TERRY MOSHER
TOP OF THE TOWN – The internal strife that seems to be boiling within the Seattle Seahawks is predictable. When you got 12-4 in the regular season and there is expectation from the top down that nothing short of the Super Bowl was acceptable, you knew somebody was going to be the scapegoat. That turned out to be offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. The third-year OC was summarily axed as suddenly as the sun rises from the East each day. One day, Schottenheimer is the second-coming and the next day he is sent packing. He is the third OC in coach Pete Carroll’s 12 years. The bottom line in this is Carroll wants his team to run the ball. He is a control freak. His thought is you run the ball to control the clock, keep the score close and win at the end (via Russell Wilson heroics). I think that is well and good. However, you need a running back that is not just good but exceptional. Chris Carson is not exceptional. He’s a mini-Marshawn Lynch. A bruiser. Tough as nails, but is prone to injury. What is needed is a back that can juke and jive and make people miss, and has quickness and excellent speed. They don’t come along very often, which is why you don’t see a lot of them. Carson can get you three of four tough yards when he’s healthy, but I would search for a running back that is here one second and there the next. That might be Buffalo’s Jaret Patterson. The 5-9, 195-pound Patterson rushed for 1072 yards and 19 touchdowns this past season in just six games. He had eight TDs and 409 rushing yards against Kent State. He’s shifty and powerful. Watch for him. You want to run as Carroll is insistent the Hawks do then get a running back that can make people miss and can’t be caught. Get a guy like Patterson. The main problem with the Hawks this season was they never adapted to what teams started to do defensively to them over the last half of the season. They ran a cover four to take away the Hawk’s deep threats and increased pressure on Wilson to make him indecisive. It worked. And it worked best when opponents could contain him in the pocket. Wilson is better when he scrambles and throws on the run. So they took that away. I have been upset for several years now that the Hawks don’t depend on their tight ends more in the passing game. And I think they don’t because Carroll would rather use them to block for runs than be involved in running pass routes. But that’s stupid. Look around the league, and in college too, tight ends have become a big component of offenses. Man, I know if I’m playing a defensive back position and here comes a 6-6, 250-pound tight end that can run like a deer and hit like a Mack Truck, I’m going to be more than nervous. I don’t care what you think when you see these guys hit those big “Mack Trucks,” but I know that hurts. You do that two or three times and you start wishing you listened to your mother and took up golf. It’s a mistake not to take advantage of these mismatches, and the Hawks have some good pass-catching tight ends. I hope the next OC Carroll hires is a guy who believes in a wide-open West Coast offense and the ball gets spread around. Adding a good running back that can juke out a Mack Truck would be the bonus, and might put the Hawks over the top. We’ll see how this develops as the winter goes on. Here’s hoping you are all safe.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.