Another aspect of not running Kenneth Walker: Seahawks’ play-action passing needs it vs SF

It’s been a subject more popular than throwback uniforms this short week around the Seahawks.

Wearing their old royal-blue-over-silver unis from the 1990s again Thursday night, will they give Kenneth Walker more chances to run the ball in their first NFC West game this season, against San Francisco (2-3) at Lumen Field (5:15 p.m., channel 13 locally)?

The first-place Seahawks (3-2) can’t give it to Walker much less than they did last weekend while losing at home to the New York Giants.

Coach Mike Macdonald said the day after that game getting just five carries in 58 offensive plays was “a disservice” to his lead running back. Seattle’s coaches routinely describe him as one of the NFL’s best players, and most elusive avoiding would-be tacklers.

Play caller Ryan Grubb took all the blame for it on Tuesday.

“I’ll own that,” the offensive coordinator said. “Got to get the ball to Ken more.

“That’s 100% on me. My job is to make sure we get all our guys in the best position possible to win the game. And I didn’t do that.”

Here’s another aspect of not giving Walker rushes: Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb’s play-action pass game suffers.

Seattle enters the 49ers game in this short week with just 30 of Geno Smith’s league-most 199 throws being play-action (fake-handoff) passes, per statistical analysis by fantasylife.com . Only 10% of Smith’s league-best 1,446 yards passing have been off play action. That’s the lowest such percentage of any NFL starting quarterback.

No NFL team has had fewest rushing attempts through five weeks this season than the Seahawks’ 105.

Grubb sees a correlation.

“I think the obvious part is that we’re not running the ball as much, and so the play action isn’t as believable,” Grubb said, meaning for defenses to honor.

“So, establishing the run is obviously critical to a lot of things that help enable a good play-action game.”

In Detroit the week before , Grubb called passes on 18 of the first 22 plays. Against the Giants, 13 of the first 15 plays were pass calls.

Those are the Seahawks’ two losses this season.

Geno Smith’s view

While the premise is intuitive, Smith doesn’t necessarily agree that a running game must precede effective play-action passing.

“I wouldn’t say that,” Smith said Tuesday.

He cites his 33-yard pass to Tyler Lockett on Seattle’s first offensive play of the second half against the Giants. Smith faked a handoff to his left to Walker. The quarterback rolled a bit to his right. Then he threw back to the left to Lockett, who found space in the Giants’ backside zone coverage outside DK Metcalf’s in route.

The Seahawks had run the ball just two times for 2 yards to that point. It was the longest of Smith’s 28 completions in 40 passes, with seven sacks, against the Giants. Seattle lost 29-20.

“I think it just comes down to what’s the best play for the given situation,” Smith said. “These NFL games, man, they vary. It’s not going to always be the same thing every week.

“So for us, play action, you need to run the ball in order for it to be effective. That’s what they say. But, we came out and we hit a big play-action, and we really didn’t have a lot of plays in the first half, but it still worked. So, as long as you’re doing the right things and calling plays at the right time, it should be fine.”

Well...yes and no.

Grubb takes blame for failed 4th & 1

A glaring example of Grubb’s point about linking not running the ball consistently with ineffective play-action passing came on the pivotal snap of Seattle’s loss to the Giants.

Fearing how easily New York was running (for 175 yards) and moving the ball (412 total yards) on his Seahawks defense, head coach Mike Macdonald decided to have his offense go for it on fourth and 1 deep in his own end while down 20-13 in the fourth quarter. Grubb’s play was out of offset I formation. Walker and number-two back Zach Charbonnet lined up behind Smith as a fullback in front of tailback Walker. The offensive line blocked to the left. Charbonnet, who had carried the ball just twice for 11 years to that point, ran that way. Smith faked a handoff to the left to Charbonnet.

Grubb’s design intended to influence the one unblocked Giant on the line of scrimmage, left edge rusher Brian Burns, to follow the linemen’s blocking and Charbonnet and Smith flowing to his right, and out of Smith’s rollout pass outside him. But Burns justifiably did not honor any possibility of a Seahawks run on fourth and 1. He did what the Giants pay him $141 million to do. He rushed at the quarterback, straight up the field.

Burns smashed into Smith as soon as the QB turned away from the fake handoff to Charbonnet. The fourth sack of Smith gifted the Giants a turnover on downs then a field goal. That made it a two-score game, essentially ending it.

Had the Seahawks been effectively or at least consistently trying to run Walker and Charbonnet the first three quarters, perhaps Burns would have been more influenced by the run fake. Smith likely would have gotten outside the nosy edge rusher to easily convert that fourth and 1 with Seattle down 20-13.

“Terrible call,” Grubb said of his own. “Felt like we had a good game plan on it. The head coach wants to go for it right there. Totally supported Mike on that. And I probably have 10 calls in the call sheet that are better than that.

“(I) put Geno in a really crappy position, and I didn’t give him an out to get to a better play. And that’s first and foremost. Very few times where you pinned me in a corner and make me have one call. So that part is certainly on me.”

Geno Smith and play calls

The run-pass balance has been so lopsided The News Tribune asked Macdonald and Grubb this week how often Smith may be changing run calls to passes at the line of scrimmage, based on what he’s seeing from defenses. That was Grubb’s explanation for heavy-pass, light-run games the offense had in week two beating New England in overtime and in Detroit two games ago.

Macdonald didn’t specify how often Smith is doing that, but that it does account for some of the pass-run disparity.

“There is some (of the QB) getting in and out of runs. But to the extent of how much we’re doing it, (I’ll) just kind of leave that in-house,” the 37-year-old head coach said Monday.

“But it’s also, we all know we need to run the ball more. I mean, everybody knows that. Our opponents know that.

“Our players in our locker room know that. Grubb knows that. Our coaches do. I do.”

On Tuesday, Smith was asked how he and the offense intends to get Walker more carries. The Pro Bowl quarterback cited the offensive line, one of Seattle’s trouble spots for years.

“Yeah, I think, obviously it starts up front, our guys up front, who’ve been doing a great job in the run game. Just making sure that we’re relying on those guys. You know, letting them take over the game,” Smith said. “And so Grubb’s going to call the game according to what he sees. Obviously, you know, it’s always important to be balanced and to take advantage of all the weaknesses in the defense.

“But our running game has got to be the defining factor for our offense.

“I think as we go along throughout the season, obviously, the, you know, pass-run numbers, they tend to balance up. But you know, we definitely want to run the ball. We definitely want to be physical up front. We want to set the tone that way. And we need those guys.”

Earlier this season, Smith said he wants the ball in his hands to win games, every game.

“My mindset? Put the ball in 7’s hands, man,” Smith said in Foxborough, Massachusetts, Sept. 15, the day he about single-handed rallied the Seahawks past the Patriots in overtime.

Tuesday, after he threw the ball a career-high 56 times in Detroit and 40 more times losing to the Giants, Smith said of Seattle’s running game with Walker and Charbonnet. “We’ve got great running backs. We’ve got great linemen.

“And got to continue to rely on those guys.”

There lies part of the problem for the Seahawks.

The offensive line remains weak, and weakened. The 49ers’ defensive front has dominated Seattle’s O-line while San Francisco has won five consecutive games in the series between division rivals the last two seasons.

The Seahawks’ offensive line sure could use more of Walker running to slow down Nick Bosa and the 49ers pass rush on Smith in this latest meeting Thursday night.

“It’s just about this game. Those five games don’t help them, don’t help us. It’s about this game and focusing on this Thursday night,” Smith said.

“That’s all that really matters. Yeah, you can say that — but then you can go past that and say we beat them (4) straight times (in 2020 and ‘21).

“I think it doesn’t really matter. It just matters about this game and what we do now.”

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