Time Has Come for Seahawks to Part Ways with Darrell Bevell

Dear Mr. Allen,

Congratulations on that second straight NFC Championship by your Seahawks last month. Not bad, considering Seattle had previously only won a conference crown once before in its 38 years of NFL existence.

However, there's that little matter of Super Bowl XLIX, and that one last play that didn't quite work out so well.

You remember it, right? The one from the New England 1-yard line, where Russell Wilson's would-be winning throw was picked off by the Patriots and ended the Seahawks' brief reign atop the NFL?

Sure, it was quite a play by the Patriots defense, and quite a game by that guy in white wearing No. 12 and his supporting cast, even if the Seahawks secondary was beat up—although injuries are something every team has to endure.

That said, your team only had one yard to go to repeat, had perhaps the toughest running back on the planet to gain that one yard when he had already racked up over 100 yards on the ground that day—and yet the decision was made to pass to Ricardo Lockette, who had fewer than 20 catches all season. And not only pass, but pass right into the teeth of the defense on a slant—and subsequently rip out the heart of everybody rooting for blue and green.

It's two weeks later, and it still stings for all the 12s. Sorry, but somebody still needs to be held accountable for this, not just pay lip service.

Wilson put the blame on himself, saying he was the one who threw the ball. That may be true, but a world-class cook would be hard-pressed to fashion a delicacy out of scraps purchased from a dollar store. He played the good soldier, telling NFL.com he liked the call, but he's probably too young and too much of a team guy to have audibled and gone against the coaching staff.

Kathy Willens/Associated Press

Hopefully, as he gets older, Wilson will look things over, and make changes if he doesn't like what he sees staring back at him. Obviously you're going to keep him, even if you’re probably going to have to pay him through the nose for all he’s done over his first three years.

Head coach Pete Carroll put the blame on himself. Not surprising, since as head coach, he's captain of the ship and is supposed to sink with it if it goes under. That's all well and good, but you're not going to get rid of him, either. He helped change the culture of the franchise dramatically and brought it to its greatest success last season. Although he may have also been partly culpable for what happened that night—he said he called for a pass—it’s not all on him. 

There's a third party here, though, that should really be singled out for more of the blame, and that's offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell. Despite his service in the past, he's more expendable than Wilson or Carroll, and it's time to treat him like one of those poor Star Trek slobs in a red shirt and beam him off the Starship Enterprise.

Seattle has lost one of its coordinators to a new job, and you might want to consider a two-fer and let the other one go, too. Not solely because of the goal-line call in Arizona, although practically everyone who’s ever watched a football game has anointed it as one of the worst calls in the history of the game.

Calling a pass, like a roll-out or a fade so close to the end zone, with about 15 or so yards for a QB to work with once he drops back, is one thing. Calling a slant, especially in close quarters where so much can go so wrong, is mind-boggling.

Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

Did Bevell not recall how two of Wilson's passes ricocheted off of Jermaine Kearse's hands for interceptions against Green Bay last month? This pass also had to be thrown hard, and if it wasn't picked, there's a good chance it would have been at least deflected into danger, with likely the same outcome. The risk was too high, but the call went ahead and Seattle lost the play, the game and the title.

Seattle also got off to slow starts offensively against both Green Bay and New England, in the two biggest games of the year, and Bevell's play-calling has to share at least some of the blame for that.

Player execution is one thing, and Seattle has turned in some big plays the last few years while having the ball. The Seahawks offense, however, has also been bailed out by the defense more often than not these last few years. The offense put up 43 points on Denver in last year's NFL title tilt, but the defense also pummeled Peyton Manning and pals into submission.

So far, you haven't ignominiously dismissed Bevell like Bob Gibson, the former New York Giants offensive coordinator who was given his walking papers the day after the “Miracle at the Meadowlands” in 1978 and never coached again, as recounted by NJ.com.

Super Bowl XLIX, though, should be the last straw in a litany of Seattle play-calling shortcomings, not the least of which is Bevell’s seeming inability to utilize Marshawn Lynch when it really matters. He ran him six times against San Diego in September, and the Seahawks lost. He ran him 10 times in October against Dallas, and Seattle fell short again.

There's also what happened early in the fourth quarter in Super Bowl XLIX, after the Seahawks had gone three-and-out and the Patriots had closed within a field goal. Nursing a 24-21 lead with just under eight minutes remaining, Bevell's call was to throw the ball deep (and incomplete) on first down.

Why waste a play like that? After a short run by Lynch and an incomplete short pass by Wilson, Seattle punted again, and the Patriots went on their game-winning drive. Even on the Seahawks' final possession, it was 2nd-and-10 from the New England 49, and Bevell dialed up a bomb to Chris Matthews in the end zone with 1:50 left, instead of trying to go for the first down and also run off some clock.

Wilson hit Lockette for 11 yards on the next play—but if not, it would have been fourth down. Calls like that make you want to scratch your head until it almost bleeds, but Bevell seems to keep making them.

Gregory Payan/Associated Press

Speaking of Lynch, why wasn't he also utilized more in the passing game in Super Bowl XLIX? Only two throws were targeted for him that Sunday, according to ESPN. The first went to the right over his head, while he rumbled for 31 yards later on after a pass to the left.

Lynch had 37 catches during the regular season, averaged nearly 10 yards per reception and scored four times, yet he only had five catches in the playoffs. He's a pass-catching weapon out of the backfield which Bevell failed to make full use of. Contrast that to the Patriots, with Tom Brady stretching the field horizontally in Arizona and dumping off short passes to his backs and receivers that went for extended gains. Seattle tight end Luke Willson was also invisible in Arizona after making six catches in the NFC playoffs.

On the interception by Malcolm Butler that sealed the game, veteran Seattle sports reporter Art Thiel wrote that the Patriots were actually expecting that play. Bevell sending in multiple receivers almost guaranteed it would be a throw instead of a run, and the Patriots definitely picked that up. The Seahawks had only gotten close to the goal line because Kearse made a juggling, high-concentration catch that New England defenders didn't knock away, not because Bevell made a great call.

Let's also not forget how Bevell threw Lockette under the proverbial bus after it was all over, saying Lockette could have fought harder for the ball on the final play, as reported by ESPN 710 Seattle. Doug Baldwin said the Seattle receiving corps was initially miffed that Bevell didn't have their back, according to CBSSports.com, but chalked it up to postgame emotion.

That's nice of No. 89 to say—he's got his own problems regarding TD celebrations, as said at NFL.com, anyway—but players usually have long memories for this kind of stuff when they feel a coach doesn't fully support them. The head coach and quarterback are taking the heat for the final play, and the offensive coordinator is assigning blame for a call that wouldn't have worked in a backyard game.

Are the players going to trust Bevell again, despite what Baldwin said? Will he still fail to again use "Beast Mode" when the situation warrants it? Will Bevell be hamstrung by this botched call in the future, and make even worse ones?

Do you really want to take that chance, especially if another Super Bowl is at stake?

Bevell supposedly has been considered for NFL head-coaching jobs in the recent past, and for whatever reason didn't get them. His stock surely won't rise after this debacle, but that doesn't mean Seattle has to keep him.

Ultimately the decision is yours. If Carroll can't, or won't, can Bevell, and he almost assuredly won't, you most certainly can, contract or no. It's your team, after all.

Michael Conroy/Associated Press

Seattle can find a coordinator who can be aggressive at times with the play-calling, but can still use common sense when needed and not just give a game and a championship away. Bevell has tried at times to be too clever with his calls, a number of which have needed tremendous player effort to succeed, and this time it cost him and the Hawks the ultimate prize.

Though there's been some recent coaching shuffling on the defensive side of the ball at CenturyLink Field, there's still time to find someone new to run the offense.

Seattle's defensive coordinator has already left the building. It's time for his offensive counterpart to do the same.