The Seattle Seahawks came through in a big way on MNF, even if it was against the lowly 49′ers. Mike Holmgren said he was going to go back to the pass-first mentality, and they did. Matt Hasselbeck looked great as he threaded pass after pass through the 49′ers secondary. In my opinion, this was the best he looked since their Super Bowl season. It really makes you wonder why they moved away from such a winning formula though. I mean, isn’t this how the offense was SUPPOSED to be run? Why did they abandon this philosophy all year? It seems more than coincidental that on the National Stage, and without their supposed “Star”, they had their best looking offense all year. The Seahawks offense was never built around the “run to set up the pass” philosophy. It has been about using the pass to set up the run. That is basically the West Coast Offense. You use short passes in lieu of running plays. When you do run, it tends to produce higher gains because defenses have to play against the pass.

I know a lot of people want to put this on Shaun Alexander, and I tend to agree..to a point. It is pointed out that he seems to not be trying as hard. I heard over and over on the MNF telecast that Shaun got paid, and now he is dogging it. There is evidence to suggest he might be that type of player. In 2004, on the last game of the season, everyone watched as Shaun threw a fit on the sidelines because a pass play and not a run play to him was called in the 4th quarter. The play resulted in a touchdown, and a win for the Hawks. It also ultimately meant that Shaun lost the rushing title by one yard to Curtis Martin of the Jets. When Seattle threw that TD pass, there was four minutes left to play. Holmgren made a smart move; he knew everyone was expecting a run to Shaun. He also gambled on the fact that Seattle would get the ball back once more before time expired. When they didn’t, Shaun was inconsolable. There is also the questionable head injury sustained in the playoff win over the Redskins in ‘05. He seemed wide awake and alert on the sidelines, jumping around and clapping. It was never fully understood why he didn’t come back in that game. Those incidents, along with reputation that comes with scoring an NFL record 28 TDs the next year, help to solidify this claim.

On the other hand, if you watch those games this year, you notice that he has not had a decent hole to run through. Often, there seems to be a defensive lineman in the backfield half the time he gets the ball. It is true that he seems to go down easily, but I think that has a lot to do with the fact that he is playing hurt, and has lineman wrapped around him before he can even get going. Give him credit, he was asked to play hurt, and he has. Not being able to switch the ball from hand to hand has to be tough for a running back. Nursing ankle problems on top of it, and you have a very diminished product.

So, then, what is really going on? Well, I think it is the play-calling. We have an offense built on pass first, then run. But we haven’t been doing that. We have managed the clock poorly, again. Numerous times on 3rd and 4th and short situations, they have run running plays to the outside..always resulting no gain or even a loss. Maybe it is just me, but it seems obvious that you can gain one yard or less by pounding a QB sneak or a play up the middle to the FB. This works much more often than sweep. The Hawks have been predictable. And if I know what they are going to run, you can bet Defensive Coordinators are going to know.

This seems to have been addressed this week, because the play calling was much better. Hasselbeck looked more confident. A healthy running back was afforded room to run, set up by the passing game. All was well on a Monday Night. But this was against a clearly struggling team. We will just have to keep an eye and see if they can keep this momentum going for the duration. Luckily, their schedule here on out is the easiest in the League.

Let’s hope the keep that West Coast Offense rolling all the way to the Super Bowl again, because their window of opportunity is quickly fading.