The Seattle Seahawks are a contradiction in football terms.
Their approach to the game has long been heralded as the height of consistency, one that is uniform and unvarying, a team “playing their game” irrespective of their competition’s offensive or defensive scheme. This singular focus would seem to make preparation easier for a long NFL season, if not for each individual game. An “our-way, right-way” attitude has been the hallmark of head coach Pete Carroll’s winning game plan.
Yet, in spite of that mission statement, the Seahawks curious play caller, Darrell Bevell, adopts the strategy of a field general with a contrarian outlook. On each down, Bevell is more inclined to “zig” when the team has been trained to “zag.” In effect, Bevell is the anti-hero of Coach Carroll’s consistency.
Expecting a run? Bevell will call a pass play. (And there went Super Bowl XLIX!)
Looking for Marshawn Lynch to run it for a first down? Bevell will call a screen pass into the scrum. The first three plays against the Cardinals this past weekend were not attempts to establish the Seahawk’s signature running game. They were pass plays during which the Hawks did something other than establish their running game. This year, most Seahawk plays seem broken with the quarterback having to improvise and scramble to find any yardage or open receiver. Is “broken play calling” the plan?
If you think of the 2015 Seahawks as Marshawn Lynch’s team, or one of the NFL’s few successful running games, it makes no sense why Seattle’s running backs get so few hands on the ball. In the last game for NFC West divisional supremacy against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, quarterback Russell Wilson had ten more rushing yards than running back Marshawn Lynch. Thomas Rawls had 9-10 yards every time he touched the ball. Unfortunately, he touched it only twice.
Does contrarian play-calling even work in the NFL? Pencils down. Based on more than half the 2015 season, that method has earned a failing grade. At its best, an “F” grade stands for “Fool me once.” The principle applies only one time and lasts for only one play.
It seems to us that the Hawk’s play caller ought to call upon the team’s strengths on every single play not the head-spinning strategy of contrariness. This is Seattle, not Vienna. Is there anyone here who is interested in the Sigmund Freud school of reverse psychology besides Darrell Bevell? We say, may the best team, talent and tenacity win (as if there was no play caller to begin with).
We hope Mr. Bevell will start playing the hands, and the team, he has been dealt. The Seahawk’s fortunes are not poker chips that Bevell seems all too comfortable betting against. Those cards have gone straight into the muck. [24×7]
