Why are the Hawks passing more than running?

Aikman said something in the game vs. Dallas that really caught my attention. He mentioned that in 5 of the 7 games prior to that one that the Hawks had attempted more passes than runs. In the Dallas game the Hawks ran 31 times and threw 30 passes. Considering a couple of those rush attempts were likely Russ scrambles, it seems that more passes were called vs. the Cowpatties as well meaning that was the case in 6 of the Hawks' first 8 games.

This is a stat that really, really surprises me. This team's identity has been pound other teams into submission with the run game and then hit 'em with deep passes.

I'm curious why you think we've seen the Hawks throw more than run this season. There are many possibilities of course. Bevell yet again has gotten away from the run despite the fact that he should know better, Beast was hurt for a couple games and they didn't want to wear Rawls out, they're moving toward a more passes approach because Russ will be around far longer than Beast, the o-line run blocking has sucked, etc., etc......

I've noticed this too. I thought our offense usually relies more on running the ball than passing.

But I guess its better than being predictable no?

You will always hear Pete say they want a balanced offense. In years past it was around 55% run, 45% pass. This years it's 52% run, 48% pass. By the end of the year we shall see if there is much difference.

My WAG is that with the contract paid to Wilson, the team feels the need to start transitioning to a higher volume passing attack. Many experts still claim that the Seahawks passing game is very simple. Who knows what came up in the contract negotiations with Wilson and his agent? They may have pushed for an expanded role in the offense.

Not having Lynch healthy has slanted the balance as well so it will be interesting to see if those numbers hold in the second half of the season.

A quick visit to seahawks.com reveals a balanced ratio thru that Dallas game.

Rushing plays ......... 245

Passing attempts .... 234

To be honest with the exceptions or the oline and OC we have the other parts to have a great passing game. We just need our oline to be avg and our OC to actually come up with some NFL caliber plays and routes and then call an NFL level game

I think its because teams are trying to extend their drives against us and eat as much clock as they can while wearing down our D and Its not giving us enough time to really get the running game going like we want it. Instead of us eating the clock its happening to us and forcing us to pass more.

Without even getting into what other teams are doing to us on defense, you can easily attribute the run blocking being 'off' for why we're passing more - situational necessity dictates it.

Actually for me 2 things come to mind. One....we got rid of C-mike yadda yadda yadda bad hand control, bad hand placement, bad this bad that..and got rid of Turbo..bad this bad that again..yadda yadda yadda. That one item was part of the consistency that spelled time for Lynch to get up to speed and spell him when we needed a back that could do stuff in between times. Part of our old set was to get Lynch to go a bit of yards, then spell him for a few plays, then slap the defense down some more with Lynch and then spell him some more. We are not tooo sure of the new backups. Freddy is looking decent but needs spelling too. Rawls is looking like a half to threequarters back. We still are looking at what he can do as he is just a freshman. With Lynch out for a couple of games injured, we had to rely on unknowns in OUR setup. That was Numma 1.

Too, We bought a Tight End for our boy to play with. We have other toys for him to play with but a new toy is always good for the new Christmas. So now we need to let him play with his toys and see if he can build a machine with his erector set, lincoln logs, and TinkerToys. The more we can expose him to the new toys along with the old ones, the more of a creative engineer we may make of him. Creativity is being able to recognize all the toys you have available and using them to the best of your ability. When he can intermix them toys, then we have a creative engineering masterpiece.

Or I am full of it. Probably full of it. More than likely full of it.

Disclaimer......I have no disclaimer. And I may type sometimes just for the absolute value of my typing.

Go Hawks

Might have something to do with these factors:

1) RW got paid...BIG. You don't pay a QB BIG, just to have him hand off the ball
2) Marshawn was hurt
3) This year's O-Line has shown that their run blocking worse than their pass protection (which was shown in the first couple games) vs previous years O-Lines have had bad pass protection, but the run block was actually pretty good.

mrt144":3mteh22k said:

Without even getting into what other teams are doing to us on defense, you can easily attribute the run blocking being 'off' for why we're passing more - situational necessity dictates it.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I feel that too many times the O-line just gets blown up and our RB's are fighting for yardage behind the line of scrimmage. Tough to keep calling run plays when this happens. I think it's getting much better though!

I think we will have a similar game plan as SF with Arizona. Playing in the division, the run game becomes vital. I am expecting calls to Marshawn would be from the get go to keep the ball away from Carlson and company. It will be a grind for sure, but look for more running plays to establish the pass. Hopefully the bye week has helped everyone reset and go 1-0 every week.

marshawn lynch 3.6 yards per carry

It's the OLine which is less effective run blocking. Lynch is being keyed on and often hit initially before he gets back to the
LOS, Ds are selling out to stop the run b/c they getting keys to the Hawks intent to runoff recognize a running play is happening by personnel or other clues.

The OLine is as well not good at picking up blitzes which destroys the passing game as our OC still prefers longer, slower to develop, pass plays. The beginning of an effective short passing game. If the OLine improves at run blocking, the run totals will increase.

Maybe if there wasn't 4 guys waiting for Lynch every time he got the ball, his average would be a lot better :shock:

I think all factors mentioned probably contribute, except for the crap about Russ's contract. I doubt seriously that Pete, Bevell, or Tom C give much of a crap how much players make, and I doubt that Schneid is giving a lot of advice on play calling. It's not like they're having trouble selling tickets, yet.

One thing that is a part of it, though, and hasn't been mentioned is that we haven't been winning as consistently, and have given up some 4th quarter leads. That will rather naturally lead to more passing attempts than runs, just out of necessity.

Another thing is that I think that people still don't understand what the team means by "run first" philosophy. That doesn't mean limit throws in the first half of games to 10 or some other arbitrary guideline. All teams use runs to set up passes, and passes to set up runs. Everybody uses some play action and if you're not trying to mis-direct and fool the other team on almost every play, you're not going far in this league. The Lombardi days of 3 yards and a cloud of dust are long gone.

With our D, generally we can afford to be patient on O and grind things out. But we still need to pass some to keep the opposing D honest. When things work out, we can take an early lead, have our D sit on that and grind out some offense to burn the clock. That hasn't worked consistently yet, but I suspect it will start to as the weather continues to deteriorate into winter conditions. I'm not really worried about 'only' being at .500 right now as many seem to be. It fits right in with our team philosophy. Sure, we probably won't get the #1 seed due to several other teams sporting out of their minds records, but the playoffs, and most importantly the division crown, are still well within reach.

All the stuff about RW now needing to pass more b/c he got a 2nd big contract is pure horsepuckey.

I maintain the problems evidenced by the weak run blocking, the number of sacks, QB hurries and hits is the real limiting problem for our O not much else.

Face it. Our Oline can't run block, pass block or pick up a blitz. Our OC likes long developing plays that our line can't block for and our receiving crew can't seem to break the coverage. Our QB has a constant shadow and the whole league knows we run a lot of play action with a roll out so ALL defensive ends now stay at home. Its how our whole offensive strategy is set up. Slow developing and uninspiring. We are a team that is "always in the Game" that being said so is the other team. They make adjustments over the last 3 seasons and now we are losing games barely of teams in the past we barely have beaten.

Because are trying to get graham the ball.

I like to think it's a desire to give Russell reps in the short and seam passing attack. Even if the Hawks are a run team, it's good to know your QB is comfortable using the whole field, various drop back distances, etc. The passing offense must become more varied, even if it's not the bread and butter.