Film Breakdown: Diagnosing Seahawks’ Coverage Breakdowns vs. Buccaneers
In an unexpected turn of events, after ranking in the top five in the NFL in scoring defense through the first four games, the Seattle Seahawks endured quite the off day in a 38-35 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last Sunday, allowing Baker Mayfield to carve them up to a tune of 379 passing yards while completing 29 out of 33 attempts.
Without much of a pass rush to speak of, a bunch of missed tackles at all three levels, and three starters in Devon Witherspoon, Riq Woolen, and Julian Love sidelined in the secondary by the end of the third quarter, coach Mike Macdonald credited Tampa Bay for its scheming on offense while also taking the blame for the uncharacteristic struggles after the game, acknowledging the performance across the board demonstrated a lack of preparation that was up to the team’s usual standards.
“They did a great job of scheming stuff open. We obviously have to play better,” Macdonald said. “So it goes both ways. But we knew they were a great offense. We just didn’t get it done. When you have guys open like that, that can’t happen. That’s my job to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Surrendering 10 explosive pass plays of 16 or more yards in the defeat, what went wrong for Macdonald’s defense? What issues stuck out as the most prominent reasons for the letdown at Lumen Field?
Diving into the All-22 film, here’s a breakdown of every single one of those 10 explosive pass plays, examining the play calls on both sides of the line of scrimmage and where the Seahawks failed to execute:
Play 1: (13:34, First Quarter, 1st and 10) Mayfield pass deep left to Otton to SEA 41 for 27 yards
Tampa Bay came in with a clear gameplan to get under center and utilize heavy personnel packages with an emphasis on the play action game. Right off the bat, a play fake to Rachaad White brought Seattle’s linebackers Ernest Jones and Tyrice Knight up a few steps before transitioning into their zone drop responsibilities, while Mayfield rolled out to his left on a bootleg. Emeka Egbuka ran off Josh Jobe with a vertical route, creating a void in the Cover 3 coverage for Cade Otton to come wide open on an out route as the Bucs flooded the vacant left side, leaving an easy completion for Mayfield as the tight end was able to turn upfield and get an extra eight yards after the catch without any defenders in the immediate vicinity.
Play 2: (6:24, Second Quarter, 1st and 10) Mayfield pass deep right to Egbuka to SEA 35 for 24 yards
Going into aggressive mode looking to capitalize on a speed option fumble by backup quarterback Jalen Milroe, the Buccaneers again dialed up play action from under center, selling the run with Power blocking as the left guard pulled across the formation. The Seahawks countered with a pressure look, sending safety Nick Emmanwori from the slot as a fifth rusher, but Tampa Bay picked him up with a tight end kept in for blocking purposes. Sliding up into a curl/flat responsibility from his two-deep disguise, safety Ty Okada didn’t have any threats in front of him occupying the flats, so he should have dropped back deeper than he did. Due to his shallow alignment, Egbuka smartly broke off his route after taking an initial inside release and worked back towards the sideline, coming open in a gap in coverage between Okada and Jobe for a 24-yard gain.
Play 3: (4:18, Second Quarter, 3rd and 14) Mayfield pass short right to Otton to SEA 22 for 17 yards
Execution-wise, the Seahawks weren’t fooled by the Buccaneers’ third down tight end screen away from a quads look out of shotgun. Linebacker Drake Thomas did a great job reading the play and positioned himself to stop Otton well short of the sticks. But as was far too often the case on Sunday, Thomas dove for Otton’s ankles and came up empty with a bad missed tackle in space, allowing the tight end to find running room with other defenders behind in pursuit, turning what should have been only a couple yard gain into a 17-yard completion and a new set of downs. Instead of punting or kicking a long field goal, Tampa Bay marched down and scored a few plays later to extend its lead to 13-0.
Play 4: (9:44, Third Quarter, 1st and 10) Mayfield pass deep left to Johnson to SEA 15 for 27 yards
Once again striking with an aggressive passing approach on early downs, the Buccaneers motioned rookie receiver Tez Johnson into a trips left look and called another play action pass from under center. Defensively, the Seahawks had Jones dropping back deep between Okada and Coby Bryant on a “Tampa” 2 scheme, taking the vertical route downfield between the hashes. With Egbuka running a skinny corner, Bryant picked him up, leaving Riq Woolen matched up against Johnson, who appeared to be running a wheel route off his pre-snap fly motion. But with Mayfield having extensive time in the pocket to progress through reads, Johnson ended up slicing back inside behind Woolen, finding a big hole in the coverage behind Emmanwori, who had his eyes on White out of the backfield and thus didn’t drop back far in his hook responsibility. The Seahawks may have lucked out that Johnson tripped himself up, as he had tons of space to operate after the catch.
Play 5: (7:56, Third Quarter, 3rd and 15) Mayfield pass deep right to Egbuka for 20 yards, TOUCHDOWN.
No play may have been a bigger back-breaker for the Seahawks defense on Sunday than Egbuka’s score coming on third and long in the aftermath of an eight-yard tackle for loss by outside linebacker Boye Mafe. Targeting Nehemiah Pritchett, who had just checked in for a concussed Woolen a few plays earlier, Mayfield went right after the second-year cornerback as Egbuka gained quick separation after taking an inside release and instantly had a few steps on the defender. Dropping a perfect throw to the back of the end zone, with Seattle running split Cover 6 coverage with quarters to Pritchett’s side, Macdonald likely would have preferred to see Bryant available to help out with Okada taking the post over the middle, but he aggressively covered the post, leaving the cornerback in the dust with six points going on the board for Bucs.
Play 6: (4:07, Third Quarter, 1st and 10) Mayfield pass deep right to Egbuka to TB 44 for 19 yards
Interestingly, while the Buccaneers again ran first down play action from under center, they leaned on a max protection look this time around, keeping multiple tight ends as well as the running back in to block for Mayfield. Only two receivers actually ran routes, with Egbuka running a 20-yard curl and Sterling Shepard executing a wheel route off jet motion. Seattle’s safeties clearly respected Egbuka’s downfield capabilities, dropping back deep to guard against another deep ball to him, but this left a void for him to curl back to Mayfield wide open. Without any pressure to harass Mayfield and Jobe taking Shepard downfield on the wheel, this proved to be a layup with the right play call against a traditional quarters look.
Play 7: (1:37, Third Quarter, 3rd and 13) Mayfield pass deep left to Egbuka to SEA 2 for 57 yards
The Seahawks didn’t have many plays on Sunday where players didn’t seem to be on the same page, often simply being out-schemed or not having enough pressure up front to help coverage on the back end. But that wasn’t the case on Mayfield’s longest completion of the day, as Egbuka blew by a flat-footed Jobe and came wide open for an easy 57-yard hookup. The cornerback appeared to believe he had safety help behind him, but with him being on the quarters side of a Cover 6 scheme, he needed to stay locked up with the receiver downfield, as Okada had to pick up the skinny post as the immediate threat with Bryant in trail. If Okada would not have picked up the post, Mayfield likely has an open shot to that receiver. Ultimately, this play broke down because Jobe’s actions didn’t match up with the coverage everyone else played on the back end, allowing the receiver to rocket past him with no support behind him.
Play 8: (9:41, Fourth Quarter, 1st and 10) Mayfield pass short middle to Johnson to SEA 48 for 17 yards
Another 1st and 10, another play action pass from under center. Rinse, wash, repeat. Unable to get pressure with four all day long, Macdonald sent both Okada and Knight from the second level, hoping to get to Mayfield in a 28-28 game, while dropping five with quarters coverage from the outside corners and two deep safeties. Unfortunately, the blitz didn’t work as planned with both Okada and Knight rushing the same gap, with the latter colliding with the safety in the back, allowing one blocker to take out two defenders with ease. With Jones trying to defend multiple receivers from his hook drop, the inability to get any pressure on Mayfield allowed for the quarterback to once again fire an easy completion over the middle to Johnson to move the chains again.
Play 9: (3:14, Fourth Quarter, 1st and 10) Mayfield pass short middle to Egbuka to SEA 45 for 25 yards
Now trailing by seven inside four minutes to play, the Bucs transitioned into a more-shotgun heavy approach and stayed aggressive airing it out. Going against a Cover 4 quarters look, both of Tampa’s outside receivers in a 2x2 set ran quick five yard curls inside, which occupied Emmanwori and Knight closer to the line of scrimmage. Demonstrating excellent scheming once again, the strong side slot ran a seam route that briefly caught Jones’ attention and drew Bryant in his deep drop. Working behind the curl, Egbuka ran a drag route over the middle right behind Knight, coming wide open with no other defenders in the area. Taking advantage of all the space, the receiver turned a quick throw over the middle into a 25-yard gain with 12 yards after the reception, setting a game-tying touchdown drive into motion.
Play 10: (2:44. Fourth Quarter, 2nd and 10) Mayfield pass short right to Otton to SEA 20 for 25 yards
The Seahawks primarily ran zone concepts against the Buccaneers, including a steady dose of Cover 3, Cover 4, and Cover 6 schemes. But Macdonald did sprinkle in a bit of man coverage along the way, particularly in the second half, with the adjustment failing to provide improvement. Calling Cover 1 “Robber” with Okada sitting in the middle of the field to help take away crossers and Bryant as the single high safety deep, Seattle had solid coverage across the board with the exception of Jones and Emmanwori both taking receiver Chris Godwin as he broke inside on a 10-yard dig. Jones didn’t stick with Otton, and based on his actions, he thought Emmanwori would take the tight end with the two players defending with a switch like often seen against picks in basketball. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, leaving Otton so wide open he could have walked past the first down marker after making the catch as he picked up 20 yards with the ball in his hands.
