NO TEAM HAS featured more on Coaches Film this season than the Seattle Seahawks and not just because they are the defending Super Bowl champions. Instead, Pete Carroll’s men had such an up and down season early on, I was able to highlight the good, the bad and the really, really ugly.
However, one area we didn’t really examine was the role of the offensive line and running back Marshawn Lynch in the Seattle ground game.
Beastmode – as he’s known to his friends – is something of an enigma. We’re aware of his love of Skittles and how much he hates the media. After that, we know very little accept that he is, without question, one of the top five running backs in the league with a skill set perfectly suited to his team’s ground game.
And we saw a great example of what Lynch and the Seahawks offensive line have to offer when they combined to allow Beastmode score a 24-yard touchdown and take the lead with just over 90 seconds remaining in their NFC Championship Game with the Green Bay Packers.
If you missed it, here’s how the play looked on TV:
Pre-snap read: Offence
The Seahawks are in their Posse/11 personnel group which means one tight end (blue), one running back (yellow) and three receivers (red), with Lynch lined up to the strong side of the offensive line and Russell Wilson in shotgun.
This personnel grouping and formation is a staple of their read option offence which means the Packers have to be prepared for anything from a quarterback run right up to a pass.
However, Wilson has clearly identified the type of coverage the Packers are playing and – with acres of room behind the line of scrimmage – the quarterback knows that if his offensive line do their job, it’s an almost certain touchdown.
Pre-snap read: Defence
The Packers, having learned back in week one that playing too much zone defence against Seattle is not the best idea in the world, are in their ‘Nickel’ defence – where a team has five instead of the usual four defensive backs – playing Cover-1.
This particular defence involves having a single player – in this case the safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix (green) – playing in zone while everyone else is in man (or one-on-one) coverage.
The importance of a free safety in Cover-1 cannot be overstated which is why Clinton-Dix was a first round pick for the Packers in last year’s NFL Draft. His skill set must include an ability to read what the offence is about to do and here he identifies that the Seahawks are going to run the football, which is why he races towards the line of scrimmage as soon as the play begins.
At the snap
The Seahawks – as they are quite frequently – are in a pre-packaged play (this time ‘inside zone’) with Lynch’s route determined by where the Seattle offensive line manage to push their blocks. However, it will always be to the inside – hence the name – left tackle Russell Okung (76).
There are three reasons why this play works so well.
The first is just down to pure brawn as we see a great double team from center Max Unger (60) and left guard James Carpenter (77) on defensive lineman Mike Daniels (76) which also helps to block Packers’ linebacker A.J. Hawk (50).
As you can see above, Hawk tries to jump inside Unger to get to Lynch but is easily blocked by Unger who has the wherewithal to let go of his initial block and take care of the ever dangerous linebacker.
Secondly, to the right of the clip, you can see Clinton-Dix (21) making his may towards the line of scrimmage at speed having identified the run.
However, while he should be commended for that, the handoff between Wilson and Lynch is so cleverly disguised, his angle is such that he clearly believes it is the quarterback, not Lynch, who will run the football.
By the time he realises his mistake, Lynch is staring at open field.
What happens next
However, the third reason this run results in a touchdown and not just a big gain is down to Lynch reading the situation perfectly.
Instead of taking the direct route which may have seen him stopped from reaching the endzone by the superior speed of the defensive backs, Lynch does what he has been told to do every time he’s touched a football since he was a little kid:
Run behind your blockers.
After that, the result is inevitable:
Originally published at 18.00
