Seahawks are well aware they need to run the ball more

RENTON, Wash. – Yes, coach Mike Macdonald said Monday, the Seattle Seahawks know they need to run the ball more than they did in Sunday’s 29-20 loss to the New York Giants at Lumen Field.

The Seahawks had just seven carries for 30 yards by their running backs in 58 plays Sunday, with Kenneth Walker III gaining 19 yards on five attempts after rushing for 183 yards on 32 carries in his first two games of the season.

The Seahawks finished with a respectable-looking 102 rushing yards only because quarterback Geno Smith turned four scrambles into a career-high 72 yards rushing.

“We all know we need to run the ball more,” Macdonald said. “Everybody knows that. Our opponents know that, our players in our locker room know that, (offensive coordinator) Ryan Grubb knows that, our coaches do, I do.

“We have to create more situations where we can run it, as well. And that’s a team stat as well. So that’s all three phases where we have to create those.”

Macdonald’s point is that some of the pass-run numbers were because of circumstance, the defense allowing the Giants some long drives and the Seahawks playing catch-up the entire second half.

The Seahawks had 20 pass attempts to just two called runs in the fourth quarter as they tried to rally from a 10-point deficit.

Still, that doesn’t fully explain a 14-to-2 ratio in the first half, even though the Seahawks had gone into the game thinking their passing game on offense was a better matchup with the Giants’ defense, which features one of the better defensive lines in the league.

The Seahawks got 2 yards out of those two first-half runs, which was hardly an inducement to do it more.

Smith also has some leeway to change plays at the line of scrimmage.

“There is some getting in and out of runs,” Macdonald said, saying he wouldn’t get into the specifics of how often that may happen.

Regardless, the pass-run percentages after five games are hardly what anyone envisioned. As of Monday, the Seahawks had the highest pass-to-run ratio in the NFL at 67.39%, via teamrankings.com, and rank last in the NFL in designed rush rate at 28.9%, according to ESPN, with scrambles by Smith accounting for the difference.

While Macdonald is the team’s defensive play-caller with Grubb having the primary say in what happens on offense, he said that setting the team’s overall offensive strategy is a group effort.

“We’re in constant communication,” Macdonald said of Grubb. “We both know the game plans and we’re on the same page. We both know that we’ve got to establish to the run more, (which) is probably where your question’s going, so both of us can be better on that front. Again, it’s a team thing as well. We’ve got to put ourselves in position to dictate terms more offensively in the tempos.”

Maybe even more distressing in the big picture was the Seahawks’ inability to stop the run.

The Giants entered the game with the 30th-ranked running game in the NFL at 85.3 per game, and had to play without leading rusher Devin Singletary, out with an injury.

That forced the Giants to start rookie Tyrone Tracy, a fifth-round pick out of Purdue who had 29 yards on 12 carries before Sunday.

Tracy responded with 129 yards on 18 carries against the Seahawks, 7.2 per attempt, with the Giants finishing with 175 on 34.

The Seahawks have allowed 640 yards in five games, which ranks 22nd in the NFL, and the 4.5 per carry allowed is 17th and not much better than the 4.6 of last season.

“There’s plays that we need to make that we’re not making,” Macdonald said.

As with getting the running game going on offense, Macdonald said getting better stopping it is a team effort. While he said the line could have played better overall, particularly in setting the edge, he noted some of the problems were also in the back end.

One issue was missed tackles. The Seahawks had 11, via Pro Football Focus, after having 29 in the first four games.

“We’re not stopping the run the way we need to be in certain coverages that we’re asking them to do,” Macdonald said. “That’s on the edge guys, but it’s on the interior, guys, second-level players, it’s all 11 guys. If the ball squirts out and you force the ball, but your secondary contained player isn’t where he’s supposed to be, which I’m not saying that happened in every situation, it could be a corner and the ball gets out. So, to attribute it to just the edge players I think is unfair to those guys.”

It added up to a team that after a glittering 3-0 start that had some national observers praising where things were headed under Macdonald is 3-2 with a short turnaround before facing a 49ers squad Thursday that has tormented them like none other the past two years.

Macdonald hinted that the short workweek has an advantage in forcing the team to keep some of its game plans a little more simple, which he said might also help with some of the defensive issues.

“I think the tapes also dictate that we tighten things up,” he said. “So now we have an extremely short week that will help that process as well.”

While there’s much work to be done and not much time to do it, Macdonald said he will stress the positives this week.

“We’re 3-2,” he said. “We’ve done good enough stuff to win three games out of five. You are what your record says. We’ve also lost two games and just so happened to be the last two. We didn’t do enough to win those two games as well. When you break down each game, it’s very clear on why we won or lost those games. So, let’s attack those things that we’re not doing well.

“… It’s still really early. You’ll learn about our football team, the only thing that we want to know how to do is just go back to work, do it better, and just rock and roll. To have each other’s backs, keep each other accountable, tell each other the truth, and move forward.”