Seahawks hope young offensive line learns quickly
RENTON, Wash. – Tom Cable told us there would be a learning curve. His warning wasn’t even subtle back on Aug. 1 as he addressed implementing his new blocking scheme to Seattle’s new offensive line.
“I keep saying, if you hear me, the system has to kind of start in infancy and grow just like we all do as humans,” he said.
Crawl before you walk, walk before you run and expect some scrapes along the way. Not everyone was listening, though. It was easier to talk yourself into the possibility that things were going to be OK even as evidence piled up in August indicating otherwise.
The Seahawks are going to take some lumps. The first half of Seattle’s season-opening loss at San Francisco confirmed that, and while the second half offered signs of encouragement both in pass protection and the running game, anyone who thinks that Seattle turned the corner after just two periods of problems might be a little delusional.
Last week in San Francisco, Seattle fielded the most inexperienced starting offensive line of any NFL team in 16 years. This week that same line will head across the country to play a sack-happy defense that spawned the nickname Blitz-burgh.
Will the Seahawks offensive line be ready? They weren’t for the first two quarters in San Francisco.
“It’s going to take us some time to get comfortable in all settings,” coach Pete Carroll said. “I think we just weren’t quite there.”
Seattle has spent its past two first-round selections on offensive lineman, choosing Russell Okung in 2010 and James Carpenter this season. Max Unger – a second-round choice – is at center, while this year’s third-round selection, John Moffitt, is playing right guard.
“We called the same plays in the second half,” Carroll said. “We did the same things that we had tried to do and we executed very well, relatively. So it’s growing and it’s learning, and hopefully we can speed this thing up.”
Notes
The Seahawks signed fullback Eddie Williams off the Cleveland practice squad. Williams is 6-foot-1, 241 pounds and attended Idaho. A seventh-round draft choice of Washington in 2009, Williams was with the Chicago Bears in training camp this season. Seattle added Williams to fill in for Michael Robinson, who suffered an ankle injury in Sunday’s loss at San Francisco. Robinson was the only fullback on the roster, and Williams can also play a role on Seattle’s special teams. Seattle released tight end Dominique Byrd to make room for Williams.