Well, we are now enough days past the debacle of season home opener the Seattle Seahawks had against the godless Lost Angeles Rams, and the dust has calmly settled for me. I have one big wish for my Seahawks this year.

I don’t need them to get back to the Super Bowl, or the NFC championship game. Don’t get me wrong, I would be elated beyond tears if they did, but I don’t need it. I’m not even a hundred percent sure I absolutely need them to get back to the playoffs right now.

What I need most from this team is for them to really get back to Pete Carroll football. That’s it, and I am sure this probably makes many snort laugh at that suggestion.

I get it. Pete is not the chiseled offensive minded Ken doll that Sean McVay is, or the cool young hipster offensive guru that Kyle Shanahan appears to be, but Pete Carroll football has a clear, and concise, and proven winning identity.

So, right now, I am trying to not overreact to the toilet bowl flushing worthy performance that just happened against the Blink-182 listening Rams, but I think the biggest issue that I see with the Hawks right now is that they lack a clear identity. What was the identity of that offense? And what exactly is that defense, anyways?

Last Sunday, they appeared more offensively concerned with getting the pass game going over the run when the run looked quite promising in the first halve. Weirdly, it appeared that Seattle chose to go downfield even more when the two starting tackles went out in the third quarter. Shane Waldron should have went to more of the run when Aaron Donald starting feeling his groove after two of the best players on the offensive line was out of the game. It’s that simple.

Defensively, I don’t know what to say. As bad as the offense was in the second half, I kinda trust that Geno and the Gang will correct themselves as we get further into games more than I trust what this defense is right now, and that pains me to express this as a Seahawks fan, and as a Pete Carroll one, as well.

For years now, I have been waiting on this defense to get back to being at least formidable. Personally, I fear that under Clint Hurtt, they are going to be caught up trying to do too much up front, and on the backend with all these “multiple looks” – and thus nobody is really going to master anything, and therefore, we will continue to see an underwhelming defense for yet another season under Carroll, sadly. I really hope I am wrong.

So, for me, I need to see some reincarnation of the vintage Pete Carroll LOB styled football again. I need to see a more simplified defense that plays fast and furious and connected.

I don’t know if I need to see them fully abandon more of the 3-4 stuff (although, I would kinda welcome it), but I need a better plan. In my inexpert observations, I really think I am going to sound like a broken record abut this, but I think Hurtt still has these guys doing way too much.

A lot was made on social media and on the airwaves about how defensive lineman Dre’Mont Jones didn’t show up last Sunday, but I don’t think that was on him that much. I saw him at times playing inside at 3 tech defensive tackle, and at other times standing up like a linebacker. Even for as versatile and productive as Michael Bennett was back in the day, he was squarely a hand in the dirt dude who fired out of his stance, won with leverage, quickness, and strength at both DE, and both DT spots. Just let Jones have the chance to do that in this scheme for a long duration, and then judge his play. Keep it simple, and clear for him.

As for the DE/OLBs, I think the same thing. At times Uchenna Nwuso, Darrell Taylor, and Boye Mafe were rushing the edges, and at other times (in order to create zone blitzes) they were dropping into coverage. These dudes should be your primary pass rushers whenever they are on the field.

I do not care what label is put on this scheme, whether they run a bear front, 3-4, or if they show more 4-3 stuff, if you drop one of these guys off into coverage, you are taking one of your best rushers out of the pass rush scenario. Seattle has been going this for a long enough now over the past few years where I have to imagine that it is no surprise to a seasoned, smart quarterback such as Matthew Stafford, or a sharp play caller such as frat boy Sean McVay.

This is the biggest reason why I have been clamoring for Pete to get back to more of the 4-3 aspect of his older scheme. In the old LOB defense, each guy up front had his designed thing to do, and Dan Quinn had very defined roles for them to play. Big Red Bryant played a monster run stuffing end that took half of the side of the field away to run towards. Brandon Mebane controlled, and often blew up the gap between guard and center. Michael Bennett mixed as a power end with Bryant, but was really the primary pass rushing DT. Cliff Avril and Chris Clemons were the speedy rush ends always going forward and not dropping. Even the reserves had their defined jobs, and did them well.

I think Boye Mafe has too much talent at the line of scrimmage to be dropping into coverage. I think he is a natural defensive end, chiseled out of a defensive end factory. He naturally plays the run very well, keeps containment, and I think he has traits to be an explosive, and reliable pass rusher. I think Darrell Taylor is more of a natural 4-3 end, as well. I think Uchenna Nwuso is more than capable of being a 4-3 rush end or a SAM linebacker, and is probably the only guy out of the edge rushers who, at least at this stage, truly fits either scheme. When I look at rookie second round pick Derick Hall, I see the second coming of Frank Clark. He’s a defensive end, to me.

If Seattle wanted to do this, I honestly think they could line up more in their old 4-3 base scheme, have Mafe as the Leo end, Dre’ Jones as the 3 tech, Jarran Reed at nose tackle, Mario Edwards playing the big 5 tech spot, and Nwosu being the old Bruce Irvin SAM, with Bobby Wagner and Jordyn Brooks at the starting off ball linebackers, and I think this would be a formidable enough base front for this team moving forward. In nickel, Nwuso becomes a primary rush end like Chad Brown was way back in the day, Edwards kicks inside mixing in with Jones and Reed, and Taylor, Mafe, and Hall mix in as the other rush ends. Simple, clear, and defined. This is what I would prefer seeing, but that is just my take.

On the back end, especially when Jamal Adams finally gets back, I feel like they could return to more cover three, thus keeping Adams in the box (a la Kam Chancellor), while mixing in some press, and making it harder on receivers to get into their routes. They have the talent now to get back to this style of play, and keep it simplified enough to where each guy clearly knows what his assignments our and the assignments of his mates. This way they play fast and confidently, and they can adjust the coverage calls pre-snap if they need to, just like the LOB guys did back in the day.

For me, I feel like Seattle has collected enough good young talent for Pete to steer this thing back to the scheme he knows best, and because he knows his old scheme inside and out, he can correct issues at they materialize. It feels so obvious to me, that is would nearly be a dereliction of duty to not do this, in my opinion.

Even rookie fifth round DT Mike Morris on Sunday played well enough to look like a potential starting 3 technique on base downs in the future. I would like him to have that defined role moving forward and learn to just master that, and maybe he develops well enough that it kicks Dre’ Jones to at 5 tech role outside more like Bennett.

Personally, though, I don’t know if we see Pete making this shift back to his older defensive scheme (at least this year). Honestly, I wouldn’t bet on it.

I suspect he is at a stage in his coaching career where he wants to elevate young coaches, and give guys like Hurtt opportunities to develop their own schemes, and Hurtt seems very steadfast in his beliefs in the Vic Fangio 3-4 stuff that he learned in his time in Chicago, and why wouldn’t he? Fangio’s defenses are consistently very good, but I digress. My greater point is that I think Carroll has likely elevated Hurtt to defensive coordinator in order to give him the autonomy to develop his own vision as a coach, and Carroll doesn’t want to strip that away from him.

Let us remember, Carroll was a long time defensive backs coach and coordinator in the league before he got opportunities for head coaching. He consistently credits legendary Viking coach Bud Grant for believing in him and giving him a great opportunity. He also credits 49er legend Bill Walsh. So, I can very much see, at this stage in his life, Carroll wanting to give bright young coaches platforms of similar opportunity. I think that matters to him. Personally, if this is true, I think it’s very commendable, but also, I really want wins, Baby.

So, we will see where this defensive scheme goes, and how well it adapts. If I can’t see a return to Carrol’s old scheme, at least let me see the defined identity to what this defense is. Right now, I can’t determine what it is, and that troubles me.

Offensively, there is no reason why Seattle should not lean more into the run game the rest of this year. As I watched the play calling against the Rams defense, I was reminded of the opening of the 2018 season when Brian Schottenhiemer was trying to let Russell Wilson cook too much against good defenses in Denver and Chicago and the offense looked ridiculously out of sorts. Pete Carroll stepped in and mandated a whole lot more of Chris Carson, and for the rest of the way, while Russ wasn’t cooking so much, he did look like the play action king of the entire NFL, and you know what? They were a playoff team when many thought that maybe they wouldn’t be after the complete tear down of the LOB.

There is no excuse in the world why Pete Carroll shouldn’t be steering Shane Waldron back to an offensive attack that allows Geno Smith the same benefit. Geno is built to be a quality play action passer in this league. He’s tall, athletic, throws accurately, and he tosses a great deep ball.

Something tells me that Carroll will step in and correct this offense as he did in 2018, if pass happy play calling continues with bad results. It might likely happen this Sunday in Detroit against the fired up Lions. Geno Smith, after what he faced during the second half against the Rams, might actually welcome more a committed ground attack.

I also think there’s a chance that we see some better effort on the defense, even if this defense, again, underwhelms here and there. Bobby Wagner didn’t come back to Seattle to play garbage defense. Now that the dust has been knocked off of a number of defenders who didn’t play the preseason, they might be looking to prove that the second half against the Rams an outlier to who and what they are. Maybe, possibly, the Lions will be the team caught napping a bit.

But given the way Dan Campbell is, I think the more likely scenario is that the Lions are going to be pretty jacked up, and more than ready for this game. After all, they went into Green Bay last January, beat the Packers, and spoiled their chances of getting to the playoffs, only to watch Seattle advance into the post season instead of them. They might have circled this game on their calendar the minute it came out.

So, I am not going to pick the Seahawks to win this game on Sunday. Actually, I’m not going to do anymore pieces about predicting games and outcomes. The routine of that is not as interesting to me these days as I continue to write about the Hawks. Instead, I would just like to offer weekly thoughts and musings about the Seahawks as this season progresses.

The thought I have this week is that, so long as Pete Carroll remains the Commander and Chief of the Seattle Seahawks, I want to see them get back to his formula that won a Super Bowl a decade ago. I want to see unapologetically Pete Carroll football, and then let the chips fall where they may.

In recent years, I think Carroll has drifted away from that, but he doesn’t have a prima donna, legacy obsessed quarterback that he is trying to appease anymore. He can get back to where he belongs, and these players will follow him lock step. He can be a staunchly old schooled, ground and pound, defensive minded head coach who maximizes the talents on his roster, and then pisses off hoards of pass happy millennials and Gen Z’ers on Twitter X.

After all, it is all about the ball. The team that possesses the ball longer, and takes the ball away is the team most likely to win. That’s the formula. So, just do that.

Go Hawks.