Lynch and Rawls gained yardage: Why only 12 runs combined?

Reaad an article which noted that although Lynch and Rawls got good yardage per carry, they both only had 12 carries / running plays combined for the entire game.

What gives?

Edit in: only 10 carries.

Lynch 8
Rawls 2.

That's 10.

Takaufu 2.

All you need to do is go through the play by play drive charts.
There were too many 1st and 20s and 1st and 15s which turned into 3rd and longs.

Sad but true.

Yet when things were working the running game looked good.

justafan":3jukgs7g said:

All you need to do is go through the play by play drive charts.
There were too many 1st and 20s and 1st and 15s which turned into 3rd and longs.

Click to expand...

Nailed it.

The Seahawks we're digging themselves out of a hole most the game because of early down penalties.

Bevells predictable pass, pass, run formula.

justafan":236ntr52 said:

All you need to do is go through the play by play drive charts.
There were too many 1st and 20s and 1st and 15s which turned into 3rd and longs.

Click to expand...

I will go through them. I have the plays and drive saved.

I'm aware that AZ had possession near 40 min, iirc.

But if it was working and only 10 plays the whole game?

3 of those ten runs were in long yardage situations, IIRC, so there were only 7 called runs for Lynch and Rawls in legit down and distance, and one lousy read option kept by Russ.

Once again, forget the number of runs, for most of the game playcalling seemed to be situationally lacking. I have not watched the all 22 yet, but my impression was that despite the talk and hope that we had discovered a decent mid range passing game, we opened the game with a goal of play action passing, and the edge rushers for the Cards were sitting on those play action deep drops by Russ.

Just look at the play by play, people. It explains a lot.

In the early part of the game, Seattle DID attempt to run the ball in early downs, but was hurt badly by penalties when they tried. In the first half, the offense incurred 3 penalties on first down runs by Marshawn.

After those, they were facing 1st and 20 or 1st and 25. You have to throw the ball, then.

If you look at the other 1st and 10 plays throughout the game, you'll see Seattle had success throwing the ball (when they were not penalized).

Of 14 non-penalized passing attempts on 1st and 10, Wilson averaged 11.3 yards a throw.

The refs didn't want us to run the ball on AZ because they knew it would be a blowout win for us at home in primetime, which is something the league has openly admitted it doesn't want. So they had their refs call holding to start almost every drive, forcing us to be one-dimensional. The players and coaches on the field had nothing to do with why we didn't run (or win the game for that matter)...

If it was a "clean" game Hawks would have been able to run the ball more, time of possession would have been even keeping the Cardinals explosive offense off the field, and the we would have won a close game

Sloppy

Not sure if you saw the game but the Hawks were 1st and 20 and go 3 and out the majority of the first half...then found themselves down by a lot making it tough to commit to the run.

:2:

Vesuve":kqxjzu0p said:

Reaad an article which noted that although Lynch and Rawls got good yardage per carry, they both only had 12 carries / running plays combined for the entire game.

What gives?

Edit in: only 10 carries.

Lynch 8
Rawls 2.

That's 10.

Takaufu 2.

Click to expand...

They ran the ball much more than that but they were all called back due to penalties. If you factored all those plays in as "running plays" you would end up with them probably averaging negative yardage per run play, so you can't really say the run game was working because we couldn't execute it without committing penalties.

I understand why the run was abandoned mostly in the first half but when the game was close again in the 3rd quarter and beyond, we just didn't use it as often as we should have. The few times we did run in the 2nd half, they were quite effective. Even Collinsworth was scratching his head when we started relying heavily on the pass.

Does that carry total take into account all the runs that were called back for holding? Because often Bevell would call for a run play, it would get called back, and then they would have to pass on the next play. No run is added to the total because it was wiped out. So saying they "only got 12 carries" is kind of deceiving.

Penalties definitely hurt. As did the Cardinals holding the ball for long drives then the offense following up with 3-5 plays and punt.

And then.. you know... Bevell.

marko358":5sw6tg0o said:

I understand why the run was abandoned mostly in the first half but when the game was close again in the 3rd quarter and beyond, we just didn't use it as often as we should have. The few times we did run in the 2nd half, they were quite effective. Even Collinsworth was scratching his head when we started relying heavily on the pass.

Click to expand...

At one point in the 2nd half I wondered out loud, "Why are we playing like there's 30 seconds left in the game?"

I'm all for keeping up a good rhythm, or going no huddle, but that doesn't mean we have to stop running.

justafan":1ec818gg said:

All you need to do is go through the play by play drive charts.
There were too many 1st and 20s and 1st and 15s which turned into 3rd and longs.

Click to expand...

That was true for the first quarter.

But even in the second half, Bevell would dump the run as soon as it got working. And it left more time on the board for Palmer's comeback.

I heard Pete say in his presser that they were not able to get to the actual game plan because of first half penalties. That makes sense given down and distance was in a deep hole most of that half. I'm actually more disturbed they are not using Lockett more and getting some quick hitters to keep the pass rush honest. Lockett was open often and particularly that pick thrown to Baldwin there was nobody within 7 yards of him dead center field.

Because our offensive line is a dumpster fire that commits holding penalties at a breathtaking rate

And/or the refs are out to get us

Has anyone mentioned all the penalties?