field they are picked up by a linebacker or safety depending on the depth of the route.
After the Snap
Baldwin runs a deep post route over the center of the field. He is initially covered by linebacker Joe Thomas, who passes Baldwin off to safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix (blue). With no one to cover, corner back Damarious Randall (blue) surveys the field, seeing Baldwin as the closest threat to him.
Meanwhile, Wilson (yellow) is running out of time in the pocket to make a decision. What appears to be a clean pocket soon collapses as Datone Jones beats left tackle George Fant to bring pressure behind Wilson.
This play could have jump-started a struggling Seattle offense as safety Clinton-Dix (pink) doesn’t pick up Baldwin from Thomas. Baldwin streaks past the third year safety to open grass and a sure touchdown. Randall (blue) still has no one to cover and is watching Baldwin run free.
Wilson has been flushed from the pocket and is running towards the line of scrimmage. Seeing Baldwin running free must have felt reminiscent of week ten when an identical coverage bust happened against the Patriots and it was an easy touchdown over two Patriots defenders. At this point, Wilson decides that is where he is going with the ball and gets ready to hit Baldwin in the endzone.
Wilson fires the ball towards Baldwin in what could only end up as a touchdown. Baldwin has beaten Clinton-Dix and there’s no defender within ten yards to make a play on the ball. Running free to the front of the end zone, Baldwin turns and waits for the ball to arrive. Randall, on the other hand, was not ready to concede a touchdown. Having watched the play develop, he breaks on the ball as fast as he can.
When Wilson threw this ball it was the right decision to get his team back in the game. But as in previous weeks the issue is with the placement of the ball.
Good Judgement, Bad Execution
Wilson is running towards his receiver so he may have tried to compensate and throw it shorter so as not to throw it out the back of end zone. The result, however, was that he under-threw Baldwin on a sure touchdown, allowing Randall to undercut the route, much like what happened at Tampa Bay. This resulted in an interception.
The ball (white) needs to be placed two to four yards deep in the end zone so Baldwin can run underneath it, catch it, and not allow a Packer player to get their hands on it. Instead, the ball is thrown to the five yard line, behind Baldwin, forcing him to turn his body around for the ball. Blame can be placed on both the receiver and the quarterback here as Baldwin should have fought back for the ball to either catch it or at the least cause an incompletion.
As it stands, the Seahawks got blown out by the Packers in a 38-10 comedy of errors. Seattle fell to the number three seed in the NFC playoff race, a half game behind Detroit. The Seahawks head home to face a struggling L.A. Rams team with a new head coach. To secure the number two seed they must win out and hope Detroit loses at least once.
