In-the-eyes directive from Pete Carroll has turned Kenneth Walker into the Seahawks’ key
Kenneth Walker had heard his coaches. But it wasn’t obvious he was fully listening to them.
The Seahawks’ rookie second-round draft choice had wowed defenders and the entire NFL in October and November with devious lateral cuts. When they worked, they were flashy. Walker’s jump cuts often left defenders flailing, made them look like amateurs. His 265 yards rushing in two games in October, for injured and out-for-the-year Rashaad Penny, were the most by a Seahawks rookie in his first two starts.
Walker had two 65-yard-plus touchdown runs, the most by a rookie since Saquon Barkley in 2018. Walker was the NFL’s offensive rookie of the month for October.
By late November into December, defenses were adjusting to his jump cuts. They were staying back and anticipating them. He gained just 17 yards against the Buccaneers in Munich, 26 yards against the Raiders, 36 yards before injuring his ankle against the Rams and 47 yards against the rugged 49ers.
Seattle lost three of those four games, to go from 6-3 and in first place in the NFC West to the brink of elimination from the playoffs.
Christmas Eve message
At halftime of a bone-chilling game at Kansas City on Christmas Eve, coach Pete Carroll and running backs coach Chad Morton changed their tone and approach from weeks of telling Walker to run more directly. Walker’s first nine carries that cold day had produced just 16 yards. The Seahawks trailed the Chiefs 17-3.
Carroll squared up in front of Walker’s face in the visiting locker room at Arrowhead Stadium. He was as direct as the 71-year-old coach gets.
“It seems so simple,” Carroll said Monday. “I remember looking him right between the eyes and said, ‘OK, here we go. In this half, let’s get down hill, attack the line of scrimmage and see if that doesn’t give us a little bit of a change that we need.’
“I know Chad said the same thing. I just reiterated.”
Perhaps it wasn’t that G-rated.
“Everyone was telling me to run straight and be more decisive,” Walker said.
He admitted sometimes he tries to “make something happen.”
The result of Carroll telling Walker to run straighter into the line, with fewer cuts, is a large reason the Seahawks are still playing, Saturday at San Francisco in a NFC first-round playoff game.
Walker finished that 24-10 Seahawks loss in Kansas City with 107 yards, 91 of them after his halftime directives from his coaches.
The next week: 133 yards romping over the New York Jets.
On Sunday, with his father in Seattle from across the country to see him play, Walker rallied the Seahawks past the Rams with 114 yards on a career-high 29 carries. That included the key rushes in overtime that got Jason Myers into position for his game-winning field goal.
Walker hugged the veteran Myers on the field after the winning kick.
Walker then celebrated the win in the regular-season finale by taking his dad (also Kenneth Walker, the Seahawk is Kenneth Walker III) out for a postgame meal.
With Walker, the son, running more directly the Seahawks (9-8) have gone from losing five of six games to winning two in a row. That got them into the playoffs for the ninth time in 11 seasons.
He’s the key to Saturday
Walker running more directly, and effectively, is vital to Seattle’s chances to upset San Francisco (13-4) on Saturday. The weather forecast is a 70% chance of steady rain on Levi’s Stadium’s grass field.
“Couldn’t have come at a better time. And with the cyclone threatening down there, we may need to run the ball 40 times, 50 times, whatever,” Carroll said.
Running the ball makes Pro Bowl selection Geno Smith a better quarterback, off play-action passes. It would make the 49ers’ pass rush that has dominated Seattle’s offensive line in two San Francisco wins this season have to honor the run more.
It is the way Carroll wants to play. It might be the way the Seahawks have to play to advance in these playoffs.
“It’s huge for us to make that statement,” Carroll said. “And remember the last year at the end of the season, we found our rhythm and really got going, too.
“We’ve been coming and you can really see Kenneth getting together with the guys up front. The rhythm looks way better than it did. And that’s just time and we have to take some lumps along the way. Fortunately, we’re getting going.
“We’ve been talking in the same ways (to Walker),” Carroll said, “but sometimes it takes a moment for you to go, ‘Oh, that’s what you were saying,’ or, ‘That’s what you wanted.’
“And I’ll take it on myself, Chad and I, trying to get the word across. We didn’t communicate well enough to him. We didn’t get it to him soon enough to make the adjustments that really looked pretty obvious so far.”
This obvious: the more-direct Walker on Sunday joined Curt Warner from 1983 as the only Seahawks rookies to rush for 1,000 yards.
“It means a lot. That’s a big goal,” Walker said.
His 1,050 yards led all NFL rookie backs this season.
He’s a favorite to win the NFL’s offensive rookie of the year award. No Seahawk has ever won that.
As much as the league wants to honor him, Walker wants to honor center Austin Blythe, rookie tackles Abe Lucas and Charles Cross, plus guards Gabe Jackson, Phil Haynes and Damien Lewis.
“Like I always say, credit to the O line,” Walker said.
“We had a stretch where we were struggling throughout the season, but we got it together. To be able to finish like that, I have to give all of the credit to the O line.”
