Seahawks' Offensive Creativity Poses Tough Challenge for Patriots in Super Bowl
Last season, the Seattle Seahawks became the youngest team to ever lift the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
Entering that game against the Denver Broncos, the Seahawks were the second-youngest team to ever appear in a Super Bowl. A lack of experience affects teams differently. Some will be nervous and uncomfortable on the biggest stage, while others will show irrational confidence because they don't understand the fear that is supposed to come with the unknown.
When the Seahawks shut down Peyton Manning and blew away the Broncos, they showed irrational confidence—and it wasn't just on the defensive side of the ball either.
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In that game, the Seahawks scored 43 points, with 16 coming directly from the defense or special teams unit. The offense compiled the remaining 27 points, but neither Russell Wilson nor Marshawn Lynch had a notably productive day.
What was notable about the Seahawks offense was the approach offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell took. From the first drive of the game, Bevell was aggressive and creative. He didn't ease his offense into the game with cautious play-calling on the back of a Lynch-centric running game.
Lynch had the first carry of the game, but the second went to a wide receiver.
Percy Harvin was absent for most of his first season with the Seahawks. A hip injury had sidelined him for the regular season, but he returned in time to feature in the playoffs. Harvin had hardly been used before the Super Bowl, but Bevell quickly found a way to put the football in his hands.
On the Seahawks' second offensive play of the game, Harvin lines up wide to the right of the formation.
Before the snap, Harvin turns to run in motion across the formation. Wilson times the snap perfectly so that he can turn around and plant the ball in the wide receiver's chest. Harvin is accelerating toward the left sideline while the offensive line and Lynch move toward the right sideline.
This is a risky play because Harvin will be blown up in the backfield if the edge defender to the right of the defense stays disciplined.
That edge defender is fully focused on Lynch in the backfield as Harvin takes the ball past his outside shoulder. Furthermore, all but one of the Broncos defenders are focused on Lynch while Harvin breaks into the flat with two blockers out in front of him.
Bevell's play call has worked perfectly, and the timing of it is likely a big reason the Broncos aren't prepared to stop it.
With two blockers out in front, Harvin is able to run untouched down the field for more than 20 yards. He is eventually pushed out of bounds, but he almost maintains his balance to keep moving toward the end zone.
Harvin's acceleration and overall athleticism allow him to gain 30 yards before stepping out of bounds, but it is Bevell's aggressiveness and creativity that catch the defense off balance.
Bevell follows that play with a hard play action to the left of the offense that creates a wide-open receiver on the other side of the field, but Wilson misses the throw. The drive ultimately ends in a field goal.
The Broncos won't need to wait too long to face another trick play from Bevell.
On the second drive of the game late in the first quarter, the Seahawks line up with Lynch in the backfield, a fullback offset to the right, a tight end to either side of the formation and Jermaine Kearse as the sole receiver to the right.
In this formation on 2nd-and-5, the Broncos would be forgiven for expecting a running play.
At the snap, Wilson takes the football and tosses it to Lynch running wide to the right side. The Seahawks pull their right tackle and the fullback outside of their tight end to that side of the field to give him three blockers.
Importantly, neither pulling blocker is aggressively running downfield. This is one of the tip-offs for the trick play that is coming.
Kearse initially angles his route infield to sell the idea that he is coming inside to act as a run-blocker. However, once Lynch turns back to lateral the ball to Wilson over the middle of the field, Kearse turns upfield to run a deep route.
The wide receiver is slightly late accelerating into his route.
Wilson is looking downfield as he catches the football. His body is positioned in such a way that he can deliver the football instantly if he has a receiver to throw to. Kearse is the only option on this play, but he has two defensive backs trailing his route down the middle of the field.
Instead of letting the ball go instantly, Wilson has to hold on to the football and try to create a positive play by scrambling.
The Broncos defend that play perfectly, but the Seahawks eventually find their way to the end zone. Two drops are all that force them to kick a field goal. A quick drive from the Broncos that ends in an interception by Kam Chancellor gives the Seahawks the ball back again at the end of the first quarter.
Bevell builds on one of his previous trick plays to start this drive.
Once again, Harvin runs an end-around after lining up to the right side of the formation. Instead of relying on the edge defender to follow Lynch with his eyes and neutralize himself, Bevell has his tight end account for that player. This gives Harvin a free run into the flat.
Lynch will eventually cap off this drive with a one-yard touchdown run that pushes the Seahawks into a 15-0 lead. After Malcolm Smith returns an interception for a touchdown on the following drive, the game is essentially over.
The Seahawks open the second half with a kick return for a touchdown from Harvin, so Bevell isn't under pressure to produce points on offense after the second quarter.
He still allows his quarterback to be aggressive throwing the football, but the trick plays are no longer needed. The willingness to use those trick plays in that game was more important than how effective those plays were.
Now Bevell doesn't have Harvin anymore, and the receiver's natural heir, Paul Richardson, tore his ACL earlier during this year's Super Bowl run. That will limit the versatility of what Bevell can ask of his offense, but he still has athletic options to make use of in Ricardo Lockette, Cooper Helfet and Christine Michael.
None of those players is as elusive and explosive as Harvin, but each brings his own strengths to work with.
In the NFC Championship Game, Bevell put the ball in Lockette's hands on an end-around play. This was a different type of end-around attack than the handoffs Harvin had received in last year's Super Bowl. Lockette lined up tighter to the formation and looped around his running back and quarterback.
As he received the football, Lockette had one blocker in position to seal the edge against Green Bay's Clay Matthews.
That blocker missed his assignment, though, so Lockette was forced to change the angle of his run and gain depth to get around the edge. Matthews couldn't get to Lockette, but he slowed down the receiver so three other Packers could crowd around him at the line of scrimmage.
Lockette was able to make multiple defenders miss to turn a potential seven-yard loss into a four-yard gain.
Standing at 6'2" with a long stride and impressive straight-line speed, Lockette can be effective on these types of plays. He and tight end Cooper Helfet, who stands at 6'3", are similar types of players. Neither has Harvin's short-area twitch or explosiveness, but both can eat up yardage when put in space.
Helfet and Lockette offer Bevell options who can work laterally behind the line of scrimmage and run routes down the field. Running back Christine Michael offers more ability working laterally behind the line of scrimmage but less versatility or reliability as a whole.
Michael hasn't even been used much as a running back since Seattle drafted him in the second round two years ago, so there's no reason to think he will be used in a role that Harvin once fit into.
However, with two weeks to prepare, Bevell's past brashness and Bill Belichick's penchant for preparing for everything a team has put on tape, it would make a lot of sense if Bevell looked to Michael to be his wild card in this game.
Michael's value will come on triple-option running plays and plays that are designed to threaten three types of runs.
On this running play from Week 1 of this season, Percy Harvin lines up in the near slot initially before running behind the line of scrimmage across the formation. Harvin is following the yellow line. He creates a threat of an outside run to the right, while Lynch is the red line threatening a run off left guard.
Wilson at quarterback is threatening a run off right tackle, the blue line.
This play isolates Julius Peppers over the middle of the field while making a very quick handoff to confuse his eyes. Peppers lets Harvin run outside of him as he focuses on trying to find the football between Lynch and Wilson.
Unfortunately for the outside linebacker, Harvin already has the ball, and he's running outside for a big gain.
These types of plays can lead directly to big gains if the defense loses discipline, but more significantly, they make it tougher for the defense to focus on Lynch or Wilson. Belichick typically makes an effort to take away the opposition's greatest strength. The Seahawks' greatest strength in recent times has been Lynch.
Both Wilson and Bevell will need to be effective in their roles to help Lynch be productive.
Wilson will need to play much better than he did in his most recent outing. He will need to connect on passes down the field to Kearse and Doug Baldwin with more regularity. Bevell will need to call a smart game that constantly moves the point of attack to keep the defense off balance.
It's hard to keep the Patriots off balance simply because of how good their coaching staff is. Belichick will prepare for everything a team has done in recent weeks, so adding something completely new or that hasn't been used that season is always a worthwhile consideration.
The Seahawks can't expect to dominate this game the way they did last year's Super Bowl. Therefore, these seemingly minor details could prove to be significant.
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