Let's have some perspective here. The offensive line for much of yesterday's game was down to 3 backups and 2 starters. Think about that. For those not named backup Jamarco Jones, facing the #1 sacker in the entire NFL, the offensive line was responsible for all of 1 hit and 4 hurries yesterday according to PFF! Russell Wilson was credited with 2 sacks and 1 hurry. The average "time to sack" for Wilson was 4.22 seconds.
The offensive line and the team as a whole were simply decimated by injuries. The line had improved throughout the year -- as I posted in another thread from week 9-15 they had the #8 pass blocking efficiency. They weathered the storm incredibly well losing their starting center, top pass blocking tight ends, and substituting guards from time to time (even against Aaron Donald). But losing their leader and best lineman, by far, on top of everything else was just too much.
Some who cling to their preconceived notions don't want to hear facts. It's easier to man-rage against Pete, Schotty, the OL, or whoever is next in line. With team health on life support, I guess it's the perfect time for bitter cynics to crawl out of the woodwork with agendas. Down to one deep roster running back, we saw what it means to put the team entirely on the back of Russell Wilson and to live the Seahawks Twitter "analytics" dream. "Running backs don't matter". "Passing is more efficient - do a lot more, can't say how much, but do it a LOT more". "Russell Wilson is the best evar, just put the ball in his hands and the magic will happen - trust our statistics over any football common sense you think you know". The result yesterday: 31 passing attemps, 20 rushing. 1/12 third down conversions. Utter offensive deadlock. Cardinals get 35 mins time of possession and 70 plays on offense.
The problem with the pass obssessed, Russell-Wilson-does-no-wrong, "Pete just holds him back" group is that they never, ever allow themselves to be disproven with facts or evidence. They have an unfalsifiable logic. When the team gets to 11-3 running the gauntlet of injuries and the most difficult schedule in the league, doing so with a balanced offense ranked #2 and #7 in pass/run DVOA, the reply from yahoos like Ben Baldwin is to suddenly move the goalposts of success to a brand new HYPER-ADVANCED super-metric called "Point Differential!" Think about this: the first rule of so-called "advanced" football statistics 101, which these guys will lecture you about at length normally, is to account for opponent strength! Like for example Football Outsider's DVOA measures. But no, all of the sudden, Ben Baldwin, faced with too much Seahawks success for his liking, becomes a die-hard convert to Point Differential, which takes no account of strengths of schedule. This conversion was of course necessary for him to hold on to his precious agendas. "Seahawks games are too close, should have passed more, pretenders lol".
However, as soon as the Seahawks abandon the run, by choice (e.g. first two games last year) or by necessity (e.g. yesterday, most of 2017), and it doesn't turn out so well, the reply from the same peanut gallery is of course to deflect and blame anything but their own stupid ideas: head coach too old, the offensive line, offensive play calls (before anyone has even seen film of WR routes). Nevermind that most of these basement "statisticians" can't distinguish one WR route from another, don't acknowledge how often Wilson checks in to run plays, and so on. It's farcical really.
I'm not blaming Wilson, by the way. He's a real warrior and did his best yesterday with a depleted and decapitated roster forced into a perilous one-dimensionality that was never going to work at the best of times. But this team will be (and should be) designed for a balace of run, pass, and defense and has had to do so on a -$35m cap budget, which is a challenge. Those who want the Green Bay Packers model of league high QB salary + league high OL salaries (but still one injury away from the precipice), leaving next to nothing for the rest of the team, you might as well settle in for the long run because that won't be happening on the Seahawks. Thankfully.
NFL rosters are by necessity top heavy and the Seahawks by some measures are literally missing most of their high impact players: by PFF scores 4 out of the top 6 graded starters on offense and 4 out of the top 6 graded starters on defense. I don't know why it's so hard to appreciate how devastating this is.
