The threat of running the ball is what matters more than actually running the ball, but we didn't have either today. If you don't think that matters then by all means look at the Bills. A very mediocre Seahawks defensive line had *7 sacks* against them because we knew they were looking to pass, and then a couple of the big plays that put the game away for them were screens that countered our aggression.
This is the second time (and second loss) this season where we have really struggled to pick up the blitz. Some of that is TE/RB blocking but a lot is pre-snap adjustments and diagnosis. I don't mind if we take most of the play clock at the line of scrimmage if we are getting that stuff right, but it's a huge problem when we spend the entire play clock trying to figure things out and then keep getting it wrong. If we have a third game like this at some point then I think we need to cut bait sometime in the third quarter and just go to a quicker paced offense for the rest of the game.
I also think we overreacted on defense after the 0-14 hole and approached things backwards. They thought they needed to bring more pressure to get to Allen and punish the constant passing, but he was very good today and consistently made the right decision. With the benefit of hindsight it would have worked out better to drop more DBs into disguised coverages and force Allen into more difficult throws. Maybe they felt that they didn't have enough DBs for that to work given the injuries there, but I'm not loving the blitz happy defensive scheming against a QB with poise like Allen showed today.
I do think the game plan we saw today has a much better chance of working against many of the remaining QBs on our schedule - Jared Goff among them.
