WILL THE SEAHAWKS `LET RUSS COOK' OR PRACTISE PATIENCE AGAINST RAMS?
Problem is, you never know which Seattle offence will show up, writes Larry Stone.
Let's just admit it: This Seahawks team that starts the NFL playoffs Saturday afternoon against the Los Angeles Rams remains an utter mystery.
They're a 12-win enigma, if that's possible. After four months and 16 games, it's just as easy to envision a scenario that has them surging into the Super Bowl as it is to see them getting unceremoniously ousted in the first round.
Now, we understand that's the case to a certain extent for virtually every team, every year. I mean, those who made the case for the 14-2 Baltimore Ravens, led by their MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson, to get an early boot last season had it nailed, right? It's extremely rare to have a team such as the 2013 Seahawks that seemed almost preordained for a championship run (and even then it took a miracle play at the end of the NFC title game).
But the vicissitudes of this particular Seahawks team are especially volatile — maybe because they exist on both sides of the ball.
Let's start with the offence. For the first half of the season, quarterback Russell Wilson was cooking, and the Seahawks were feasting. It appeared they had moulded the high-powered, bigstrike unit that seemed to be a priority to create after watching the team fizzle in the playoffs too many times in recent years.
But then defences figured out a way to stop the Seahawks' downfield passing game, particularly with regard to DK Metcalf. Head coach Pete Carroll started to preach “offensive diversity” and “complementary football” — code words for the end of the short-lived “Let Russ Cook” era. And the Seahawks, who averaged 34 points per game in the first half of the season, scored at a rate of just 22.6 per game in the second half.
Wilson, once on an MVP pace, had some truly awful games: He tossed three interceptions in a loss to Arizona; gave up two picks to Buffalo; threw two more interceptions and lost a fumble in a loss to the Rams; and, threw an interception and lost a fumble in a particularly galling defeat to the Giants.
Now Wilson has settled into a more cautious mode in which he's protecting the ball — and the Seahawks are 12-0 when they win the turnover battle, as Carroll is fond of pointing out. The offence has often been slow developing over the course of games, but Carroll says it's by design and he's willing to live with it as long as it clicks eventually — and as long as the outcome is a victory.
“There's a patience to it that nobody wants to see, but we are feeling OK about it,” Carroll said after a 26-23 win over the 49ers to close the regular season, in
which Seattle trailed 9-6 before scoring three fourth-quarter touchdowns. “We just have to make sure we come out of it, and we get the points we need to win.”
Will that strategy work against increasingly talented teams in the playoffs? Will Wilson, who hasn't appeared totally in sync the past few weeks, find a way to work his post-season magic in a manner we've all seen before?
For all the “ebbs and flows” of Seattle's offence, to use the words of offensive co-ordinator Brian Schottenheimer on Wednesday, they did rack up more points than any team in Seahawks history. Wilson threw more touchdown passes, Metcalf had more receiving yards, and Tyler Lockett had more receptions than anyone in team history. That shows the potential that's lurking, still.
But it's impossible to know which Seahawks offence shows up — and whether a ball-control win over the Rams could be replicated against, say, a powerhouse such as the New Orleans Saints in the next round.
And then there's the Seahawks' defence — equally mercurial, but in the opposite direction. From the horrid start, when opposing teams were moving at will against them, to the gradual reformation of the unit into one of the best in the league, at least statistically, the turnaround has been startling.
You can choose any number of turning points, but an especially popular one seems to be the acquisition of defensive end Carlos Dunlap from Cincinnati in late October. Since Dunlap was inserted into the lineup in Week 9 against Buffalo, he's had five sacks in eight games. But more importantly, the Seahawks have 33 sacks over nine games (Dunlap missed one because of an injury).
There are still some nagging questions, however, such as whether the dramatically improved defensive showing by the Seahawks was a reflection of a stretch of games against teams ranked 24th 30th, 31st and 32nd in total offence.
Two of those teams started backup quarterbacks, as did the 49ers last week. And the Seahawks might face another backup this week if L.A.'s Jared Goff, who broke his right thumb against Seattle just two weeks ago and had surgery, can't go.
Even if Seattle gets by the Rams, a glittering array of A-list quarterbacks potentially await the Seahawks — Drew Brees, Tom Brady and/or Aaron Rodgers. Those are the sort of defensive tests that will answer the lingering questions definitively.
Until then, savour the mystery — that's what makes all this so intriguing, and so much fun.