First and Ten, San Francisco 45, Second quarter<\/h3>\n
Formation: Single back with fullback and tight end offset left<\/p>\n
Personnel: Two running backs, a tight end and two receivers<\/p>\n
Early into the second quarter, the Seattle Seahawks were trying to jump start the rushing attack. \u00a0Facing the worst rushing defense<\/a> in the league, the Seahawks were hoping to get Thomas Rawls<\/a><\/strong> and Alex Collins<\/a><\/strong> heavily involved. On the second rushing attempt of the day for Rawls, the Seahawks came out in a single back formation.\u00a0Brandon Williams<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>was offset to the left of the line and\u00a0Marcel Reece<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>offset in the back field.<\/p>\n San Francisco shows their base defense, a 3-4 scheme on this play. Playing in a 3-4 means that you have three lineman who are assisted by four linebackers. On this play, five players are on the line of scrimmage for the defense. This forces Seattle to either check out of the play called to a new one or adjust their protection for the blitz.<\/p>\n The play call for Seattle is a stretch run to the left. The point of the play is to find a crease for Rawls to run through by washing the defensive line to the left. By forcing the defense to cover from the left hash mark to the sideline it should open up sizable gaps. The blocking assignments are fairly simple. Right tackle\u00a0Garry Gilliam<\/a><\/strong> blocks to the left leaving number 55\u00a0Ahmad Brooks<\/a><\/strong> unblocked on the end of the line. Next to him\u00a0Germain Ifedi<\/a><\/strong> is supposed to move to the second level and block a linebacker that could threaten Rawls.\u00a0George Fant<\/a><\/strong> and\u00a0Mark Glowinski<\/a><\/strong> are tasked with double teaming\u00a0DeForest Buckner<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Gilliam doesn’t get a clean block on\u00a0Tank Carradine<\/a><\/strong> and gets his hips turned so he can’t block for more than a second. Ifedi gets to the second level and is in position to lay a good block on Michael Wilhoite<\/a><\/strong>. Glowinksi (blue) tries to assist Fant with Buckner but falls over on the play. Rawls, seeing a crease open between Gilliam and Ifedi, tries to shoot the “C” gap between them.<\/p>\n Ifedi, who was setup for a solid block, misses Wilhoite completely and doesn’t even slow down. Gilliam, who got thrown aside, allows Carradine a quick path to Rawls along with Brooks looping around to help out. The gap that Rawls saw when he made his cut closed almost instantly because the Seattle offensive line couldn’t sustain blocks on the worst rushing defense. Rawls strength and momentum carry him for an extra two yards on the play.<\/p>\n A four yard run on first down isn’t necessarily bad, but if Rawls could make it through there was a much bigger gain available. Had Rawls gotten past the defensive line the only player left to beat was safety\u00a0Jaquiski\u00a0Tartt<\/strong>. While not a bad run by Rawls, it was played well by San Francisco and blocked poorly by Seattle.<\/p>\n Quickly approaching the wildcard match up with the Detroit Lions, the Seahawks will need to execute on simple plays like this to make a deep playoff run. While the Lions aren’t great against the run, this kind of execution wont allow Seattle rushers any chance.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/s26.postimg.org\/gf2rvmah5\/Screenshot_140.png\")
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