With 4:19 left in the Seattle Seahawks’ 31-13 Thanksgiving night loss to the San Francisco 49ers, Seattle made the decision to hand the ball to running back Zach Charbonnet. Quarterback Geno Smith was in shotgun, and the play went nowhere.
“The blocking scheme of the play was it was a downhill blocking scheme, but we’re in the gun to run it,” Carroll said the day after. “I think the call is hoping that you get them to widen, thinking ‘they may throw the football’ and we get an edge there. That’s all that was… Should have been an easy conversion right there. We didn’t get it.”
As for the Washington Commanders in their 45-10 Thanksgiving day loss to the Dallas Cowboys, they tried a shotgun run on fourth-and-1 with 8:19 left in the third quarter, and this thing was dead in the water before it even got in the water.
I mean… we love us some Eric Bieniemy, but Washington’s offensive coordinator might want to throw that idea out with the last of the leftovers.
Per Sports Info Solutions, NFL teams have run the ball on fourth-and-1 out of shotgun 27 times for 68 yards, two touchdowns, and 16 conversions to first down.
Fourth-and-1 runs from under center have been far more successful — 89 attempts for 233 yards, one touchdown, and 68 conversions to first down. Even when you take out the “tush push” numbers engendered by Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (seven fourth-and-1 attempts from under center for 16 yards and seven conversions to first down), the metrics tell a very clear tale.
You’re not fooling anyone with these short-yardage shotgun runs, NFL coaches. Don’t overthink this — sometimes, one yard and a cloud of dust is still the best way to go.