I'm guessing we'll see a lot of Garry Gilliam this week

Gilliam was an athletic LT who turned some heads while making the team this preseason, he is a converted TE who is 6'6" 302.

It's gone a bit under the radar, but with Miller being out a few weeks, the Seahawks quietly returned Gilliam back to his original TE position this past week.

Miller is a fantastic pass blocker by TE standards, and his lack of presence on the roster could really hurt Seattle against a team like Washington that has some weapons in the pass rush. With Britt and Okung both suffering in pass pro, Seattle shouldn't consider throwing deep unless they have a TE pass blocking, and guys like Helfet and Willson are far from ideal as pass protectors.

Lately, we've seen defenses start to cheat up on Seattle's offense, because they know that 85% of Wilson's passes will have 15 air yards or fewer, and they know that Seattle runs the football about as often as anybody. Having the ability to attack deep is critical to keeping defenses honest. With 11 days to prepare, you know that Washington is going to have a strong game plan defensively, and that probably means not respecting Seattle's ability to set up a deep pass with enough pass protection.

Going for a bunker mentality with extra protection on deep throws had mixed results for Seattle last season, but the rate at which they've gone deep in 2014 is way too low, and it's only a matter of time before Seattle's offense is made to look stupid by a non-elite defense that did their homework. And to me, throwing deep is probably not a great idea unless the team has Gilliam on the field in the Zach Miller pass pro role.

Anyway, I'm sure Pete knows this far better than I do. I wouldn't be surprised if we see 10+ snaps for Gilliam at TE in this game.

Kearly would you say that our offense is less explosive this season or we just aren't seeing them do what they're capable of?

While Russell's improved in completion percentage and continues to make clutch plays, it just seems like the passing game has almost completely turned into screens and 3-5 yard passes in which we rely completely on YAC.

(Y/A, Y/C, Air Yards Per Attempt, %Deep, % of YAC to Total Yards)
2013: 8.2 Y/A, 13.1 Y/C, 4.43 AY/A, 25.5%, 46.3%
2014: 7.5 Y/A, 10.9 Y/C, 3.20 AY/A, 20.7%, 59.6%

So we're throwing for fewer air yards, gaining fewer y/c and throwing the ball deep on fewer occasions.

Now we have a healthy o-line, a deeper receiver group, a QB with more experience and a running back who is rushing for more yards per attempt than he did last year but we really aren't rattling off very many big plays. (something like 9th in big play differential after having lead the league last season).

Just curious if you could set me straight or explain what you see going on because I love the speed we see but it just doesn't seem like the explosive offense I had envisioned.

Even at that size, he is probably faster than Miller.

Putting Gilliam in there near full time sounds like a good idea.

I suspect we'll see more designed roll outs and moving pockets, too. Utilizing Russ's mobility is key IMHO.

:hint: I think we've had a few extra days to prepare, too.

Laloosh":2mqdnrkx said:

Kearly would you say that our offense is less explosive this season or we just aren't seeing them do what they're capable of?

While Russell's improved in completion percentage and continues to make clutch plays, it just seems like the passing game has almost completely turned into screens and 3-5 yard passes in which we rely completely on YAC.

(Y/A, Y/C, Air Yards Per Attempt, %Deep, % of YAC to Total Yards)
2013: 8.2 Y/A, 13.1 Y/C, 4.43 AY/A, 25.5%, 46.3%
2014: 7.5 Y/A, 10.9 Y/C, 3.20 AY/A, 20.7%, 59.6%

So we're throwing for fewer air yards, gaining fewer y/c and throwing the ball deep on fewer occasions.

Now we have a healthy o-line, a deeper receiver group, a QB with more experience and a running back who is rushing for more yards per attempt than he did last year but we really aren't rattling off very many big plays. (something like 9th in big play differential after having lead the league last season).

Just curious if you could set me straight or explain what you see going on because I love the speed we see but it just doesn't seem like the explosive offense I had envisioned.

Click to expand...

The Chargers game alone will drop all those. The offense was on the field 17min.

Brahn":gnwkxntp said:

Laloosh":gnwkxntp said:

Kearly would you say that our offense is less explosive this season or we just aren't seeing them do what they're capable of?

While Russell's improved in completion percentage and continues to make clutch plays, it just seems like the passing game has almost completely turned into screens and 3-5 yard passes in which we rely completely on YAC.

(Y/A, Y/C, Air Yards Per Attempt, %Deep, % of YAC to Total Yards)
2013: 8.2 Y/A, 13.1 Y/C, 4.43 AY/A, 25.5%, 46.3%
2014: 7.5 Y/A, 10.9 Y/C, 3.20 AY/A, 20.7%, 59.6%

So we're throwing for fewer air yards, gaining fewer y/c and throwing the ball deep on fewer occasions.

Now we have a healthy o-line, a deeper receiver group, a QB with more experience and a running back who is rushing for more yards per attempt than he did last year but we really aren't rattling off very many big plays. (something like 9th in big play differential after having lead the league last season).

Just curious if you could set me straight or explain what you see going on because I love the speed we see but it just doesn't seem like the explosive offense I had envisioned.

Click to expand...

The Chargers game alone will drop all those. The offense was on the field 17min.

Click to expand...

No, those stats are normalized per pass so the offense barely being on the field in the Chargers game doesn't have a disproportionate affect on them. The drop in air yards per attempt (4.43 to 3.20) is pretty significant. Last year Russell ranked 3rd in the league and in 2012 he was 2nd. This year....25th. Part of that is certainly the Harvin effect, but it also seems like for whatever reason, whenever Russell has looked deep and had time to throw this year he usually ends up escaping out of the pocket and scrambling or throwing it away.

I wouldn't say that the trend is a concern given how efficient the offense has looked so far, but it's definitely something we'll need to incorporate. Because of his lack of vision or otherwise, Russell's biggest weakness seems to be intermediate throws (particularly to the middle of the field). Without those 15 yard digs or timing routes, we really need to introduce the deep ball to help open things up. Hopefully we start to see some of that on Monday.

IMHO, I think this trend comes down to 3 things. I call it a trend because I think the SD game was an aberration in terms of obscene off--balanced TOP, abandoning the game plan, and picking up the tempo to score fast (which may have been the game plan anyway). So from the 2 game sample size we saw:

1. The Harvin effect. Jet sweeps and bubble screens galore.
2. Bookend top shelf edge pass rushers. Say what you want about Ware, Miller, Matthews, and Peppers, these guys are still considered tops at their positions
3. Rookie and Recently injured tackle. Growing pains and just pains.

Of course, all of these are related. When you have rusty tackles playing top shelf rushers, chipping/blocking TEs and RBs combined with shorter developing plays are key. I think we're going to see a lot more screen fakes/options combined with longer routes a la the fake screen TY Hilton burned us on in the Indy game last year. I agree that defenses have started cheating up and that's why Lock got a 39 yard TD last week. Talib got caught looking in the backfield and got burned. Misdirection gives us an edge. I'll be worried when we actually see a trend of our offense not putting up points. We're averaging 27 a game right now. With our D, that should win 9 times out of 10 and 14 out of 16.