Schottenheimer also talked about the move of George Fant to right tackle and the play of Alex McGough.
Seahawks first-year offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer held his weekly session with the media Wednesday ahead of Friday’s third preseason game against the Vikings in Minnesota.
Here are the top five things he said:
1, The Seahawks would like to do better in the red zone against the Vikings.
Saturday against the Chargers, the Seahawks were 1-4 in the red zone, fumbling away one chance at the 1-yard line and two other times settling for field goals on drives that got to at least the 15 in the first quarter with the first team offense.
Schottenheimer said improving that is a goal while noting that Seattle going 6-13 on third down against the Chargers was an improvement on the 2-10 of the first game.
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Said Schottenheimer: “Again, you know each week is different, obviously going up against a great opponent – looking forward to some of the problems that they present. But the biggest thing is watching us progress. Last week, the first week we kind of struggled on third down, so we put an emphasis on it, and we bounced back. This week we kind of struggled in the red zone, so we’ll put an emphasis on that – work on it a little bit. Last couple of days, get a little bit more of it tomorrow. (We’re) watching some of the younger players, watch them grow, and try to continue to function down the red zone.”
Schottenheimer also said to expect the starters to play into the third quarter as is the usual routine for the third preseason game.
“Yeah, I think it’s the closest thing they’re going to get to a real game. I think, obviously going out and playing – they’ve done that now for the two quarters and then the first series of the first game, but it’s about coming in at half time, a big part of playing football is the second half and the adjustments that you make at halftime, and them hearing those and the new openers and then kind of going out and getting re-warmed up, if you will and then going in and adjusting the situation. A great experience for them and we expect that they’ll do very well with them.”
2, The Seahawks also want to try to run the ball well against what is a good Vikings defense.
Schottenheimer and coach Pete Carroll have said a priority this season is for the Seahawks to re-establish their ability to run. Preseason results can be hard to read but so far those have been mixed for Seattle as the Seahawks are averaging just 72.5 yards per game and 3.8 yards per carry in two games — Seattle averaged 101.8 yards per game and 4.0 yards per carry last season.
Again, no one is making much of those stats, with backups playing the bulk of the games so far and QB Russell Wilson also playing it cautious in the preseason.
But with the starters playing into the third quarter, Schottenheimer said he’d like the Seahawks to set something of a tone running against what last year was one of the best run defenses in the NFL — the Vikings finished second in fewest yards allowed per game, at 83.6.
Said Schottenheimer: “(Minnesota has a) really good run defense. They’re going to have a heavy box, but we want to see us run the ball really well. We want to see kind of what we did. They’re going to have some negative plays that they create but we expect that we’re going to churn out some good yards as well. Again, run-pass balance depends on a lot of things. It depends on – you stay ahead of the sticks by throwing completions. Do you shoot yourselves in the foot with some penalties? But we’d like to see us run the football well against these guys and mix up the type of runs that we have, not just be a wide zone team. You’ll see us attacking with some different run types.”
3, Schottenheimer took some of the blame for the failed runs at the goal line against the Chargers.
The most notable red zone failure against the Chargers were the two attempts to get it in the end zone following the two long passes from Russell Wilson to David Moore that took the ball to the 1.
On the first, Chris Carson was stopped for a one-yard loss on a play in which he appeared to fumble. On the second, he fumbled when hit by Melvin Ingram with former Seahawk Brandon Mebane recovering.
Asked if the Seahawks were attempting to establish that they can be successful in such situations, Schottenheimer said yes, then also gave some interesting detail about what he thought happened.
Said Schottenheimer: “Yeah, absolutely. The first play was kind of a design fault on our fault as a staff. It wasn’t a very good design. We tried to ask Duane (Brown) to do a really tough block on the backside, but for sure. This is when you kind of find out. You find out, like on the short yardage the week before, we found out that we can do it. Goal line, you don’t know how many goal line snaps you’re going to get in the course of, certainly in a preseason but even in the regular season. It’s like 16. (We’re) not discouraged. Again, (Melvin) Ingram made a really good play. We got a little bit of penetration but it doesn’t change the thought process of how we want to play the game when we get down there.”
4, Schottenheimer said Alex McGough has gotten “much more comfortable” as the preseason has gone on.
If there was an offensive star of the game against the Chargers, it was rookie quarterback Alex McGough, who led a late touchdown drive and completed 9-12 passes for 97 yards and a touchdown pass of 12 yards to Malik Turner for a passer rating of 126.0. Late-game results in preseason games come with the asterisk that they are late-game results in games that don’t matter.
But Schottenheimer said there were some obvious signs McGough had learned some things after his rough outing in the preseason opener against the Colts.
Said Schottenheimer: “I’m really proud of Alex. I coach him hard. I love to coach him hard because I can’t break him. He played great last week, so I think he’s much more comfortable with what we’re doing. When he’s in the game, we’re trying to do certain things that feature his skill set. Probably did a better job of that this week as a staff, myself included, calling the plays. (I’m) very pleased with how well he played in this last game. He didn’t get the touchdown (ball). I guess Malik (Turner) took it, so we’re going to find out a way to get him a ball. It was both of their first touchdowns and Malik took the ball and threw it over to the sidelines so Alex said he can have it, I guess. Shows you he’s a good teammate.”
Asked about McGough’s skill set, Schottenheimer said: “Obviously, he’s got a really strong arm. I mean, you see the go ball that he threw down the boundary to Cyril (Grayson Jr.) and the reaction when Cyril beat the guy on the two-point play, how he sped up his arm. He’s got a really live arm, and then he’s pretty athletic. He can move around, he can make plays, so there’s things that we want to do with him, both in the run game and pass game that feature those things.”
5, Moving George Fant to right tackle was all about adding competition.
The biggest personnel move made by the Seahawks this week was moving George Fant from left tackle to right to compete with Germain Ifedi, who had some struggles last week with Melvin Ingram. Ifedi is still expected to start against the Vikings with Fant backing up and likely to get some significant time.
Here’s what Schottenheimer said about Fant’s move: “The biggest thing is competition, right? That’s what I learned getting here, it’s the competition we want to create – whether it’s the quarterback (or) receiver spot. Germain’s (Ifedi) had some really good plays. He’s had some plays he’d like to have back. Whether he overset, things like that. George (Fant) is obviously feeling better now so, we’re just trying to create competition. We think that will bring out the best in everybody, and that’s along the board, not just right tackle, it’s Joey Hunt pushing Justin Britt, it’s the young receivers – David Moore – pushing some of the older guys, Brandon Marshall, those guys. So biggest thing would be competition and we’ll see how they respond this week going into it pretty good pass rushing unit. These guys can get after it off the edge and so it’ll be a good challenge for us.”