The Seahawks had a plan Thursday night against the 49ers at Lumen Field. They were going to attack their defensive backs deep down the field, and they did so to the tune of five deep shots throughout the game. It turns out their goal was to draw flags. It did not work.
Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll on Friday hopped on Seattle Sports 710 AM and said the increased depth of target for quarterback Geno Smith was an attempt to take advantage of a flag-happy 49ers secondary.
Brady Henderson, who covers the Seahawks for ESPN, posted on Twitter about Carroll’s appearance:
Geno Smith averaged 10.5 air yards/att vs. SF, up from 6.9 in Weeks 1-11. Pete Carroll told @SeattleSports they wanted to attack downfield, noting SF's DBs have been flagged a lot. Only one they hit was JSN's one-hander. "We didn’t get as much out of that as we thought we would." pic.twitter.com/2pxUepkfh4
— Brady Henderson (@BradyHenderson) November 24, 2023
This plan didn’t work for a couple reasons.
First, the 49ers were only flagged once on defense. It was a hold on safety Tashaun Gipson that was offset by a Seahawks penalty.
Second, Smith completed only one of his five throws more than 20 yards downfield. That lone completion was the remarkable one-handed snag by rookie wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
San Francisco’s secondary was exploitable for a couple weeks and the Seahawks tried taking advantage of that, but that unit has tightened up since the bye and there may not be a better illustration of that than Seattle’s failed Thanksgiving game plan.
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