Seattle Seahawks News: Mike Macdonald HINTS At Running Game Fixes

Seattle Seahawks News: Mike Macdonald HINTS At Running Game Fixes

[Music] Welcome into Seahawks Today. I am your host, Will Ortner. And after watching the last couple of Seattle Seahawk football games, I have noticed that there seems to be one key issue, and that is with the rushing attack. Now, I’m not the only one who’s noticed this rushing attack issue because head coach Mike McDonald went on his radio show today and he had some interesting fixes that he brought up about ways to get this rushing attack back to where it needs to be. We’re going to get into that in today’s show. But before we do that, I got to talk to you about our latest sub battle. Since I took over the channel at Seahawks today, we have been just behind the Chiefs report here at Chat Sports. We are finally within we’re going to say 300 subscribers. I want to make sure that we pass them up. The more that we pass in subscribers, the more opportunities that we are going to have to get gifts given back to us by those here at Chad Sports. So, make sure that you subscribe so we can beat the Kansas City Chiefs report. Now, it’s no secret that the rushing attack has been well, frankly, it’s been bad in Seattle. Aside from a game here, a game there, you haven’t done all that well when it comes to running the football for a team that frankly looked like you were running the ball extremely well in the preeason. You were also a team that, hey, this offense is supposed to be mirrored. Run and pass. It’s all built together, close to 50/50 split. Right now, you’re not able to do that 50/50 split because of how bad the rushing attack has been. when you look at your top two running backs this season. Now, to be fair to Zack Sharpet, he did miss a game against the New Orleans Saints, which led to Kenneth Walker getting more yards in that rushing attack, having a better average in the hole. Right now, you’re through what, six games. Those rushing numbers, they’re not good enough. Kenneth Walker’s barely averaging 60 yards a game. Zack Charbanet, shoot, he’d be really excited right now if he got to 60 yards a game. When you look at the rushing attack as a whole for your Seattle Seahawks, you are one of the top teams in the NFL when it comes to rushing attempts, but those yards, they’re not good enough. Yes, you have 3.7, but that yards per rush is really bolstered by games where Kenneth Walker had big explosive runs. I’m talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers game where he had 100 yards on just 11 carries if I remember correctly against the uh Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He had a higher yards per carry game. He only had 10 rushes in that one. He had 86 yards. So his rushes per his yards per attempt on his rushes look higher than they really are. When you look at the yards per game, again, 104 yards per game. That is because of how well you ran the football against the Pittsburgh Steelers, how well you ran the football against the New Orleans Saints, and how well you ran the football against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Aside from those games, you’ve had some real bugaboos, some real struggles. The Jacksonville Jaguars game in particular, you did not run the football well. And frankly, it stops a lot of what this offense can do. It must improve. I’ve been saying it. You’ve heard experts talk about it. When you listen to breakdowns here on the channel or with other experts when it comes to the Seattle Seahawks or just the NFL in general, they always talk about how Seattle wants to run the football, but frankly right now they just cannot run the football effectively. How do you fix that problem? Mike McDonald sat down on his radio show and that question was asked to him by Mike Sulk of 710 uh Seattle Sports and McDonald kind of did his typical I’m going to dance around it. I’m not going to go through and give you a clear answer, a complete answer. I’m going to kind of say this, say that, not go through everything all at once. But at the same time, I still feel like there were some things that we could take from what Mike McDonald was saying. And that’s the biggest thing right here, the execution of the play calls. Right now, it’s not like Clint Kubak as the offensive coordinator is calling different plays. It’s not like Clint Kubak has completely gone in and changed this offense. When you look at the preeason, yeah, I get it, man. It’s not always ones on. Sometimes it’s twos on twos. Sometimes it’s twos on threes. Sometimes it’s twos on fours. But that rushing attack, you were moving the ball pretty darn well. and then all of a sudden you couldn’t do it anymore. Where did the execution go? I want you to let me know right now. Mike McDonald has made it clear. He believes that it’s the execution of the play calls that needs to be improved. That’s the main issue according to Mike McDonald. To me, I think you got probably two factors and I’ll explain what they are here in a little bit. What do you think the main issue is? Or maybe there’s a multitude of issues. Go down below in the comments and let me know. McDonald seemed very frustrated because when Sulkq asked him the question, Saul can be a little bit uh rough around the edges from time to time, but he does a really good job. And you could tell that McDonald kind of did one of those, well, you know, hey, we’re not reinventing the wheel. We’re calling plays here. We’re calling plays there. It’s kind of the same thing that we’ve always done. But I think this stands out to me the most. He directly came in and said, “It’s a missed block here. It’s a missed block there. It’s a miscommunication here. It’s a bad angle there. That is frustration from your coach without trying to call anybody out in the media saying they are in position. They have the right calls against what defenses want to run against them. And they just aren’t winning one-on-one battles. Right now in the NFL, Seattle is top five in rushing attempts. They didn’t even sniff the top five last year and it was a clear issue for McDonald. When you have your head coach going to a press conference wearing a run the damn ball hat and your OC still doesn’t run the ball. Well, there’s a reason why he’s at Alabama and he’s not here anymore. But I will say this, you can run the ball as many times as you want, but if you are not gonna execute it the way you need to, who cares how many times you run the football right now? You’re not top five in rushing yards. That has to get improved upon. How can Seattle do that? Mike McDonald, he wants to kind of beat his head against the wall. He says, “Hey, we know how to fix these issues. We’ve seen our guys fix these issues. They are going to be able to do it here eventually.” I might have a couple of different uh ways to work around that. And we’re going to get into that here in just a moment. But before we do that, I got to tell you about our proud sponsors today. 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Download the app today and use code CLNS to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code CLNS to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks. It’s good to be right. I mentioned it earlier. McDonald says they are going to continue to run the football in Seattle. They’re not going to go away from it. They’re not going to move away. They want to make sure that they keep that ground and pound action. And I don’t hate this, right? When I think about running the football, sometimes early on in games, you have one yard, two yard, three yard runs that by the end of the game, they turn into big explosives. We’ve seen Kenneth Walker do it a couple times this year. The one that sticks out to me is the Pittsburgh Steelers game. He had nothing going right at the beginning of the game. Then all of a sudden, everything just kind of exploded. Big 20, 30 yard runs for him. They just kind of came out of nowhere as Pittsburgh’s defense got more and more tired. And that’s all fine and well, and he is right. But at the same time, I need a better answer than that, man. Because this isn’t just a we need to wear teams down type of an issue. This is an execution issue at times. There are players right now that are frankly not playing good enough. It’s a little bit overshadowed because of how well players like Jackson Smith and Jigba, Sam Darnold are playing. And when Kenneth Walker gets those big explosive games, we don’t really talk about it, but you had the ball in the 10 yard line on first and goal against the Jacksonville Jaguars and you called three runs right up the middle to Zack Charbanet. You didn’t get in the end zone. Little bit of that is on Zack Charbanet. A little bit of that is on Clinton Kubak for being a little bit too stubborn. But a lot of it is on this unit. It’s on the offensive line. Man, that needs to be your calling card. You’re down in the trenches. That goal line. That’s where I want to be running the football. As a former O lineman, I’m salivating. I’m upset if you call a pass play when we’re down in the red zone. But right now, this group for the most part is doing well. But there’s a couple that need to fix it. Charles Cross and Gray Zable running the ball to the left side. Man, it’s happening. It’s easy. It’s no problem. Abraham Lucas needs to fix some of the things that he’s doing when it comes to the run game. Specifically against the Jaguars. He missed a couple of reach blocks. Hey, that’s difficult. That’s okay. He’s done really well in the past pro game. But I’m looking right now at your center and right guard combo between Anthony Bradford and Jaylen Sundell. It just isn’t good enough right now, man. You’re seeing plays where Sundell isn’t getting a reach. The one that sticks out in my head, it’s a tough angle. It’s a tough block. Sundell, he’s going back to his left. He’s trying to get a reach block on the nose guard. The nose guard just throws him all the way by. Now he’s sitting there. Zack Sharpet runs into him. Ends up being a no gain there. Another play for Bradford. You’re running a pitch out to the outside for Kenneth Walker against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Bradford, all he has to do is get a reach on the defensive tackle who’s on his outside right shoulder. If he gets that reach, even if Abe Lucas doesn’t get the reach, there’s the cut back. There’s a big hole. It’s called the bang of the football. He doesn’t get the reach, he has to wash the guy by. Kenneth Walker tries to cut all the way back across. It isn’t there because he’s cutting right back into the teeth of the defense. So, when you look at this Seattle Seahawks team right now, that center right guard position group has to play better. You got the 31st ranked center on PFF. PF isn’t everything, but that’s where he’s ranked right now. And you’ve got a guard that’s well in Anthony Bradford, he’s very, very low. I don’t know if you go and make a trade. I don’t know if you bring in Olu Oluimi. I don’t know if you continue to beat your head against the wall and hope that, hey, maybe they’re going to figure it out. But right now, those two, they got to start playing a lot better. Now, I do want to be fair. I think that Robbie Uds coming back and being healthy is going to help you in that fullback position room. Right now, you’re not seeing a lot of fullback usage from Seattle. And when you do, I don’t think it’s as effective as it would be with the former Alabama uh Crimson Tide fullback. I think if Robbie UTS was in, he wasn’t on IR. Maybe you’d be running the ball a little bit differently. you’d have that flood concept rocking and rolling a little bit better. So, there is a little bit to be said about, hey, there are some things that you can’t control right now when it comes to this run game. I agree with Mike McDonald that once everybody is healthy and everything is going, this is going to be a scary unit. This is a unit that you need to watch out for in Seattle. Offensively, I mean, shoot, that passing attack with what they’re doing, I mean, it’s top five in the NFL right now. Imagine what it’s going to be when it’s at its full strength because you have that running attack going. But right now, it’s too hit and miss, man. There’s too many times where your guys are not executing at the level that they need to be. Right now, I’m looking right at the O line. That’s my area of expertise. I’m a former offensive lineman. I know what it’s like to play in the trenches. Not to that level, but I do know the X’s and O’s. I do know the ins and outs. The offensive line has to do a better job of getting reaches or just frankly moving guys by and sticking a body on a body. I don’t necessarily need a pancake every time, but I need more body movement and I need more lockdowns on those defensive linemen. Don’t let them get free because right now, I mean, as well as Zack Charbanet and Kenneth Walker can run, they’re still getting hit in the back field. Shoot sometimes two, three yards deep. There’s nothing they can do about it there. I told you already I need you to subscribe to the channel. We are trying to pass the Chief’s report. We’re within 300 new subscribers. If we’re able to pass the Chief’s Report, sky’s is the limit. The road to 100K starts today and we’re going to get there by passing the Chief’s Report. Thank you so much for tuning in. I’ll check you out next time. [Music]

Seattle Seahawks news dives into head coach Mike Macdonald’s fixes for the Seahawks running game. Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS and use code CLNS and get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup! Seahawks running backs Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet continue to struggle to gain rushing yards for Seattle. The Seahawks offensive line led by left tackle Charles Cross and left guard Grey Zabel, need to continue to improve their run blocking as a position group. Seahawks Today host Will Ortner dives into the issues in the Seahawks running game and the latest Seahawks news and rumors.

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Seattle Seahawks Rushing Stats:
– ATT: 169
– RUSH YDS: 625
– YDS PER RUSH: 3.7
– YDS PER GAME: 104.2
– RUSH TDS: 6

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Seahawks Rushing Attack:
– Kenneth Walker III: 364 YDS
– Zach Charbonnet: 156 YDS

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– What do you think is the main issue with Seattle’s run game?

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