Did Arrogance Doom Seattle?

At this point in the year, everyone has figured out that Seattle continuously runs the football. This season, the Seattle Seahawks averaged the fewest passing attempts per game in the league. The problem with that tonight? IT WAS NEVER WORKING.

Seattle averaged a minuscule 3 yards per carry. Even at that, a large amount of those yards came on a 28-yard carry be rookie Rashaad Penny.

The offense and Russell Wilson especially were put into positions of having to dig out of a hole, on both third and fourth and long. Throughout all this, Seattle still managed to put up 22 points due to a great effort from their defense, some good returns by the special teams and Russell Wilson throwing against a struggling Dallas secondary.

Russell Wilson completed 67% of his 27 passing attempts for 233 yards. Wilson averaged 8.6 yards per attempt. Wilson wasn’t given the reigns to the offense until it was too late. Throughout the game, Wilson continuously made the smart pass, not throwing the ball into situations he shouldn’t and dropping the ball to his check downs when necessary.

I am not saying Seattle should have abandoned the run game. It worked extremely well setting up play action passes. I am saying they should have allowed more chances for Wilson to have the ball in his hands, even if it involves him running the ball through the read option. 

While we may never know, there could definitely be an argument that Seattle putting the ball in Russell Wilson’s hands on early downs, even just a few more times, could have swung this game in a whole different direction.

By Austin Bronstad