While we’re not ready to go biblical and suggest it’s the mark of the beast, halfway through the NFL season something strange is, well, afoot with the 5-3 Seahawks’ running game since the departure of Beast Mode, Marshawn Lynch.
Despite a heavy off-season investment in the position, the Seahawks’ four primary running backs on the active roster cumulatively have rushed for 316 yards on 111 tries (2.8 yards per carry).
In contrast, after a year of retirement leisure before joining the Oakland Raiders, Lynch has 323 yards on 86 carries (3.8 ypg).
More significantly, the NFL’s No. 2 running back in terms of yards per carry (5.6) is Alex Collins of the Baltimore Ravens. His yardage total of 521 is 10th in the NFL, and he didn’t start the season’s first two games.
You may recall Collins was the Seahawks’ fifth-round draft choice in 2016 after starring at Arkansas. In his rookie year he had 39 carries for 152 yards, as well as 14 receptions for 112 yards, including playoffs.
But the Seahawks after training camp figured they had armored up the position by hiring Eddie Lacy and drafting Chris Carson. Along with holdovers Thomas Rawls and C.J. Prosise, plus the find of back/receiver hybrid J.D. McKissic, a waiver claim in December, the Seahawks figured they had stanched the post-Lynch bleeding that required a club-record use of 18 running backs in 2016.
So in September, they said goodbye to Collins on the roster cut-down to 53, partially justifiable on the grounds of dubious ball security. No other team was impressed enough to claim him, so he signed as a free agent with Baltimore and was put on the practice squad. Once starter Danny Woodhead was lost to injury, Collins was promoted and seized the chance.
In fairness, the offensive lines at Oakland and Baltimore are much better than the one in Seattle, a narrative with which Seahawks fans are familiar, having lost starters LT George Fant and LG Luke Joeckel to injury, and adding Wednesday LT Rees Odhiambo to the injured reserve list (surgery to both hands).
Then there’s RT Germain Ifedi, who leads the NFL with 12 penalties on a team that has an NFL-high 82 accepted fouls, a crime wave that has the National Security Agency, Interpol and the Mossad giving Seattle the side-eye.
Setting aside the line woes, the Seahawks still don’t have enough healthy backs, after a groin-muscle strain that will keep Lacy out of the Thursday night game in Arizona (5:30 p.m., NBC) against the 4-4 Cardinals.
The healthy RB list includes Rawls, McKissic and, ahem, Prosise, whose career list of owies soon will be taught as a trauma course at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He’s been out since Sept. 24 with a sprained ankle.
Add up the problems and it’s small wonder that the Seahawks offense largely has been: “Here’s the ball, Russell — do something.”
The withering even had Carroll, the man of 10,000 sunrises, a little downcast this week.
“I am surprised somewhat that we aren’t farther along in these areas,” he said, referring to the penalties and the run game. “These are things that we really can control. We have a chance to be good.
“We have been putting up a ton of yards, moving the football like crazy for a while now (their 378.6 ypg is fourth in the NFL). We have a chance to have a good season and we got to get at it. We can’t have any slippage. The season is wide open for everybody at this point.”
The starter will be Rawls, who through eight games has 98 yards in 39 carries, a woeful comedown from the playoff game against Detroit 11 months ago, when he had 161 yards on 27 attempts. Against a Cardinals defense ranked 23rd at 350 yards a game, and behind a remade line that had its dubious shakedown cruise Sunday in the 17-14 home loss to Washington, there’s a decent shot at revival.
“We love Thomas. He’s going to be our guy,” offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell said. “We’ll ride with him. He has history with us, and has done a great job.
“We’ll see if we get C.J. back And we’ve gotten some big plays out of J.D. We love those guys. Those are our guys and we’ll ride with them.”
Not that there is much choice in a short week. After passing on retaining Lynch and Collins, a series of injuries has again made a hash of the playbook, except the Forrest Gump part where it says, “Run, Russell, run!”
For the second half of the season, Cable boiled down the solution in simple terms that doesn’t involve new plays or players.
“At the end of the day, for this whole team: Do right, play smart,” he said. “However you want to say it — yelling, screaming. They are grown men, they got to learn to adjust and do the right things and play smarter.”
Since Carroll’s arrival in 2010, the Seahawks are 6-1 on Thursdays, part of a 20-3-1 record in all prime-time games, outscoring opponents 627-316. In the same period, the Seahawks in November/December games are an NFL-best 32-10.
The football bible says the Seahawks have entered the realm when they follow the “Do Right, Play Smart” liturgy and shed the mark of the beast. It’s right there in First Carrollians.
Thomas likely out, DE Dion Jordan activated
Carroll sounded Wednesday as if FS Earl Thomas will miss his second game in a row with a strained hamstring. But the defense got a boost with the activation of DE Dion Jordan, the former first-round draft choice from Oregon who will play Thursday for the first time since 2014.
“Because of the severity of the strain, it’s taken some time,” Carroll said of Thomas, officially listed as doubtful. “We haven’t been able to get him to practice yet.”
Two were listed as out for the game at Arizona: Lacy (groin) and DE Marcus Smith (concussion).
Listed as questionable were LB D.J. Alexander (ankle), WR Paul Richardson (groin), CB Richard Sherman (Achilles tendon), and DT Sheldon Richardson (oblique). Carroll was optimistic that all but Alexander would play.
After the 2013 draft, Jordan played 26 games for the Dolphins, then sat out the 2015 season with a drug suspension, and missed 2016 with a knee injury. He signed as a free agent with Seattle in April, then had another knee surgery and began practice only two weeks ago. The absence of Smith likely means immediate work for Jordan.
“It’s been a long haul just with us,” Carroll said this week. “Watching him as far set back as he was early on, after he got here, and then he encountered some issues that he had to deal with.
“He did extraordinary work to make it back. It’s been exciting to see him back out there. He is still rusty and there is no way that he can’t be. But he is well-equipped. He is a big, strong, fast kid and dying to play.”
To make roster room for Jordan, the Seahawks put Odhiambo, the starter at left tackle until the trade for Duane Brown, on injured reserve to have surgery on both hands, problems that previously had gone undisclosed. He is done for the season.
“His fingers are busted up,” Carroll said. “He’s got two dislocations that aren’t going back properly, and a broken finger. He’s been playing with fingers that need some work. He added to the problem in the last week.”
9 Comments
Hey Art that run Russell run would work better if he’d go to the left instead of cork-screwing to the right every time. To hear of all the injuries the Hawks should be nick named the walking wounded. Lastly I’m a pretty good Bible thumper but First Carrollians?? Must have been that AFL version I don’t have. Luck be with thee Art.
He runs every direction already. Put wings on him, might give him another option.
Art – I’m surprised in such a complete column you missed a big reason this year’s running attack is so pitiful compared to teh last games of 2016 – The Hawks decided they didn’t need the ONE person who turned around last years’ running game: Marcel Reece. You know the numbers – he was the fullback who actually pass-blocked, run-blocked and caught passes out of the backfield, transforming the offense, together with Graham being hurt, which opened up the passing game and put in a TE who actually blocked.
Alex Collins is the latest Ex-Mariner of the Week.
Very entertaining and excellent summarizing ARTicle. Still, I do think the Hawks win pretty handily tonight. I’m sayin’ 27-10.
C.J. Prosise… how many plays does he participate in before the next injury?
I say he goes down during pre-game warm ups.
He actually made it until the 3rd qtr!
They have a D level OL and D level RB’s…..which, at some point, will bring Russell Wilson to the OR and on IR.
Russell is the best backyard football player in the NFL. “Run out the gate and down the sidewalk, cut left at the mailboxes, and I’ll fake it to ya…..”