The Seattle Seahawks' insistence on handing the ball off to running backs with glaring persistence has become somewhat of a lightning rod topic among 12s.
The team's commitment to a run-run-pass play sequence even had some fans turning on coach Pete Carroll, who once wore some of the thickest plot-armor among NFL coaches.
Hate it or love it, Carroll doesn't plan to change the approach that helped him compile a 100-59-1 record in 10 seasons in Seattle, making the playoffs in all but two of those years.
During an interview with Q13 FOX's Aaron Levine during the combine, Carroll said the offense's struggles in 2019 weren't a product of questionable philosophy, just simply offensive breakdowns that plague any inefficient unit.
"I don't think it puts any limits on the way (Russell Wilson) likes to play," Carroll said of establishing the run, via SeattlePI. "We just got to do it at the right time. We'd like to run the ball in the fourth quarter when we're killing people. We weren't able to do that as much as we'd like to because the games were so close this year."
The Seahawks have leaned heavily on Russell Wilson's magician-like powers to dig them out of many long down-and-distance situations when the run game was stymied on early downs. In today's NFL, with analytics consistently showing the benefit of passing on first downs, and the Kansas City Chiefs winning the Super Bowl with a pass-first offense, Carroll remains committed to pounding the rock to set up Wilson's deep shots.
Carroll once again rebuffed the notion that he should put the ball in his MVP-caliber QB's hands more often.
"The whole idea is to put it together to give him the best opportunities to strike you dead in the passing game," Carroll said. "There's nobody over the last handful of years better throwing the ball down the field than Russell and more effective than Russell. We just want to find more ways for him to take advantage of that."
