olyfan63":3obhobzp said:
Pete brings in Waldron and we finally start to see "real", winning Pete Ball the last four games, with Penny's emergence. Russell has been the limiting factor. To me it looks like Pete has given the reins fully to Waldron, and Pete and John have built an O-Line that is good in Waldron's run game scheme.
Pete allowed Schotty and Russell to try the "Let Russ Cook" experiment. Teams figured out how to defend Russell starting with that game in Arizona and from there things got fugly and after that LRC had to be abandoned after lots of turnovers.
To me it's clear Pete gives his coordinators appropriate freedom, within his framework. Waldron came up with a nice game plan for the Bears game, and used the run game to punish Chicago for running cover 2. Penny had what, another 130+ yard day, Seahawks had a one score lead, and then Russell took the stupid 15 yard sack playing hero-ball, Myers missed the FG, and the Bears won on that 2-point conversion. Then Waldron came up with another great game plan and scheme for the Cardinals game.
The limiting factor the whole season has been Russell, repeatedly passing up move-the-chains completions in favor of hero-ball, taking ridiculous sacks holding the ball too long, and being last in the NFL (at the time) in 3rd down conversion rate. That is an issue between Waldron and Russell, not an issue of Pete micromanaging anything.
Whatever else, it looks like Waldron and Pete are on the same page and Pete doesn't need to micromanage him. It looks like Waldron "gets" what Pete wants and is able to execute on Pete's vision better than anyone before, if the last few games of the season and Penny's emergence are more than an end-of-season mirage. If anything, Waldron has gotten Pete to abandon the "impose our will" crap and instead switch to "exploit what the defense is giving us". It was refreshing to see! See the Matty F. Brown breakdowns of recent Seahawks games for more data on this.
OK, the DC side. Did Pete micromanage Dan Quinn, Gus Bradley, or Kris Richard? I'm leaving KNJ out of it, as he was fired rather than leaving for a promotion. Certainly Dan Quinn was his own man, if not all the others. For whatever reason, KNJ was not able to get Pete's defenses up to speed quickly enough. Thank you for your service, KNJ, and happy trails.
Overall, Pete is just a boss, a leader, who has definite ideas about how he wants things done. Based on the evidence, I'd say he's well within the "normal" range in what and how he delegates to OC and DC. Some coordinators are a better fit, they "get" what Pete wants (e.g., balanced attack, run game, deep passing threat/explosive plays) so in those cases, Pete is able to delegate more fully. I think that's Waldron right now, and hopefully also the new DC, when chosen.
That wasn't Pete Ball the last few games. They were running against soft boxes. The McVay/Waldron way. They have 2 plays called. If they get a light box they run it, they get a heavy box they throw it. Teams are terrified of Wilson and stay in a 2 high shell. The run is there to be had, Penny finally took advantage of it. Wilson is a huge part of why Penny went off at the end of the year. A pick your poison scenario.
Pete Ball = stubbornly run it until you get behind the sticks with no tactical logic, heavy box, light box, it doesn't matter. Then we you do throw, only throw deep, usually on 3rd and long. Cool with punting and playing the field position game. Not concerned with scoring points for 3 quarters as long as the opponent isn't scoring as well. Rope-a-Dope, shorten the game.
The crux of the "Let Russ Cook" movement was about letting Russ throw more on early downs to achieve balance instead of running hard headed into loaded boxes, and getting behind the sticks. As the Seahawks at the time were by far the worst in the league on 1st down predictability, ran the most into loaded boxes by a good margin, and were one of the worst 1st down running teams in the NFL, due to this predictability. It's not Run vs. Pass, as every Lehman wants to steer the convo. but predictability. It is also all encompassing. From lack of motion, boots, option routes, play variation, to even the kind of runs they would attempt (usually inside zone out of the gun into a loaded box.) To the pass plays that would also be called (everyone running deep.) It is a very shallow, predictable style that made everyone's job harder, especially the O-Line and QB. That is not what we saw at the end of this season. We saw McVay Ball and it was glorious. "Let Russ Cook" isn't pass it every play, running is bad. "Pete Ball" isn't run it every play, passing is bad.
Pete meddled and if he had left Waldron alone their Playaction and Motion numbers wouldn't have crumbled by midyear as those things are the heart of the McVay/Waldron offense and is a very obvious tell. It wasn't until the season was lost that Pete let Waldron revert back to his style, I surmise Pete wanted to get a proper eval of Shane as an OC to decide whether to keep him or not. Shane passed with flying colors.
