DVR Run Analysis - Philadelphia @ Seattle; 1-Dec-2011

Note: Click here to find Jon's previous DVR Analysis of the Redskins game.

Here's my DVR Run Analysis for the Eagles/Seahawks game...

* This was the week of the breakaway run. We lost some consistency this week as we had five runs for loses and twelve of thirty planned runs with gains of less than three yards. Half of our runs were for less than four. I attribute this more to an over-aggressive defense than inconsistent play from the offense. Yeah, they stopped us at times, but they also got burned - badly.

* Overall, we got 162 yards on 30 planned carries for a 5.4 YPC average. Marshawn Lynch topped 100 yards for the fourth time in five weeks. Beast Mode accounted for 148 yards on 22 carries for 6.7 YPC and two touchdowns. Yeah, the Eagles got burned.

* Q1 - After an Illegal shift penalty due to WR Golden Tate watching a late 12th Man ceremony, we had only one bad play in eight runs. We got 51 yards for 6.4 YPC, including a first down and one of the sweetest TDs you'll ever see.


[14:34] 1st and 10. A power run with LG Robert Gallery pulling left and FB Michael Robinson going to a collapsing hole. Lynch met after a two yard gain, but LT Russell Okung and Gallery help Lynch move the pile for three more. Gain of five.
[11:49] 1st and 10. Zone left. Robinson leads to the left of Gallery. RT Breno Giacomini fails to cut his man on the backside. Lynch cuts inside of C Max Unger and gets by Giacomini's man who is able to get a hand on Lynch's ankle to trip him for a nine yard gain, short of the first. Lynch would have had 15+ if not tripped.
[11:14] 2nd and 1. Eight in the box. Zone left. Gallery is beat outside. TE Cameron Morrah and Tate lose their men. Lynch is able to ditch Gallery's man to the sideline, but soon he's surrounded. Loss of four.
[9:28] 1st and goal at the 15. Power run to the strong, right side. Giacomini and LG Paul McQuistan seal left as TE Zach Miller kicks out right. Robinson hits the hole, but is popped by the LB a yard behind the line of scrimmage. Lynch gets to the hole as it closes. Miller comes in to help Lynch push the scrum for three yards. Okung comes in to scrape two defenders off the front. Lynch breaks free and finds the end zone. Our run team plays hard to the whistle!
[6:58] 2nd and 17. Pass formation. Miller kicks his man out to the right, but Giacomini isn't able to lock up the DT. RB Leon Washington sees Giacomini's trouble and cuts back to center. Seahawks push the scrum forward for four yards.
[2:44] 1st and 10. "22" (two backs, two TEs) and 9 in the box. Zone left. Giacomini isn't able to cut his DT. Lynch cuts back to the crease to the right of Unger and barely beats Giacomini's man, then pops a linebacker for a gain of three.
[2:15] 2nd and 7. "22". Lynch goes straight ahead in a power run, but the DE was in the neutral zone. Instead of 2 yards, we get five and replay the down.
[1:55] 2nd and 2. "22" personnel with nine in the box. Robinson runs to LT but Morrah loses his man on the left edge. Lynch goes left, cuts outside of Morrah's man, then inside two other defenders, goes forward to split two defenders and bashes another. In the end, Lynch falls further forward than anybody else on the field for 16 yards and a first down. Lynch earned every inch of this play.
[1:10] 2nd and 10. "22" with nine in the box. Zone left. Gallery goes forward as Okung and Unger open the hole. Robinson cleans up the man in the gap. Unfortunately, McQuistan can't quite get his man. Washington cuts inside of Unger, but McQ's man gets him. Washington stays up and spins, but can't quite get clean of the grasp. Gain of three.


* Q2 - Hit and miss. Only four good runs on nine plays, but one is a 40-yard TD. Three runs are for losses. 49 yards on 8 runs for 6.1 YPC.

[15:00] 1st and 10 on the Eagles' 40. "12" personnel with nine in the box. WR Ben Obomanu is on the right, man on man. Morrah kicks across to the right as Miller seals for a huge hole. Obo runs a slant to lead his man from the play. Giacomini and McQuistan block their men into a scrap heap. Lynch gets a giant hole. Obo obstructs his man as Marshawn lights the afterburners and outraces the last defender to the end zone. Frankly, the defense let their pants fall down on this one, but credit Lynch's speed for turning it into points.
[11:43] 1st and 10. "22" with nine in the box. Okung and Gallery open the B gap. The fast, oncoming LB is able to juke around Robinson's block. Leon tries to cut right, but the LB gets his legs for a loss of two.
[9:39] 1st and 10. "22" nine in the box. Zone right. Robinson goes to the right B-gap and gets his man. Okung and Gallery fold the left side of the line forward and right as Miller kicks out. RB Justin Forsett cuts back to a nice crease for six.
[9:12] 2nd and 4. "22" nine in the box. Straight ahead power as Okung and Gallery open a hole and Robinson goes up to find two LBs. He gets one. The other hits Forsett head on for a loss of one. Too bad Justin cut to the right of Robinson, rather than left. This is probably a case of Forsett not getting enough touches to predict Robinson's blocks.
[6:24] 1st and 10. "12" personnel with eight in the box. Zone right with Unger hunting LBs. Our guards are late and get pushed back. Lynch hits the guards hard at four yards behind the LOS. His hit changes the balance, and the scrum pushes forward five yards for a gain of one.
[5:48] 2nd an 9. Inside zone right with Gallery pulling left. (A new twist.) Robinson and Lynch go straight ahead to the crease for a gain of four.
[2:49] 1st and 10. "22" with 9 in the box. Zone left with Morrah turning back to seal the left edge. Gallery goes forward and owns the LB. Robinson and Lynch go left, then Lynch cuts to the right of Robinson and Gallery for four.
[1:52] 1st and 10. "22" with eight in the box. Zone left with Gallery going forward. Unger gets pushed back and left. Robinson shoulders Unger's man, but it's not enough to restore leverage. Lynch follows Robinson, but is hit full force by Unger's man for a loss of three.

* First half totals: 100 yards on 16 runs for a 6.3 ypc average. Seahawks 17, Eagles 7.


* Q3 - 25 yards on 4 carries for 6.3 YPC. Three of four runs are successful. One first down.

[14:52] 1st and 10 at the Eagles' 30. "21" personnel with eight in the box. Zone left with Okung going forward. Miller, on the left, loses his man. That delays Robinson, who can no longer get his man. Lynch tackled for no gain.
[10:36] 2nd and 10. "22" and nine in the box. Zone right. Robinson and Lynch go outside the RT. Giacomini loses his man, but Lynch reads it perfectly, spins away from the tackle and gains nine yards.
[9:58] 3rd and 1 on the Eagle's 21. "22". Nine in the box. Robinson and Lynch straight ahead to the right of center. Robinson leads well, but Lynch is swallowed at +2 yards. Gallery and Unger help push the scrum three yards forward for a gain a five and a first down.
[8:55] 2nd and 16 at the Eagle's 22. "12" personnel with eight in the box. Slash left with Gallery going forward and Morrah pulling across to the right. Lynch cuts inside at the crease and runs diagonally to the sideline, where he is caught by the legs and springs for a couple more. Eleven yards.


* Q4 - 37 yards on 10 carries for a 3.7 yard average. Two first downs. Aside from the first downs, we get two gains of three and six between -1 and 2 yards. Everyone in the country knew we were running.

[12:51] 1st and 10. Zone right with McQuistan pulling. Robinson hits McQ's void. Lynch thinks about a cutback, then follows Robinson's excellent block. Too bad Williams pulled up and didn't make the block on the safety. That limited Lynch to three yards.
[12:15] 2nd and 7. The o-line is spaced tight and runs a zone left. Giacomini's man breaks through to the inside. Lynch sees it and cuts outside past Morrah's block to daylight. Nine yards and a first down.
[10:53] 2nd and 5. Zone right. Gallery gets ridden back and to the right, trapping Lynch. Lynch bounces, breaks a tackle, and is met by four defenders for a gain of two.
[9:27] 2nd and 4. Zone left. Gallery goes forward, but there's nobody there. Unger is left with a bad angle. Lynch is forced right, but the D set the edge. Lynch is met at the LOS and beasts for three yards. Just shy of the 1st.
[8:47] 3rd and 1 at the Eagles' 47. "22" with nine in the box. The OL is spaced tight. The left side gets a push, but there's a free man on the left edge. The right side gets pushed back. Lynch goes right, but should have cut left. Nearly loses the ball in the chaos, but holds on for a loss of one. Seahawks forced to punt.
[4:01] 1st and 10. "21" with eight in the box. We go straight ahead. Unger doesn't get much push. McQuistan is beat. Gallery goes forward, but loses his man. Robinson tries to block two, but can only get one. Lynch met at the LOS with no forward momentum. No gain.
[3:17] 2nd and 10 at the Eagle's 47. "22" with nine in the box. Zone right. Gallery cuts his LB. Unger seals the crease, but it's borderline holding. Okung loses his man and pushes him to the ground from behind. Should have been a flag. Lynch has easy daylight. Outruns two defenders and hits a third. Pushes three men forward as Unger comes in to keep it going. Gallery, Okung, and Morrah join the party. Gain of 17 and a first down. This shows that when the running game is cooking, you're less likely to be flagged when the RB breaks free.
[2:30] 1st and 10 at the Eagles' 30. Illegal shift.
[2:24] 1st and 15. "22" with eight in the box. Zone left. Gallery forward and Robinson follows. Okung lets his man bounce off the block. Leon forced to bounce to the left edge as he sprints to the LOS for no gain.
[1:57] Zone left. Gallery goes forward, and Morrah pulles right, but the DT rides Unger back and left. Leon forced to cut right, but he's met by two unblocked defenders on the outside for a gain of two. After the whistle and away from the play, the Eagles' Cole is ridden back by Okung, but Cole grabs Okung's arm and does a judo throw over his hip. Torn pec. Okung is out for the season. Crap!
[1:51] 3rd and 8. McQuistan to LT and Jeanpierre to RG. Zone left. Gallery goes forward. Robinson goes left, but Unger and McQuistan are pushed back. Leon cuts right, spins out of a tackle for a two yard loss and turns it into a two yard gain.

Seahawks win 31-14.


* Overall Blocking - Good all around. It seems like everybody had a bad down or two, but nobody had a string of problems. Unlike past years, our linemen aren't ending up on their butts, and I didn't see any obvious busted plays or mental breakdowns. The Eagles played a bit risky, so they outnumbered us on some plays, but we burned them on others. The best thing is that our blockers continue to run to the action and push for yards. The worst thing is the loss of Okung.

* Play calling - We ran lots of heavy sets. From 2:44 in the first to the end of the half, we lined up in "22" ten of twelve times. It's like we were daring them to come to the line. It was a high risk, high reward strategy that paid off. We were out muscling them in the scrums. They got numbers on the runner at times, but we saw a lot of daylight as well.

Cable/Bevell are adding more wrinkles to the blocking schemes week by week. Against the Cowboys, we really went back to the basics. (It would be make a great instructional video.) In this game, we were pulling guards on zone plays, running more power plays with various splits, and sending the fullback all over the place. It's like watching students go from freshman to junior year in five weeks. With Okung out, I expect that we'll simplify things again going forward.

* Runners - Lynch had another masterful game. He's making the right cuts, playing hard, fighting to the end, and making people miss. He's lost weight since he joined the team last year, and he showed it with his speed on that 40 yard dash to the end zone. The guy deserves a shiny, new contract.

* Summary - Our running game is no flash in the pan. We've been able to sustain it against both 3-4 and 4-3 teams, including some squads with well-respected run defenses. This is for real and will only get better next year when our guys are all back after a full offseason and mini camps. Kudos to Schneider and Carroll for not only drafting for the line, but for installing solid depth. One mistake though: we cut Polumbus recently. It looks like we will have yet another first time group of starters a week from Monday.

Go Hawks!