Secret to the Seahawks Success

by: Chris Sullivan

I mentioned this in the chat yesterday, but neglected to point it out in the wrap-up post... I think that this year, one of the biggest secrets to our success is going to be the screen pass. We saw that in full effect last night. (UPDATE: From the comments, a correction: "However, the way you are using the term screen is incorrect. What you are describing is a check down. Screen Pass is a forward pass in which the defensive linemen are allowed to get through the offensive line while two offensive linemen run wide to a specific side of the field and then turn and block upfield for a running back who takes a short pass from the quarterback." Thanks to JoeMcK for the correction!)

Especially during Matt's series, there were a number of times when he had to rely on his final checkdown receiver -- Mo Morris, Weaver or Jones. That's nothing new. What is new, however, is that he then threw it to them! We didn't see that with Alexander, because Alexander just wouldn't or couldn't catch, so Matt didn't trust him. As a result of that trust and the reliance on the screen when things are falling apart, Matt went 7-8 for 70 yards -- an average of 10 yards per throw tends to suggest you're not relying exclusively on the long pass. He hit Kent for 18, Burleson for 21 (I think), and Engram twice for 15 or so, but the rest were screens and every one of them was successful. There was one play in particular where Vallos got run over (the only time that I saw), and the pocket collapsed on Matthew, he scrambled a little bit to the right then dumped it off for about 3 yards. Last year or the year before, that was either thrown away or thrown into traffic.

Oh, and the second secret to our success? Having LoJack getting mad crazy on the opponents' Booty!