After years of ineptitude, neglect, 2 reasons why the Seahawks’ offensive line is a weapon

Apparently, the Seahawks didn’t give out a game ball for their highest-scoring shootout win ever in regulation.

If they had, Geno Smith probably would have thrown it. DK Metcalf would have caught it. And Rashaad Penny would have run it for yet another touchdown. That’s the way Seattle’s haywire, 48-45 victory at the Detroit Lions Sunday went.

But if the Seahawks had passed out a congratulatory memento in the Ford Field locker room following their pinball game on turf, Pete Carroll knows who his recipients would have been.

“If we were giving out a game ball,” the veteran coach said Monday back home at team headquarters in Renton, “I would give it to the offensive line.”

How many years has he been waiting to say that?

About a half-dozen. Or more.

After years of ineptitude and, at times, neglect along the offensive line, two investments at the top of the draft — plus signing a Super Bowl starter as its chief communicator — have transformed a team liability into a strength.

Smith dropped back to pass 30 times against a Lions defense that blitzed so often it was seven or more Lions rushing against five Seahawks linemen most of the day. Yet Seattle’s quarterback wasn’t sacked once. He was only hit three times.

How rare is no sacks of a Seahawks quarterback? In the last eight seasons since 2015, the watershed year when the team coming off consecutive Super Bowls traded Pro Bowl center Max Unger for Jimmy Graham ushering in O-line mediocrity, it’s only happened seven times.

Those games were all with Russell Wilson at quarterback:

• Last December at Houston

• 2020 at Washington

• 2019 versus New Orleans

• 2017 at San Francisco

• 2015 versus Dallas

• 2015 at Baltimore

After a spotless Sunday from the offensive line Sunday at Detroit, Seattle is 6-1 in those rare no-sack games.

“It was really consistent pass protection-wise. They did a fantastic job,” Carroll said of the line and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s play calling in Motown. “Working together with the timing of getting the ball out and all of the different actions and movements that Shane had our guys doing helped.

“But the guys played really consistently across the board.”

Smith leads the NFL with a completion rate of 77.3%. That’s the best completion percentage in league history through the first four games of a season.

That’s how important solid, consistent offensive-line play is.

“The line played awesome again,” Smith said before leaving Detroit. “They’re just continuing to be better and better every week, which is such a positive sign.”

Why? Charles Cross, Abe Lucas

So what’s changed?

After seven, failed centers in six years post-Unger, the Seahawks finally invested in a good one. They signed former Rams Super Bowl starter Austin Blythe, for his smart and effective communication just before snaps.

Also this spring, Seattle finally got elite, plug-and-play tackles at the top of the draft.

Yes, the guys blocking at the most vital spots in pass protection, the edges, are really good at it.

The guards have been a problem at times this season. Left guard Damien Lewis has had injuries and penalties. Many of the six sacks Smith has taken were because of veteran right guard Gabe Jackson being an almost static turnstile inside,particularly against San Francisco’s nasty defensive front in Seattle’s 27-7 loss three games ago. Phil Haynes, a third option to start, has been injured and penalized when he has played.

But the investment on youth at the edges of the offensive line is paying off.

The Seahawks last month became only the third NFL team in 52 years, since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger, to start rookies at both left and right tackle in Week 1 of a season.

They’ve been a quantum leap forward for the entire offense.

First-round draft choice Charles Cross was a starter since Day 1 of the first spring minicamp. He should be, as the team’s highest pick since 2010, at ninth overall.

He replaced 36-year-old Duane Brown, whom Seattle left unsigned this offseason. Cross was already nicknamed “Sweet Feet” for being so quick for his size (6 feet 5, 310 pounds). The wall reputed to be the best pass blocker in major college football last fall at Mississippi State has been as advertised.

Abe Lucas, the third-round pick from Washington State and Everett, has been even better so far.

He’s bigger than Cross, 6-6, 322 pounds. Yet he’s been just as quick. Lucas is a Maserati relative to the Yugo that was masher Brandon Shell the previous two seasons as the starting right tackle.

Right tackle, solved

Shell. Cedric Ogbuehi. Germain Ifedi. Garry Gilliam. The list of Seahawks right tackles the last eight seasons is a sad reminder since the team’s last Super Bowl.

That’s the biggest difference for Seattle’s offense so far this season, the athleticism of its tackles. Cross and Lucas are fast enough off the snap to get outside to the fast edge rushers that are the rage across the league’s defenses. Both are strong enough to hold those edges they get to quickly, in run and pass blocking.

Ifedi usually had to cheat the snap count with early steps, often leading to false-start penalties, because he couldn’t get outside in time to reach pass rushers.

Now, those days are older than AOL for the Seahawks.

Time and again Sunday the Lions sent edge rushers Aidan Hutchinson, the second pick in this year’s draft, and Charles Harris speeding upfield off Cross’ and Lucas’ outside shoulders. Time and again, the Seahawks’ rookies repelled them.

Cross in particular was quick enough to get outside to Hutchinson, who eventually resorted to rushing in larger, wider, time-consuming arcs to try and beat Cross. Smith simply stepped up into that expanded pocket for many of his 23 completions and 320 yards passing.

When Detroit’s edge rushers tried to take shorter, direct routes inside to Smith, Cross and Lucas stonewalled them inside into a useless mass of bodies.

And not just in pass blocking.

Cross was the pulling lead blocker from left to right on the key running play of the Detroit game. Third and 5, 2-1/2 minutes left, Seahawks leading 41-38.

Penny explained after the game the play call was for an inside counter run, inside where Lucas was lined up at right tackle. Lucas drove Lions filling linebacker Alex Anzalone all the way to where Blythe had snapped the ball. Penny credited Cross for reading that with him and bouncing the designed play outside, around the right end. The closest defender out there was out in Ann Arbor.

Cross really had no one to block on Penny’s 41-yard touchdown run. It finally clinched the Seahawks win, despite their porous defense.

Earlier in the second half, Smith again changed the play against an all-out Lions blitz and Blythe effectively communicated it on Penny’s 36-yard touchdown off Lucas’ right side. That was also on a key third down.

That’s how Seattle enters Sunday’s game at New Orleans at 2-2, tied with everyone else in the NFC West, instead of 1-3 and on a three-game losing streak.

“Charles did just an amazing job just wrapping around,” Penny said of the second, clinching scoring ran while starring at a postgame press conference from behind a podium.

“They deserve all this credit. If I could have all five of them up here, all 10 (including reserves), I would. Just to show you how much I appreciate those guys.”

Seattle rushed for 235 of its 555 yards in Detroit.

“The O-line just got it done,” Penny said after his 151 yards on 17 rushes with two, long touchdowns.

“That’s a young, scary group. The future is bright for those guys.”

He particularly means Cross and Lucas. The Seahawks’ other three starting blockers are each at least 25 years old. Lucas is 23. Cross is still just 21.

“I’m just thankful,” Penny said, “to just run behind them.”