Commit to the running game

[Awesome]

SS came out throwing in the second half when he should have been running.

The Seahawks defensed the pass pretty well and we didn't abuse their grossly inadequate run defense like we could have. Watson ran for 110 on a day that he could have 150+, considering how much the O line dominated their D line. But SS refused to feed him the ball.

Instead, unsatisfied with only scoring 14 points in the first half, SS clearly was looking to put points on the board in the second half than he was to putting together some methodical, time consuming drives.

Everyone knows SS passes first and uses it to set up the run, and at Florida it worked. But the downfield passing game isn't effective enough to do it.

There are offenses in this league that can pass first against certain teams, (the Pats yesterday against the Bills), but the Skins aren't one of them. They may be before the season's over, but they're not right now. (I'd like to see Willie Jackson get more playing time, especailly since he was Shane's "go-to-guy" at Florida.)

One thing everyone said about SS is that he keeps defenses off balance with his playcalling. I haven't seen that yet, not over the span of a whole game.

For the last two games, SS has started off by mixing it up well, resulting in some quick touchdowns; then totally sputtered in the second half by forcing the passing game when it wasn't there; then finishing with a ton of running plays for a good sustained drive.

Hopefully, by the end of the season, SS will have realized that when the D is shutting down the opponent, run the ball first, run the ball often, just run the ball.

Then, after running on first down several consecutive times and forcing them to load up in the box, put it up. Time and time again, SS has gotten away from a successful running game to go to an ineffective passing game.

The passing game won't meet its full potential until defenses are actually forced to bring 7 or 8 men in the box, or until our qb can consistently find and hit the open receiver.

to a good, character-building win that lesser Skins' teams have blown on many occasions.

[Riggo-toni]

From SS's commentary, i thought he said something about them lining up 8 in the box. Admittedly, i was on the road and did not get a chance to watch the game, so I am not claiming infallibility here - just repeating what i read. I think SS said something to the effect that the passing game should've come out better because they were facing 8 man fronts.

Still, I agree w/ your main point, that we need to stick w/ running game to win.

[GrapeApe]

I definitely agree with that. I think it has gotten better each week, but Spurrier just doesn't seem happy with 4 yard runs.

[Larry]

For what it's worth, we had 2 posessions in the 3rd Q yesterday (one ran into the 4th Q).

First series: 6 plays (not counting the punt). 1 run, 4 yards.

Second series: 7 plays. 3 runs, 1, 1, and 5 yards.

While I'd say that half of our running plays worked (gained more than 3), that's still only half. I would consider that to me a merely adequite running game during that period. Granted, one of those 1-yard gains got a first down. Also granted, Shane was completing 44% at that same time. 50% of our runs were getting only 1 yard, but 56% of our passes were getting zero. (But the completions were getting more than 5 yards).

(OTOH, they sure didn't look to me like they were going all-out to stop the run, either).

[Utah]

Seattle did a nice job of adjusting to us in the 2nd half. When Brown went down, the others stepped up play.

Hey, their playing for Holmgren's coaching life up there.

Plus, in the end, Watson and Betts just don't add up to Davis when it comes to putting punishing runs together in the 4th qtr.