RolandDeschain":1wz57cr6 said:
What are your thoughts specifically on Bevell's performance today?
It looked pretty typical to me. The same style of playcalling they had last year with FO's #1 offense.
IMO, playcalling is extremely over-rated by fans. Drawing up new wrinkles and schemes, finding ways to develop players (Harbaugh - Kaepernick) or utilize talent (Carroll - Golden Tate), that's what separates the genius offensive minds from the rest. Play calling is just basic decision making with a slight randomness element added to remain less predictable. The last time I heard an OC described as a "genius" almost solely because of his playcalling was Mike Martz a decade ago, and it wasn't long before those "genius" opinions reversed course when the NFL adapted to his philosophy.
You look at how good RG3 was last year or how many yards Cam Newton got as a rookie- those guys were playing with tiny playbooks. Something like 15 plays was all they ran but they were very successful. They pretty much did whatever they wanted and most defenses still couldn't stop them.
Mike Holmgren, who was in involved in the creation of several different elite offenses, was notorious for being predictable and was a big proponent of the idea that if you execute well enough, it doesn't even matter if they know what's coming.
Further, there is a lot of stuff you can't know while football games are going on. Defenses plan for every play based on what they are guessing the offense will do. The offense is planning for what they are guessing the defense is thinking. Each side is always trying to guess right and attack the weak spots. The Seahawks ran 61 plays, and probably had a lot of play call decisions that involved educated guesses. Sometimes they guess wrong, but that doesn't make it a bad play call.
The only time you hear about play calling is when the offense doesn't score as much as it should have. It's the purest form of MMQB'ing. Even if the playcalling did have a mistake or two, it's usually way down the list of reasons for the struggles. Fans treat it like it's the primary reason any offense would ever fail, but often times it wasn't a reason for the problems at all. Personally, I don't remember a single play call I thought was dumb in this game. They basically played it by the book like they always do, IIRC.
In fact, I thought it was pretty smart that they abandoned the run early before getting back to it late. This matchup was eerily similar to the Miami game last year, right down to the 11 straight completions Wilson had (16 straight vs. Miami). We lost that Miami game because Pete was too stubborn over the run, and he admitted as much with great regret after the game. He didn't repeat that mistake, and Seattle ended on the winning side this time. Personally, I applaud Pete's/Bevell's choices. We didn't get a ton of points, but Carolina has potentially an elite defense and we got 370 yards on it, on the road, at 10am Pacific, in 90 degree heat. I'll take it.
EDIT: Actually, I was ticked about one aspect of our play calling. We took 2 shots deep in 61 plays (and according to Diags, only one of those was actually called in the huddle for certain). Maybe there were other deep ball play calls and Wilson opted for something else, had to scramble, got sacked, whatever. In any event, Seattle didn't take their first shot down the field until the 4th quarter. Given how critically important the deep ball is to our offense, I think that's a mistake. I hope that's the last time this year they wait that long before going deep.
