Seahawks' Russell Wilson passing less, winning more

[jmt57]

Seahawks' Wilson passing less, winning more | Defense, running game, special teams take onus off QB in Carroll's system | Danny O'Neil | The Seattle Times

Of all the rookies who began the season as their team's starting quarterback over the past 20 years, only one attempted fewer passes than Russell Wilson through five games.

But none had more victories.

Understanding that is the key to making sense of Seattle's situation both under center and in the NFL rankings for passing yardage. Seattle is no longer last in the league in that category, thanks more to Jacksonville's ineptitude, but the Seahawks' lack of passing production is more a result of the path Seattle chose when it named its starting quarterback as opposed to the production of the player it picked.​

 

[ausbacker]

If the Patriots put up points early on the Seahawks D, Wilson will have to throw the ball. With an opportunistic Patriots D, that could be interesting.

 

[SONS_OF_BELICHICK]

Time for the Hooded one to make him a 1 dimensional player.......


:rocker:

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Unless Seattle somehow gets a big lead early, he's going to be forced to throw. No way BB is going to give Lynch a chance to win this game, Wilson's the one that's going to have to do it.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

Stack the box..this kid can't throw for ****

 

[ausbacker]

Unless Seattle somehow gets a big lead early, he's going to be forced to throw. No way BB is going to give Lynch a chance to win this game, Wilson's the one that's going to have to do it.

I'd rather force Russell Wilson to win the game with his arm than allow Marshawn Lynch to dictate the game's flow with his legs. Carroll loves to control the flow of the game with the D and the running game.

Take Lynch out of the game and the Patriots are two-thirds done.

 

[sly24]

BB always says we take out your best player, can the 2nd best beat us or something like that right? I don't know Seattle very well, but if you take out Rice, who's left?

 

[DaBronxPats14]

Focus on Lynch, lets get a consistant pass rush & send a blitzer time2time at Wilson rattle his cage. No-Huddle Will tire out an agressive defense. Wilson gets to see a BB "D" pkg schemes, good chance for turn overs here.

 

[woolster22]

I like the way Seattle's run first attitude lines up with our defense. If Hightower is back in the fold I'm that much impressed with our match up. I must have laughed out loud ten times at the decision to try to run on us last week.

On the other hand, I seem to remember a few rookie qb's having pretty good games against us in the past...

 

[supafly]

BB always says we take out your best player, can the 2nd best beat us or something like that right? I don't know Seattle very well, but if you take out Rice, who's left?

The key will be to contain and focus on Marshawn Lynch, their star RB.

Other than that, I'd imagine they may spy someone on Wilson at times and bracket Rice or Golden Tate with some safety help.

SEA also has Golden Tate, who is certainly capable of producing nicely, but I'd imagine that we'll take our chances one-on-one with him. That said, he does have 4.42 speed, so he can break one or have a big game if they aren't careful enough.

Stopping the run will be the key to our defense, but Wilson will likely gain some yardage scrambling at times, and they'll probably try to take advantage of some middle of the field passes with our LB's in coverage. If that's the case it won't really matter 'who' it is. SEA will probably have some success with matching up on the LB's who are weak in coverage (which is just about all of them unfortunately).

More importantly, our offensive line needs to protect well as usual, and we'll need to have good balance and the ability to score 23+.

 

[supafly]

I like the way Seattle's run first attitude lines up with our defense. If Hightower is back in the fold I'm that much impressed with our match up. I must have laughed out loud ten times at the decision to try to run on us last week.

On the other hand, I seem to remember a few rookie qb's having pretty good games against us in the past...

The decision to have McGahee run was likely more of a balance thing, and the potential to set up some play action, but I'm sure they hoped that he'd be able to eat some clock and help to sustain drives.

He did average 4.0 yds a run vs PIT, 5.1 yds a run vs ATL, (2 good run defenses) and 5.9 too the week before our game, so I certainly would have given him 15 or so carries too. Luckliy we held him to 3.6 yds a carry, so it didn't work out too well. That's major props to the defense, who struggled at times with BAL and their capacity to run or pass on any given play. I expect that we were in a nickle defense a lot vs Manning, so they obviously made some nice improvements in that regard.

They had success getting him the ball in the screen game, as he had 5 catches for 51 yds, so he did have 102 total yards altogether. I'd like to see around the same numbers for Lynch this week, as he certainly has potential to snag some screen passes too.

100 yards or so total, and I think we'll have achieved our goal. That may be easier said than done, not just for obvious reasons, but because they often give him so many touches.

Green Bay held Lynch to 3.6 yds a carry, but he still gained 98 yards due to having 25 touches. I'd expect something of the same this week.

I think 125 or so (combined) yards would be about the most I'd want to give up, understanding of course that he'll likely get almost 30 touches through handoffs and screen passes.

Actually, the more I think about it, the screen passes to Lynch may be something that we really need to focus on. When the Rams stopped Lynch for the most part, the Seahawks turned to the screen game a little more than usual. They also may try and take advantage of the matchup vs our linebackers in coverage.

 

[jmt57]

More on Wilson here:

Russell Wilson playing big for Seahawks - BostonHerald.com

Wilson has completed 63.2 percent of his passes while throwing five touchdowns and six interceptions. His passing skills still are developing, but Wilson has displayed an ability to extend plays with his feet.

“I don’t think there’s really much negative about (a tall quarterback), although generally speaking shorter guys are a little quicker than taller guys at every position,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “It’s like anything, you give up something to get something. I think the decision making and throwing mechanics and accuracy are a lot more important than height.”

Still, it’s impossible to ignore the disadvantages to being a smaller quarterback, and the Patriots hope to exploit those.

“He’s not the biggest quarterback, so obviously a challenge for him is seeing down the field,” Patriots defensive end Rob Ninkovich said. “The best thing we can do is really collapse the pocket on him and not make it easy for him to see the receivers and get out of the pocket and extend those plays.”​

 

[qbno12]

If we can stop Lynch and force Wilson to throw, it's our game.. I hope Carroll doesn't start Matt Flynn some time in the game.. he has played well against us back in 2010.

 

[PatsDeb]

There is no question that containing Marshawn Lynch has to be the game plan for this week. Take him away and hope that our secondary can hold them to small ball. A nice pass rush would be a big help too. Go Pats!!

PS - I am too lazy to look up stats, but I can't believe Lynch did much to harm us when he was in Buffalo. They did not beat us once while he was there, true?

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

No rookie has more victories, unless you properly consider the victory over Green Bay to have a big huge asterisk associated with it,

and you thus mentally move that one to its proper place in the "L" column.

 

[jmt57]

There is no question that containing Marshawn Lynch has to be the game plan for this week. Take him away and hope that our secondary can hold them to small ball. A nice pass rush would be a big help too. Go Pats!!

PS - I am too lazy to look up stats, but I can't believe Lynch did much to harm us when he was in Buffalo. They did not beat us once while he was there, true?

Sep 23, 2007: Pats win 38-7 in Foxboro
20 rushes for 74 yards, 3.70 yards per carry, 1 TD; 2 catches for 6 yards

Nov 18, 2007: Pats win 56-10 at Buffalo
Did Not Play - ankle injury

Nov 9, 2008: Pats win 20-10 in Foxboro
14 rushes for 46 yards, 3.29 yards per carry, 0 TD; no receptions

Dec 28, 2008: Pats win 13-0 at Buffalo
Did Not Play - shoulder injury

Sep 14, 2009; Pats win 25-24 in Foxboro
Did Not Play - suspended, personal conduct policy (weapons charge)

Dec 20, 2009: Pats win 17-10 at Buffalo
8 rushes for 31 yards, 3.13 yards per carry, 0 TD; no receptions

Sep 26, 2010: Pats win win 38-30 in Foxboro
13 rushes for 79 yards, 6.08 yards per carry, 0 TD; no receptions

Traded to Seattle about a week later


Lynch's career totals versus Patriots:

0-4 record; missed 3 games
55 rushes
230 yards rushing
57.5 yards per game
4.18 yards per carry
1 touchdown

2 receptions
6 yards
3.00 yards per catch
0 touchdowns

 

[PatsDeb]

Thanks for looking it up Jmt. Let's hope that Lynch has a usual performance against the Pats this weekend, particularly as it relates to his W-L record against us!