Getty Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson stretches before facing the Arizona Cardinals in December, 2021.
T
he phrase ‘let Russ cook’ has become a popular phrase with the Seattle Seahawks fanbase over the last couple years. As sports fans in the Pacific Northwest know, it means let the Seahawks offense run through quarterback Russell Wilson.
It’s safe to say former Seahawks All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman is not a fan of the catch phrase or the offensive philosophy.
While speaking on The Richard Sherman Podcast, the three-time All-Pro cornerback first claimed that ‘letting Russ cook’ did not win Seattle’s first Super Bowl and then seriously doubted the team’s chances of returning to the Super Bowl with a pass-first offense.
“The identify of a Pete Carroll and a championship team, as it always has been, is run the ball, limit the turnovers, play solid defense,” Sherman said. “The best defense is a good run game — you run the clock, you spend less time on the field, you get stops when you need them. That’s what they [Seahawks] were doing at the end [of the season]. That’s what their formula was, that’s how they won those games at the end, that’s how they beat Arizona.
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“People are like ‘Let Russ cook, let Russ cook.’ You did not win a Super Bowl letting Russ cook. You have not been anywhere close to a Super Bowl letting Russ cook. You will not be close to a Super Bowl if you let him throw it 30-40 times a game.”
Sherman’s reasoning for why he doesn’t think 30-40 passes will win in Seattle had more to do with the team’s defense than Wilson. Sherman said that passing that often stops the clock, hurts a team’s time of possession and ultimately leads to a more tired defense that won’t be able to get key stops to win games.
Seahawks Running Game Bloomed in December
For some, Sherman’s offensive philosophy will be too ‘old school,’ but a good running game has never really gone out of style. That was definitely true for Seattle this past season.
The Seahawks averaged 176 rushing yards in their last six games of the 2021 regular season. Former first-round pick Rashaad Penny shined during that stretch, rushing for 706 yards and six touchdowns to lead the Seahawks to a 4-2 finish.
In the first 11 games of the season, the Seahawks rushed for 92.5 yards per contest while posting a 3-8 record.
So Sherman has a point. His claim that a pass-first offense didn’t take the Seahawks to either of their two Super Bowls last decade also rings true.
In six playoff games following the 2013 and 2014 seasons, Wilson never attempted more than 29 passes in a game. The Seahawks went 5-1 in those playoff contests.
During the 2013 regular season, Wilson averaged about 25.4 passes per game. In 2014, he had roughly 28.3 pass attempts per contest.
In his playoff career, the Seahawks are 7-3 when Wilson attempts under 30 passes. When Wilson has 30 or more attempts in a playoff game, the Seahawks are 2-4.
Seattle’s Search for Offensive Balance
While Wilson’s playoff record with 30 or more passes versus when he attempts fewer than that is revealing, it can also be misleading. Teams often pass more because of an inability to run the ball.
The fear of falling behind even further in a game is another factor that contributes to more passing.
In three of the six games where Wilson attempted at least 30 passes this past season, the Seahawks were losing entering the fourth quarter.
When Sherman played for the Seahawks from 2011-17, it was easy to not throw a lot of passes. Seattle finished among the NFL’s top 10 scoring defenses six times during that span. From 2012-15, the Seahawks allowed the fewest points per game in the league every season.
That elite defense allowed the Seahawks to remain patient on offense. Then the run-first offense paid off, as the Legion of Boom was well rested in the fourth quarter of games.
In 2021, Seattle was ranked 11th in points allowed.
Maybe the debate for the Seahawks should be less about how much the team should ‘let Russ cook’ and more about how the team can get back to complimentary football in order to not rely entirely on the Pro Bowl quarterback.