On Friday I wrote a short piece about the theory behind

the Air Coryell offensive system that the Seattle Seahawks are running this season under new offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer Youth Will Dissly Jersey , and what makes it work. In that piece I hinted at suspicions that the offense could struggle in many of the remaining games for schematic reasons, and in the game Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers we saw some of what I had anticipated. What the Chargers do on defense is not a secret, especially for the Seahawks coaching staff. Los Angeles defensive coordinator Gus Bradley coached for Pete Carroll early in Carroll’s tenure in Seattle, and runs a system very similar to what the Hawks ran during his time in the northwest. So, if that is the case, why is it that the Seahawks coaching staff was not able to solve the Chargers defense during the game? Quite simply, it is due to the fact that schematically the Air Coryell system excels against man coverage, and is more prone to struggle against zone coverage in which there is quality over the top safety coverage. It’s no more complicated than that. The Air Coryell system has been in use in the NFL for about four decades, from its origins for the Chargers to the Dallas Cowboys championship teams in the 90s through the Greatest Show on Turf Rams teams. The basic concepts are the same - stress the defense by putting five receivers in the pattern and take advantage of the matchup that is most advantageous for the offense. The matchup for a specific play is determined at the line of scrimmage based on pre-snap reads. As I noted in the piece on Friday, there are effectively three choices for the quarterback each time he comes to the line of scrimmage, a run play, a pass play to counter zone coverage and a pass play to counter man coverage. As I also noted on Friday, what the Seahawks are doing this season is patiently using the running game to stall and buy time on a safe play that is unlikely to turn the ball over until such a time as they get the defensive look they want. Well, what happens when the defensive coordinator is patient enough to avoid giving the offense the look that it wants? Well, that’s when the offense has a game like it did against the Chargers . Or it has a game like it did against the Arizona Cardinals. Or it has a game like it did against the Chicago Bears. Or it has a game like it did against the Dallas Cowboys. In short Seahawks Jarran Reed Jersey , if a defensive coordinator is patient enough to play zone defense with quality over the top safety coverage, the offense will consistently check down to safer, short plays at the line of scrimmage and take away the big play on its own. This is a tenet of the Air Coryell system that has been in place for decades, and which I have been attempting to explain to fans for months, as evidenced by this tweet from the end of August. In short, what the Air Coryell offense does is determined by the defense. The defense has the ability to dictate what an Air Coryell offense does and how it attacks, and as such it creates a situation where a patient defensive coordinator can force the offense into consistently having to execute in order to move the football. This is the exact same premise around which Pete Carroll’s bend-but-don’t-break defensive philosophy is built, and it is the exact type of schematic disadvantage the Hawks will be facing in the second half. Many of Seattle’s opponents during the second half subscribe to similar styles of defense, including teams like both the Arizona Cardinals and the San Francisco 49er along with both the Minnesota Vikings and Carolina Panthers. That’s not to say the Seahawks are doomed to lose any of those games, it just means that the outcomes of those games may not be as one-sided as many fans hope for, just as was seen in the outcome of the game Seattle played in Arizona earlier this season. However, combining the knowledge that the Air Coryell offense can be slowed by a zone defense with quality over the top safety play with the fact that heading into Sunday’s game against Los Angeles that the Seahawks had scored over sixty percent of their offensive touchdowns on pass plays of ten yards or more, and all of a sudden the issue comes into focus. This was part of the reason I authored the Fast Facts piece on Sunday which looked at every touchdown pass Wilson has thrown so far in 2018, because it helped to demonstrate how what the offense has done and when the offense has scored has in large part been dictated by what the defense is doing on a play. In short, heading into the Chargers game Youth Earl Thomas III Jersey , 81.25% of Wilson’s touchdown passes on the season had been from ten yards or greater, a career high, and that is a direct result of the result of the way the Seahawks offense is playing. As I’ve mentioned, the Seahawks offense this season is using the run game to buy time while it waits for the right look from the defense. The analogy I used on Friday is that the offense is sitting at a slot machine pulling the wheel while waiting for its spotter at the blackjack table to let Wilson know that the count is advantageous. However, in games like the Sunday game against the Chargers, defensive coordinator Gus Bradley is the dealer, and every time the count becomes advantageous, he’s shuffling the deck and simply forcing Wilson and the Seattle offense to stay conservative.Enemy Reaction 2018: Dallas Cowboys The Seattle Seahawks got their first win of the 2018 NFL season by defeating the same team they defeated for their final victory of last season, Jerry Jones’ Dallas Cowboys. It was 21-12 at JerryWorld on Christmas Eve 2017, and it was 24-13 at CenturyLink Field on Sunday afternoon in Seattle. As most Field Gulls readers know by now, when the Seahawks prevail, everyone gets treated to Enemy Reaction, which reviews highlights of the game through fan reactions from both ourselves and the opposition. Needless to say, Dallas fans have delivered the goods, and I guarantee you’ll enjoy their wire-to-wire meltdown this week.Cowboys game thread comments are courtesy of Blogging the Boys.Michael Gallup can’t hold onto the ball http://www.authenticsseattleseahawks.com/cheap-sebastian-janikowski-jersey , Earl Thomas gets interception after replay overturns calls (0-0)Russell Wilson finds Jaron Brown for the game’s first points (7-0 SEA)Ezekiel Elliott touchdown called back because of illegal touching, Cowboys kick a FG (7-3 SEA)Russell Wilson goes deep to Tyler Lockett for a touchdown (14-3 SEA)Randy Gregory shoves Joey Hunt like an idiot, gifting the Seahawks a field goal (17-3 SEA)Chris Carson gets Seattle’s first rushing touchdown of the season (24-6 SEA)Bradley McDougald forces Ezekiel Elliott to fumble, Seahawks recover (24-6 SEA)Tavon Austin finally gets the Cowboys in the end zone (24-13 SEA)Earl Thomas intercepts Dak Prescott again, Cowboys should be the ones bowing to his superiority (24-13 SEA)Chris Carson converts on 3rd and 12 (24-13 SEA)Cowboys don’t come close to consolation points on final drive, Seahawks WIN! (24-13 SEA Final)Post-Game: Fire Scott Linehan (Gillia Baattai, The Landry Hat)Post-Game: Someone needs to rescue Dak Prescott (Matt Mosley, Dallas Morning News)Post-Game Video: Cowboys problems are so much bigger than Dak Prescott (thedallascowboyshow)Enemy Preaction: Arizona Cardinals (Revenge of the Birds)With a W in the bag, sights are now set on the winless Arizona Cardinals, who have scored all of 20 points through three games. Another way to look at it is they’re currently paying Sam Bradford $1 million per point scored. He was benched in the final quarter against the Chicago Bears, and Steve Wilks essentially sent Josh Rosen out there to fail in crunch time. Rosen is starting this weekend, and you have to feel confident about Seattle’s chances to get themselves to .500, especially when you consider that Glendale has become the Seahawks’ second home field.Thanks for reading and go ‘Hawks!