A regular complaint about the Seattle Seahawks attack is that, unless they are absolutely forced to do so, getting agitated is not their place. How many delays in game penalties have occurred or how many timeouts have been wasted as a result of waiting to fit you with: 00 on the game clock? Probably too many to count.
NFL data analyst Michael Lopez released a chart last week showing the division of all 31 teams and the percentage of snaps (4th quarter exempt to keep you in neutral game script situations) that occurred based on how long was left on the game clock. Believe it or not, Seahawks are not the slowest and, in fact, are not even close. That honor belongs to the Green Bay Packers.
Another game clock graphic, inspired by @owenlhjphillips
– Packers played about 50% of the moves in the last 5 seconds of the game clock
– The Cardinals played 28% of their moves with 16 seconds or more on the game clock
– Rams somehow ranked in the top 4, both in the first and the end pic.twitter.com/6QtKB4BfRV– Michael Lopez (@StatsbyLopez) February 9, 2021
With only an eye on the graph, the Seahawks were 6th in taking the ball in the final seconds of the game clock, behind Rams, Eagles, Panthers, Ravens and Packers.
Obviously, the pace of play and the quality of the attack are not connected. The Packers are incredibly slow and Aaron Rodgers won the MVP. Rodgers also likes to run the clock not only for pre-snap readings, but also with his irritatingly effective ability to make teams jump out of play for a free throw. Meanwhile, the Cowboys caught the ball with plenty of time to spare and it usually led to quick failure.
Russell Wilson said about umpteen times that he wants to play faster and with rhythm. Football Outsiders say the Seahawks only finished in the top half of the NFL at a time once under Wilson’s command, and it was in that year that Darrell Bevell was fired. As you can see from the embedded chart, the 2020 Rams were able to play early and late. We don’t know how much of that style will be transferred with new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, but the Rams’ offensive pace almost seems like a mix of what Wilson would like (more pace) and what Carroll would like (slow down the game sometimes).
There is another graph that I found interesting with a larger sample size that could stimulate the discussion about whether bags occur more often with a late snap compared to an early snap. Based on five years of data, it seems that at the end of the clock the crackles increase the chance of a bag.
These third-bottom numbers look significant. Russell Wilson’s sack rate is astronomical on the 3rd run, but the league-wide sack rate in general seems to be that way on that run.
While not The reason, a reason for the increase in bags at the end of the clock may be that defenses can time their jumps better knowing the situation in 1-5 seconds, compared to offense without agglomeration or uptempo with quick snaps that don’t really allow the defense get set.
Given Seattle’s historically strong reliance on many pre-snap identifiers to determine coverage, the right reading to do, block assignments, etc. I don’t know if we will necessarily see a drastic change in the way the Seahawks attack operates, but I know that I’m tired of seeing them not even out of the huddle with 10 on the game clock and pulling their asses to avoid a penalty.