Improvement by the yards

Published on September 13, 2011 by Seahawks.Com News (Feed)     

As ineffective as the Seahawks’ offense was in the first half of Sunday’s opener, the coaches and players stayed the course and found a productive track in the second half.

In the first half of Sunday’s season opener against the 49ers in San Francisco, the Seahawks’ longest offensive plays were a pair of 12-yard passes.

On their first possession of the second half at Candlestick Park, there was a 12-yard pass to rookie wide receiver Doug Baldwin, a 12-yard run by Marshawn Lynch and a 13-yard run on a reverse by wide receiver Ben Obomanu – on consecutive plays, as the Seahawks drove 56 yards in nine plays to their first touchdown.

Before the game ended, there also was a 55-yard pass play from Tarvaris Jackson to Baldwin for a second TD as well as a 22-yard completion to wide receiver Mike Williams and three other plays that produced double-digit gains.

What changed? Not the plays, or the play-calling. Not the players, or the way they were being deployed.

“What we did at halftime was significant, in that we stayed with what we felt was important – to follow the game plan,” coach Pete Carroll explained Monday during his weekly day-after news conference. “We didn’t waver from that. Players were comfortable with being able to go back out and execute and they did that.

“We made some progress, but we didn’t come up with the finish like we liked.”

But the finished product was much better than what the offense had shown in the first half.

“Without question, we need to get a little something going where they feel like they’re making progress,” Carroll said. “I made sure today in the team meeting, and showed them, that there was a big contrast from first to second half.

“They need to know they’re capable and feel it and have that confidence. I think it was clear and the coaches did a good job of pointing that out in the meetings today to make sure they feel alright about it.”

The proof also is there in black and white on the post-game stat sheet. The Seahawks scored 17 second-half points after going scoreless in the first 30 minutes. They had 182 yards in the second half after compiling 37 in the first half. They had 15 first downs in the second half, compared to three in the first half. They rushed for 52 yards in the first half, after gaining 12 on 11 first-half carries. Jackson passed for 155 yards in the second half, after having 42 in the first half.

You get the picture. Carroll just wanted to make sure his players did, as well.

“You’re not judged just by the first half,” Carroll said. “You’ve got to finish the game and all. So they did better, and hopefully we came away from that with that thought.”

Especially because things get no easier this week, when the Seahawks will travel to Pittsburgh to face a Steelers team that was embarrassed on Sunday in a 35-7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

“We have a huge matchup coming up – going to the East Coast to play Pittsburgh,” Carroll said. “We have tremendous respect, obviously, for their program for many years and what all their accomplishments.

“We also know that they had a very difficult first game and they’re home, I’m sure, to try to get right.”

Carroll also used Monday’s forum to stand by his man at QB, again.

“Really, and maybe I’m a bit of a broken record, he’s really tough, he can hang in there and he doesn’t let it bother him,” Carroll said of Jackson, who was sacked five times, hit eight other times and took some shots that made Carroll cringe in the process.

via Improvement by the yards.

Tags: 49ers, ben obomanu, Candlestick Park, coach pete carroll, Doug Baldwin, Finished Product, Game Plan, Game Stat, Good Job, Marshawn Lynch, News Conference, Possession, seahawks offense, Season Opener, Second Half, Tarvaris Jackson, Touchdown, Waver, Wide Receiver, Yard Completion