Why the Seahawks left Micah Parsons unblocked on their last offensive play

The Seahawks left Cowboys edge-rusher Micah Parsons unblocked on their last offensive snap. There were about five things wrong with that idea.

The Seattle Seahawks have to fly home from Dallas tonight knowing that they lost a game they could have won. Now at 6-6 and losers of three straight games with the San Francisco 49ers and Philadelphia Eagles next on the schedule, this is a team that might find itself out of playoff relevance sooner than later.

Seattle’s last offensive play of the game was the biggest frustration in a series of second-half issues. With 1:11 left, the Cowboys up 41-35, and the ball at the 50-yard line, the Seahawks decided to leave Dallas edge terror Micah Parsons unblocked. The result of that, on fourth-and-2, was an incomplete pass to running back DeeJay Dallas, and the end of the game.

Wait … leaving Micah Parsons unblocked? Somebody screwed up, right? Well, as Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith explained after the game, that was by design.

Basically, the Seahawks got too cute here. They slid their line away from Parsons and expected their team’s third-string running back, to work across the formation to pretend to block Parsons and release to the flat. The Cowboys had a Cover-0 blitz dialed up as Smith said, and there was no way that Dallas was going to get there in time.

Ben Solak of The Ringer did a great job of explaining it, and threw in a successful example of this play run by Notre Dame for good measure.

Now, why do you not want to try this strategy against Micah Parsons? Because he’s the fastest pass rusher at any level of football.

So, it was yet another dominant rep by Parsons, but in the end, Seattle offensive coordinator Shane Waldron outsmarted himself, and that was your ballgame.