3rd and Long draw

It hit me this week that I haven't seen much, if any, of our old nemesis: The 3rd and Long draw. I noticed it because the Eagles did a 3rd and Long draw on Sunday night. The play was stuffed for minimal gain and the crowd booed. Made me cringe that that play used to be a staple of the Seahawks offense for years.

Almost every time we have a 3rd and Long, it seems like Wilson is given the chance to try and get the 1st down. And many times he converts, or at least gets close. Especially in 4-down territory, he gets half or more of the yardage, making the 4th down attempt much more manageable.

I am so glad that finally we aren't giving up on 3rd and long anymore.

Well, it worked that one time when Mack Strong rumbled down the field so Hass got excited and made it his go to audible.

The hawks this year have used it more on 2nd and long, still a low percentage pathetic play call.

Draws can be extremely effective for teams that have a pathetic running game. This is because defense tend to sit back and play the pass. However, the hawks for the last 3 years have had a good running game and a poor (until this season) passing attack. So teams play up even on 3rd downs. Unless you can catch the defense disregarding the run game competely, draws are very difficult to get much on.

They do have a high success rate on third down of getting at least 5 yards, so you do see teams using them on third and very longs cause it helps the punt or field goal coming up.