...in the NFCCG. but hey, the dream is now reality. Weeeeeeeeee’re baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack. And this year we got swagger. Last super bowl felt like we were the new kid in school. Everyone kind of looking at you different, trying to find the groove but something just kept getting in the way....namely, the officials. This year’s team is the senior in school who punches you in the face and then screws your sister. We absolutely embarassed eli a month ago, and now we want big brother. But one thing that hasta, gotta, must be fixed, is the red zone offense. The Seattle Seahawks came up empty in the red zone in the NFCCG like jimmy graham came up empty at the Clink this year. So play by play, let’s look at how this happened and why it must get fixed before the team can go into the annals of history this Sunday:
1st red zone drive- set up by doug baldwins huge downfield bomb from russell wilson. 1st and 10 around the 11.
49ers bring the house on a blitz. In one moment you go from, ‘well, maybe they’re lining up like that to SHOW blitz’, that quickly turns into ‘holy crap, they ARE going to blitz that many people’. The only way they could bring more people is by calling a punt block formation. This play personifies many of the intricate failures in the Seahawks red zone offense. Russell Wilson, or RW, needed to have recognized the blitz was going to beat the pass pro and audible a quick hitter of any flavor. A screen to golden tate in this situation would have netted 6-8 yds minimum. It would have been the easiest completion of the game. We had Marshawn Lynch, (ML), lined up at the top of the screen in isolation with who I believe was brown, all 5' 10" of him sitting there praying he doesn't have to open field tackle beast mode. Literally RW had 2-3 good options and he chose the worst possible---sticking with the play call that required a minimum of about 2 ½ seconds of protection. Sack.
2nd and 15- read option. I can’t be the only one to think russell wilson has all but given up on this play as a valid “option”. Either that or bevell or PC or the Lord himself has told RW that he can no longer run the ball from this play. Against the saints it was there several times, against the 49ers not as much but still, on this play, RW could have faked, kept, beat #51 around the left side and gained a minimum of 4-7 yds. It would have set up an easier 3rd and 8, rather than a virtually impossible 3rd and 13. Instead of “read option” I’ve resorted to calling this look the “fake read option, handoff to beastmode”.
3rd and 13- you ever play NBA jam? Remember when guys would go “On Fire” and make crazy plays and just roll on you? That was like last years’ 2nd half of the year RW. He would be all over the field making ridiculous plays, just juking and moving and dipping and dodging and ducking and dodging and running like crazy. We’ve seen flashes this year, but the 2nd half of the season has either felt like every week we’re playing the greatest Defense in the history of the modern NFL or RW is improvising by the skin of his teeth with seeming impossible plays. (like the floater early in the game he put over Reid to Baldwin) this play could have been extended by RW but he backed away from it for some reason. When he senses no good looks from the pocket initially, this is where “on fire” RW would take those rocker steps to the left of the pocket, just baiting the defense over, and then he would do some sort of reverse pivot backwards spin move to orient himself in a flash all the way back over to the right side of the field. This kind of time bought in the backfield can cause major, major problems for defensive secondaries. Also, if he breaks free in this fashion he will easily be able to throw the ball away if needed and let hauschka go to work. So why he chooses to just chuck a weak ball to kearse who is covered and ten yards short of the first I have no idea. Heck, with a kicker like ours, scramble around and try to make a play and if you take a sack, oh well. But just giving up right there and throwing that pass to kearse was a complete waste. Even an intentional grounding from here only turns a 32 into a 42 yard attempt, which would be worth the risk by RW doing anything to buy more time here to find a legitimate target for the 1st or TD.
RESULT: FG 3PTS
2nd REDZONE POSSESSION: set up by Baldwin’s massive return. I count this whole possession as a “REDZONE” possession because of the momentum swing and proximity to the red zone.
1st down-big screen play to golden tate
1st down- handoff lynch---4 yds. Whatever.
2nd down- quick handoff to ML-0 yds. Again, a read option with no “option”. Although at this point the niners seem to key in on RW in case he keeps. In other words, the window has closed on RW being able to get off a read option run because when it was there, he didn’t read it, didn’t take it, and now the D coordinators for SF have recognized their own vulnerability.
3rd down- max unger false start. Great. Another undisciplined penalty.
3rd down- SF again shows major blitz. RW barely gets throw away with no intentional grounding called. Barely. (did I mention this was barely NOT a penalty?) watch giacomini if you want to see the price of indecision as an offensive lineman. If you can’t choose who to block, pick someone rather than no one. Lesson number one. One hand pattycaking willis and then going after Brooks who is not even remotely as important in the scheme of this play is not doing your job.
RESULT: FG 3PTS
On a sidenote, what the hell was SF doing not playing Parrish Cox? Rogers looked old and tired, and I thought Cox earned that nickel role after the first two playoff games. Oh well, thanks harbawl.
On another sidenote, how many times can Kam annihilate VD in one lifetime??? Poor Ole Verne is gonna end up in a straightjacket somewhere having flashbacks and drawing '31' all over his padded cell.
3rd REDZONE Possession: Kap gets stripped. Great field position. 1st down, handoff to ML for nominal gain. This would have been a terrific play to dial up naked boot for RW and drag receivers out for RW to target in the end zone or right in front of him. I blame Bevell here for not recognizing the situation and going for the endzone on first down. San fran was sleeping on ML and the was not ready for RW to do anything extraordinary, and a naked boot would have had him in the right flat all alone for about 4 seconds min. to work with. also we ALWAYS seem to run from this formation.
2nd and goal- quick handoff to ML attempted before false start called. Strangely this play had a nearly identical scheme as 1st down. Motion a TE across to block to the left side and lead block with Robinson , blown dead for false start though. Somehow the Seattle coordinator saw something that motioning a TE across the formation would give us numbers or something, but even in slow motion replays I just don’t see how come we are not getting RW out in space to run around, make decisions, and find receivers. I’m all down for beast mode but sometimes you gotta open up the running game with some passing too.
2nd down- slant corner/out route to golden tate (GT). Total armchair qb thing here, but seriously, this route will not work in this amount of space bevell you dummy. It’s too far of a throw first of all. Maybe a jay cutler or joe flacco makes this throw, but not RW. It’s just not his game. Now if we ran a slant out route and let RW pump the out and put a touch pass over the db as golden tate then turns the out route up to the back of the end zone…..
3rd down- the infamous kearse completion, fumble but not a fumble, bowman action figure knee play. Well, here we go again Russ. Why, o why, are you throwing ‘& goal’ throws to receivers who cannot possibly make the TD? For being what I consider one of the smartest up and coming QB’s, student of the game, etc., and me being a solid fan of yours, why can you not try to keep plays alive in this situation and not throw to a player who is in no better position to score the TD than russell okung? By the way, on this play a pump fake to kearse over the middle followed by GT slanting in and then swimming over the defender on a corner touch pass from RW would be amazing here. For some reason all of our red zone looks are single route looks when double pumps and crosses would work so well. Remember baldwin running across the entire defense with russ scrambling right and finding baldy on the far left side of the endzone all alone against NO Version1? Yeah, sometimes the redzone can just be sooo e-z.
Then….marshawn fumbles a handoff. While I was kind of happy so niners wouldn’t have anything to whine about regarding the botched call on the fumble, in retrospect, hell with that, the steelers don’t have any problems calling themselves super bowl 40 champs, so I could care less about that damn call. ML holds on to the ball and scores and optimus prime’s tip for pick is an afterthought as the Seahawks D takes over a 2 possession game.
1st and ten after the Kam pick: broken play as RW and ML can’t remember how to run the same handoff play you learn in 3rd grade football camp. ML pulls off one of the most amazing plays of the game in the most unnoticeable fashions, seriously, rewatch this. How is this not a negative play for any other running back in the league?
2nd and 8- burn a timeout. RW fumbles a snap and runs some sort of crazy play afterwards. Penalty on kearse PI on offense. Wow. Just wow. In an amazingly critical stretch of the game our offense is playing like it’s as important as the women’s NIT basketball tourney.
2nd and 18- nominal gain ML handoff.
3rd and forever- 3 yd pass to GT to just set up hauschka for the kick.
Well, that pretty much sums up the redzone offense, which was, to use the overused expression, offensive. The worst part for me is that nearly every single player can be blamed at one point or another. Literally, the entire team stunk it up in one of the most important facets of the game on one of the biggest stages. overall, if you consider possessions that weren't truly "redzone", but sure felt like it for all intensive purposes, we could have possibly went negative in yardage on the day in possessions from the SF 35 and closer. The Seattle Seahawks are a young team with the kind of talent that has dynasty written all over it. But poor execution like this can snuff out the potential of even the greatest of teams, and if the Hawks can’t find a redzone touchdown on Sunday I will personally guarantee a Loss. However, if this team finds the formula for scoring in the redzone, I think Mr. Russell Wilson will have an all expense paid trip to Disneyworld in his future.
1st red zone drive- set up by doug baldwins huge downfield bomb from russell wilson. 1st and 10 around the 11.
49ers bring the house on a blitz. In one moment you go from, ‘well, maybe they’re lining up like that to SHOW blitz’, that quickly turns into ‘holy crap, they ARE going to blitz that many people’. The only way they could bring more people is by calling a punt block formation. This play personifies many of the intricate failures in the Seahawks red zone offense. Russell Wilson, or RW, needed to have recognized the blitz was going to beat the pass pro and audible a quick hitter of any flavor. A screen to golden tate in this situation would have netted 6-8 yds minimum. It would have been the easiest completion of the game. We had Marshawn Lynch, (ML), lined up at the top of the screen in isolation with who I believe was brown, all 5' 10" of him sitting there praying he doesn't have to open field tackle beast mode. Literally RW had 2-3 good options and he chose the worst possible---sticking with the play call that required a minimum of about 2 ½ seconds of protection. Sack.
2nd and 15- read option. I can’t be the only one to think russell wilson has all but given up on this play as a valid “option”. Either that or bevell or PC or the Lord himself has told RW that he can no longer run the ball from this play. Against the saints it was there several times, against the 49ers not as much but still, on this play, RW could have faked, kept, beat #51 around the left side and gained a minimum of 4-7 yds. It would have set up an easier 3rd and 8, rather than a virtually impossible 3rd and 13. Instead of “read option” I’ve resorted to calling this look the “fake read option, handoff to beastmode”.
3rd and 13- you ever play NBA jam? Remember when guys would go “On Fire” and make crazy plays and just roll on you? That was like last years’ 2nd half of the year RW. He would be all over the field making ridiculous plays, just juking and moving and dipping and dodging and ducking and dodging and running like crazy. We’ve seen flashes this year, but the 2nd half of the season has either felt like every week we’re playing the greatest Defense in the history of the modern NFL or RW is improvising by the skin of his teeth with seeming impossible plays. (like the floater early in the game he put over Reid to Baldwin) this play could have been extended by RW but he backed away from it for some reason. When he senses no good looks from the pocket initially, this is where “on fire” RW would take those rocker steps to the left of the pocket, just baiting the defense over, and then he would do some sort of reverse pivot backwards spin move to orient himself in a flash all the way back over to the right side of the field. This kind of time bought in the backfield can cause major, major problems for defensive secondaries. Also, if he breaks free in this fashion he will easily be able to throw the ball away if needed and let hauschka go to work. So why he chooses to just chuck a weak ball to kearse who is covered and ten yards short of the first I have no idea. Heck, with a kicker like ours, scramble around and try to make a play and if you take a sack, oh well. But just giving up right there and throwing that pass to kearse was a complete waste. Even an intentional grounding from here only turns a 32 into a 42 yard attempt, which would be worth the risk by RW doing anything to buy more time here to find a legitimate target for the 1st or TD.
RESULT: FG 3PTS
2nd REDZONE POSSESSION: set up by Baldwin’s massive return. I count this whole possession as a “REDZONE” possession because of the momentum swing and proximity to the red zone.
1st down-big screen play to golden tate
1st down- handoff lynch---4 yds. Whatever.
2nd down- quick handoff to ML-0 yds. Again, a read option with no “option”. Although at this point the niners seem to key in on RW in case he keeps. In other words, the window has closed on RW being able to get off a read option run because when it was there, he didn’t read it, didn’t take it, and now the D coordinators for SF have recognized their own vulnerability.
3rd down- max unger false start. Great. Another undisciplined penalty.
3rd down- SF again shows major blitz. RW barely gets throw away with no intentional grounding called. Barely. (did I mention this was barely NOT a penalty?) watch giacomini if you want to see the price of indecision as an offensive lineman. If you can’t choose who to block, pick someone rather than no one. Lesson number one. One hand pattycaking willis and then going after Brooks who is not even remotely as important in the scheme of this play is not doing your job.
RESULT: FG 3PTS
On a sidenote, what the hell was SF doing not playing Parrish Cox? Rogers looked old and tired, and I thought Cox earned that nickel role after the first two playoff games. Oh well, thanks harbawl.
On another sidenote, how many times can Kam annihilate VD in one lifetime??? Poor Ole Verne is gonna end up in a straightjacket somewhere having flashbacks and drawing '31' all over his padded cell.
3rd REDZONE Possession: Kap gets stripped. Great field position. 1st down, handoff to ML for nominal gain. This would have been a terrific play to dial up naked boot for RW and drag receivers out for RW to target in the end zone or right in front of him. I blame Bevell here for not recognizing the situation and going for the endzone on first down. San fran was sleeping on ML and the was not ready for RW to do anything extraordinary, and a naked boot would have had him in the right flat all alone for about 4 seconds min. to work with. also we ALWAYS seem to run from this formation.
2nd and goal- quick handoff to ML attempted before false start called. Strangely this play had a nearly identical scheme as 1st down. Motion a TE across to block to the left side and lead block with Robinson , blown dead for false start though. Somehow the Seattle coordinator saw something that motioning a TE across the formation would give us numbers or something, but even in slow motion replays I just don’t see how come we are not getting RW out in space to run around, make decisions, and find receivers. I’m all down for beast mode but sometimes you gotta open up the running game with some passing too.
2nd down- slant corner/out route to golden tate (GT). Total armchair qb thing here, but seriously, this route will not work in this amount of space bevell you dummy. It’s too far of a throw first of all. Maybe a jay cutler or joe flacco makes this throw, but not RW. It’s just not his game. Now if we ran a slant out route and let RW pump the out and put a touch pass over the db as golden tate then turns the out route up to the back of the end zone…..
3rd down- the infamous kearse completion, fumble but not a fumble, bowman action figure knee play. Well, here we go again Russ. Why, o why, are you throwing ‘& goal’ throws to receivers who cannot possibly make the TD? For being what I consider one of the smartest up and coming QB’s, student of the game, etc., and me being a solid fan of yours, why can you not try to keep plays alive in this situation and not throw to a player who is in no better position to score the TD than russell okung? By the way, on this play a pump fake to kearse over the middle followed by GT slanting in and then swimming over the defender on a corner touch pass from RW would be amazing here. For some reason all of our red zone looks are single route looks when double pumps and crosses would work so well. Remember baldwin running across the entire defense with russ scrambling right and finding baldy on the far left side of the endzone all alone against NO Version1? Yeah, sometimes the redzone can just be sooo e-z.
Then….marshawn fumbles a handoff. While I was kind of happy so niners wouldn’t have anything to whine about regarding the botched call on the fumble, in retrospect, hell with that, the steelers don’t have any problems calling themselves super bowl 40 champs, so I could care less about that damn call. ML holds on to the ball and scores and optimus prime’s tip for pick is an afterthought as the Seahawks D takes over a 2 possession game.
1st and ten after the Kam pick: broken play as RW and ML can’t remember how to run the same handoff play you learn in 3rd grade football camp. ML pulls off one of the most amazing plays of the game in the most unnoticeable fashions, seriously, rewatch this. How is this not a negative play for any other running back in the league?
2nd and 8- burn a timeout. RW fumbles a snap and runs some sort of crazy play afterwards. Penalty on kearse PI on offense. Wow. Just wow. In an amazingly critical stretch of the game our offense is playing like it’s as important as the women’s NIT basketball tourney.
2nd and 18- nominal gain ML handoff.
3rd and forever- 3 yd pass to GT to just set up hauschka for the kick.
Well, that pretty much sums up the redzone offense, which was, to use the overused expression, offensive. The worst part for me is that nearly every single player can be blamed at one point or another. Literally, the entire team stunk it up in one of the most important facets of the game on one of the biggest stages. overall, if you consider possessions that weren't truly "redzone", but sure felt like it for all intensive purposes, we could have possibly went negative in yardage on the day in possessions from the SF 35 and closer. The Seattle Seahawks are a young team with the kind of talent that has dynasty written all over it. But poor execution like this can snuff out the potential of even the greatest of teams, and if the Hawks can’t find a redzone touchdown on Sunday I will personally guarantee a Loss. However, if this team finds the formula for scoring in the redzone, I think Mr. Russell Wilson will have an all expense paid trip to Disneyworld in his future.
