Little Things, Big Dividends
Attention to detail was the catalyst in the Seahawks' season-opening, 36-16 dismantling of the Packers. Here's a look at how the defending champs did it, plus what to watch in Week 1 including the matchup no one's talking about
By Peter King
http://mmqb.si.com/2014/09/05/seattle-seahawks-green-bay-packers-nfl-week-1/
SEATTLE—Let’s try to find some fault, any fault, with Seattle’s 36-16 dismantling of the Packers on Thursday night in the opening game of the NFL’s 95th season. Found one! The punt-returner doesn’t call for fair catches enough.
In their last two games, the Seahawks have played two of the best quarterbacks in the modern game, Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers, and outscored them by 55 points. Against Manning in the Super Bowl, it was a brutal defensive beatdown. On Coronation Night at CenturyLink Field, it was … well, so many things. Mostly imagination and offensive depth.
But let’s focus on the little things. Let’s focus on one play, 17 minutes into the game. Green Bay led 7-3, and Seattle was driving at the Packer 33. The game was competitive then. It held the promise of the kind of drama we hadn’t seen in the NFL since the Seattle-San Francisco NFC title game last January.
Then offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell of the Seahawks called the kind of play that took some breath out of everyone watching. On a first-and-10 at the Green Bay 33, Wilson lined up in the shotgun, with Marshawn Lynch a sidecar to his left, and what followed is a play I’ve never seen in the pro game. (Maybe it’s been run; I just know I haven’t seen it.) Wilson took the snap, and Lynch immediately extended his arms to take an inside handoff from him, except that the handoff wasn’t forthcoming. Option read, clearly. Wilson took the ball into his gut and sprinted left.
We’ve seen this before, Wilson on the edge isolated against a linebacker or safety or corner, trying to beat one man and make a big gain. This time, though, Wilson stopped after two running steps before the line of scrimmage when cornerback Sam Shields came off his man, wide receiver Ricardo Lockette, to play the run. Wilson cocked his arm in a split second and fired the ball to Lockette, 15 yards in the air, and Lockette beat a rookie safety, Ha-Ha Clinton Dix, for the 33-yard touchdown.
So many things to love about this touchdown. The origin, for one.
“That’s the boss right there,” Bevell said in a hallway outside the Seahawks’ locker room. “That’s a Pete idea.”
Ricardo Lockette’s second-quarter touchdown gave Seattle a lead it wouldn’t relinquish. (Scott Eklund/AP)
Pete Carroll did cop to hatching the play. “We’ll go anywhere to find a play,” the Seattle coach said afterward. “And that one—uh, Muschamp at Florida, no … Auburn. They ran it. Give Gus Malzahn credit. That’s a great play. I kept telling them [the offensive staff and players] this summer, ‘It’ll work, it’ll work.’ But it didn’t work all summer.”
The reasons Carroll and Bevell liked the play when they watched Auburn run it last year against Alabama is simple. The read-option
assumes the running back or the quarterback will run the ball—the running back if the quarterback sees a hole when he puts the ball in the back’s gut, or the quarterback if he sees traffic and knows he (the quarterback) needs to tuck it down and run. But what if the quarterback, about to get pummeled, pulled it down and just flipped it to the nearest receiver?
“That was a great read by Russell,” said Lockette. “He sees the corner coming up, and so he knows I’m free. It all happens fast, so he’s got to read the play in a split-second.”
“We practiced it a little,” said Bevell. “But it came from college tape. We just thought it fit another dimension off the zone read and could enhance the play. We’re committed to find the best plays for the players we have, and that certainly looked like it fit our players.”
I mentioned the little things. Count how they helped in this play:
- Wilson has to sell the fake, that he’s going to run, to the defenders on the edge. He does.
- Tight end Luke Willson has to execute a seal block on the Green Bay defensive end to prevent him from blowing up the play. He does.
- Lynch has to sprint left after not getting the ball and be prepared to protect his quarterback. He does.
- Lockette has to beat the safety once he catches the ball. He does.
- Bevell has to have the guts to call the play. He does.
“What really helps,” said Bevell, “is that Russell is a point guard. He cares about distributing the ball to everyone, and putting everyone in the best position to make plays. He has such a great understanding of our offense. He cares about the little things more than anyone I’ve known. No detail is too small. He dissects everything.’’
Bevell is lucky. He has a general manager, John Schneider, who knows players, and doesn’t fear the wrath of the media and public for taking a 5-11 quarterback in the third round of a draft. He has a coach who is the ultimate bottom-liner, who preaches the gospel of all-that-counts-is-what-you-can-do-for-today. He has a quarterback who works as hard as the coaches. He has a weird running back who is a human bumper-car, who doesn’t seem to care anything about his shelf life—only about today. He has Percy Harvin. And he has so many unknown weapons. I mention to him that he must be having so much fun because he doesn’t have a glaring weakness in his arsenal.
“You’re wrong,” Bevell said. “We do have weaknesses. The players have weaknesses. But it is our job as coaches to find the strengths in what our guys do. They all have strengths, and that’s what we highlight. What really helps is having Russell. He is so committed to improving on the littlest things every day. I try to find a word for this sometimes, but I can’t … it’s his refusal to fail. No detail is too small, and he makes sure to stress that every day.’’
I’ve noticed this being around this team in the past couple of years: Wilson’s attitude mirrors Pete Carroll’s, and it is infectious, in season and out. Lockette was with a gaggle of reporters explaining his touchdown when one asked him about the significance of this win. “We treat every game like a championship game,” he said, “and we treat every practice like a championship practice. I’m really looking forward to the next championship practice.”
Sounds corny. It is corny. But that’s the way a lot of these guys talk. That’s what the coaches preach, and that’s what Wilson preaches to his mates.
And this was Wilson, an hour after this masterpiece, on the little things:
“The details,” he said. “It’s the details, the little details, that make the difference between being great or just being good.”
The details showed up Thursday night. The details will make Seattle a threat to be great, this year and into the future.
