Easily the most frustrating aspect of the Seattle Seahawks brutal 29-20 loss to the New York Giants was the fact the team simply refused to run the ball. An entirely head-scratching decision, especially considering star running back Kenneth Walker III was healthy.
Seattle ran 58 plays, but only seven were traditional/designed runs. Kenneth Walker III only touched the ball five times for 19 yards. Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald agreed it was an issue during his usual postgame press conference.
“That’s a fair question,” Macdonald stated when asked about the lack of anything resembling a run game. “We definitely need to get the run game going. The way the game started we were thinking about trying to get Geno going early. And I’m not sure how many plays we had (in) the first half, but it wasn’t many. The game started to kind of get out of hand there. We had to get going. You’re right, we need to get the run game going, we need to get Ken (Walker III) the ball more”
It’s great to hear accountability from the head coach on a major flaw from the game, and 12’s everywhere should have confidence Macdonald and his staff are going to correct the issue. But his explanation of “the game started to kind of get out of hand” does not add up at all.
At halftime, the score was 10-10 after being tied at 7-7 for most of the first two quarters. Then it was 17-10, followed by 17-13, and later 20-13 headed into the fourth quarter. This game was either tied or within a single score for literally three full quarters of play, not some blowout where Seattle fell behind early and had to claw their way back in by leaning heavy on the pass.
I know plenty of fans online were not thrilled when former Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll had such an emphasis on establishing the run, often making jokes at his expense. But this is absolutely what Seattle needs to be doing with this offense, to help relieve stress from Geno Smith and the atrocious offensive line. The Seahawks cannot afford to willingly become one-dimensional with a healthy Kenneth Walker III at their disposal.
