Pete Carroll is still determined to hinder Russell Wilson
'Let Russ Cook' became a cute hashtag this year attached to Russell Wilson, with early results, but Pete Carroll remains determined to stifle his quarterback
The Seattle Seahawks’ 2020 season came to a whimpering end with a 30-20 Wild Card Round loss to the Los Angeles Rams. They managed just 11 first downs and 278 offensive yards in the game, as Russell Wilson went just 11-for-27 for 174 yards as he took five sacks.
“Let Russ Cook” gained traction as a hashtag calling for Wilson to throw the ball more this year. The Seahawks started 5-0, so it was working. Over the first eight games, a 6-2 start for Seattle, Wilson averaged over 317 passing yards per game with 28 touchdowns and eight interceptions. The Seahawks had 30 or more points in seven of those eight games, as the offense had to overcome a defense that was on a record-bad pace.
Starting with the first game against the Rams, Wilson’s play fell off. Over the final eight regular season games, he averaged just under 209 passing yards per game with 12 touchdown passes and five interceptions. A four-game winning streak to end the season won the NFC West for the Seahawks, but they topped 30 points just once in those final eight games (40 points against the New York Jets in Week 14).
In four games from Week 7-Week 10, Wilson threw multiple interceptions three times as the Seahawks lost all three. That seemed to fracture everyone’s faith in a more pass-heavy approach.
Seattle’s schedule got notably softer late, with only the Rams finishing above .500 and as a top-12 offense in the league among their opponents from Week 12 on. Week 13-15 came against the three worst yardage offenses in the league (Giants, Jets and Washington), and the Eagles (Week 12) finished eighth-worst. So while the defense performed way better than it did early in the season, the level of opponent also dropped. Facing the quarterbacking of Colt McCoy, Dwayne Haskins and C.J. Beathard in three of those games was extra helpful. As a broad thought, the Seahawks did not necessarily have to throw the ball a lot to win games late in the season and they embraced the idea.
There can be debate about Wilson’s drop-off in the second half of the season, and whether or not it’s informative about a future decline. But he’s not going anywhere, and the Seahawks' much-derided offensive approach isn’t going anywhere either.
To be fair, after coming in with the sixth-lowest pass rate in the league in 2019, the Seahawks finished 14th in pass rate this year. In terms of raw rushing attempts, they were middle of the pack (411; 25.6 per game) and Wilson had 83 carries. Seattle was a top-10 team in rushing yards per attempt (4.8), so there’s that too.
A run-heavy offense can work well when a team has a good defense to back it up (see the Baltimore Ravens). Carroll seems to think the Seahawks can dictate how defenses play them by running the ball a lot, and coordinators will shift out of two-deep looks to stop it. But the Seahawks haven’t had a top-end running back since peak Marshawn Lynch, so defenses don’t have to respect a formidable ground game. Making it hard on Wilson, an attacking an offensive line that can get easily overwhelmed in pass protection, is the new priority.
Carroll generally comes off as having a refreshing approach, which makes it easy to forget he’s the NFL’s oldest head coach. But actively neutering Wilson in the name of “establishing the run”, and openly advocating for it, is a failure. Carroll (and Wilson) threw Brian Schottenheimer under the bus right after the playoff loss to the Rams, and yet he’ll be back as offensive coordinator. The Seahawks are chasing their tail offensively, and that tail seems to be getting shorter and shorter. What once looked like a budding dynasty in Seattle continues to fade away.