5 Takeaways from Seahawks-Giants
Jimmy Lake, Tre Brown and Trying Too Hard
When I previewed this game, my advice for you was to go to a pumpkin patch instead of watching. I hope you went to the pumpkin patch. If last week was an exciting game regardless of outcome, this week was abysmal even if the Seahawks had somehow won. The Giants were missing Malik Nabers and Devin Singletary, their two main offensive weapons, and still came into Seattle and dominated the Seahawks. This is a team that hadn’t scored more than 21 points in a game yet this year. This is a team that has Daniel Jones at quarterback, who Giants fans don’t even like. And they pushed the Seahawks around for four quarters.
Mike Macdonald was Outcoached Again
One of the endearing parts of Mike Macdonald is how accountable he is to poor performance. As I mentioned last week, the fact that Macdonald owned the awful defensive play against the Lions is impressive. However, being accountable for poor defense and poor scheme two weeks in a row isn’t as cute. The Lions Ben Johnson is a great offensive mind and put up 42 points against the Hawks. Ok, chalk it up to injuries and a bad game. The Giants getting 257 yards passing from Daniel Jones and 129 yards rushing from Tyrone Tracy is flat out concerning. We were promised a dynamic and creative defense that would confuse opponents. Instead, we are getting an average running back, an average offensive line, an average quarterback and average receivers absolutely cooking the Seahawks. You should be worried about what Kyle Shanahan can do this Thursday.
Run the Damn Ball
While Jimmy Lake may bring bad memories to football fans in Seattle, he used to wear an epic hat.
While I wouldn’t advocate leading a team the same way Jimmy Lake did at UW, I would happily give Ryan Grubb that hat. The Seahawks ran the ball a combined seven times between Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet. Seven fricking times. Meanwhile, Geno Smith threw the ball 40 times while getting sacked on seven occasions. Maybe the Hawks just suck at running the ball? Right?
According to Pro Football Focus, the Seahawks have the best rushing attack in the NFL. Clearly something on the coaching staff isn’t connecting. Since the game on Sunday, both offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb and head coach Mike Macdonald admitted that they screwed up and that Kenneth Walker needs more touches, especially in the first half. Unfortunately, the Hawks have to implement their more equal attack against the San Francisco 49ers.
Coverage Issues in Seattle
Through the first three weeks of the season, Seattle held the highest coverage grade of any team in the NFL. The combination of Riq Woolen and Devon Witherspoon locked down opposing wide outs and led the Hawks to a 3-0 start. Oh, how things have changed in just a couple games. Jared Goff went 18 for 18 while scoring 42 points for the Detroit Lions in week four. Daniel Jones looked awesome in week five and the Hawks made Darius Slayton look like Justin Jefferson. Clearly the injury to Riq Woolen is the source for many of the Hawks coverage woes. Tre Brown increased his snap count from 23 to 50 in just one week and was targeted early and often. Brown gave up five catches on six targets for 93 yards, including a long touchdown to Slayton. With Woolen likely being out this week, Brown will need to step up when facing the likes of Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk.
The Run Defense is Trying Too Hard
Pro Football Focus gave linebacker Jerome Baker an excellent run defense score this week (82.0). The site also gave linebacker Tyrel Dodson a decent score. In fact, the Seahawks are still rated the seventh best run defense in the NFL according to PFF. So why did Tracy run for 129 yards when he was sitting on your fantasy waiver wire? Because Seattle is trying too hard.
Credit to Corbin Smith for getting this great quote from Baker. “We kind of got out of position sometimes”. That is the death of a run defense. While I don’t know exactly the assignments of each play, I have an example that shows this overzealous play by the Hawks defense.
As Tracy gets the ball on this run play, look at Dodson and Baker.
Dodson is a little inside but Witherspoon is also patrolling that potential gap on our left side. Now see what happens to Baker in particular as he jumps into an inside gap to make a play.
As Baker gets caught inside, #76 Jon Runyan pins him there and creates a huge hole between the guard and tackle. Tracy cuts to his left and runs for 27 yards. My guess is that Baker was supposed to be in that gap where Tracy runs and it speaks to his quote perfectly. The Hawks need to stop trying to make the play and simply do their job in the run game. If they don’t, Jordan Mason is going to run for 150 yards on Thursday.
The Hawks Still Could Have Won
First, let me be clear. The Giants dominated time of possession, had more first downs, more total yards and less penalties. New York deserved to win. Yet somehow the Seahawks could have won this game. After forcing a three and out, Seattle drove down the field to the Giants 28 yard line with 1:08 left and a third down play to keep the drive alive. Jaxon Smith-Njigba dropped an out route and the Hawks settled for the blocked field goal that was returned for a touchdown. Seattle had no business being in that position but actually were more likely to tie or win than lose with 1:08 left.
What does that mean? Probably nothing. But maybe we will look back on this team as a resilient team that fought no matter what the odds were. We will find out soon enough because the odds don’t seem great with San Francisco coming to town.