After a dominating Super Bowl victory against the Broncos, Russell Wilson and the Seahawks started the 2014 season with a target on their backs. The Seahawks only managed a 3-3 record in their first six games after two tough defeats against the Cowboys and the Rams. After the Week 7 loss versus the Rams, the Seahawks started clicking and won nine of their next ten regular season games to clinch the No. 1 seed in the NFC. The Seahawks went on to the Super Bowl and almost beat the Patriots and only lost in a historic fashion. Regardless of this dissapointing finish to the Seahawks season, it must be noted that Wilson played incredibly throughout the regular and postseason throwing for 27 touchdowns while running in 6 on the ground. In this breakdown we will take a look at Wilson’s top touchdowns in terms of difficulty, play design, and general usage.

Stats

Regular Season – 285/452 (63.1%), 3,475 yards, 7.7 y/a, 20 TDs, 7 INTs, 118 rushes for 849 yards and 6 TDs

Postseason – 41/72 (56.9%), 724 yards, 10.1 y/a, 6 TDs, 5 INTs, 17 rushes for 86 yards and 1 TDs

First let’s take a look at the recipients of Wilson’s 27 thrown touchdowns during the 2014 season:

Receiver Breakdown

Doug Baldwin 5 Luke Willson 4 Marshawn Lynch 4 Jermaine Kearse 3 Cooper Helfet 2 Ricardo Lockette 2 Robert Turbin 2 Derrick Coleman 1 Chris Matthews 1 Paul Richardson 1

Doug Baldwin was the main recipient of Wilson’s touchdowns, but as he only had five the rest were pretty evently distributed. Next year the Seahwaks will have Jimmy Graham, traded from the Saints, and Tyler Lockett at their disposal so I imagine Graham will receive a lot of Wilson’s touchdown throws in the 2015 season. Let’s take a look at the quarter and down breakdown of the touchdowns:

Quarter Breakdown

1st Quarter 3 2nd Quarter 10 3rd Quarter 8 4th Quarter 11 Overtime 1

Down Breakdown

1st Down 16 2nd Down 9 3rd Down 7 4th Down 1

As well as the distance and location of the touchdown throws. Note: There are only 27 touchdown throws, but I included the six running touchdowns to the distance breakdown.

Distance Breakdown

Fewer than 6 Yards 7 Between 6 and 15 yards 12 More than 15 yards 14

Location Breakdown

Deep Left Deep Middle Deep Right 3 2 3 Intermediate Left Intermediate Middle Intermediate Right 4 1 0 Short Left Short Middle Short Right 4 0 9

I find the large number of greater than 15 yard scored touchdowns very interesting. Everyone knows how dynamic the Seahawks’ defense is, but their offense led by offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell deserves credit for meshing his player’s strengths together. Finally here is the route breakdown:

Route Breakdown

Seam 5 Slant/Drag/Drive 5 Flat 4 Swing/Wheel 4 Hitch 3 Vertical – Go/Fade 2 Post 1 Corner 1 Out 1

Wilson seemed to profit most on seam routes to attack zone coverages and then like most play-action based offenses Wilson found the underneath routes like slants and flats for a large portion of his touchdowns. Now let’s take a look at the plays:

Play 1

Situation: 1st and 10 at DEN 39

Description: Q2 – (3:12) (Shotgun) R.Wilson pass deep right to R.Lockette for 39 yards, TOUCHDOWN. S.Hauschka extra point is GOOD, Center-C.Gresham, Holder-J.Ryan.

Opponent: 3. DEN

Offensive Formation: Pistol Slot Left

Offensive Personnel: 11

Defensive Formation: Cover 1 – Three Underneath Zones – Man Coverage on WRs

In pistol formation, Wilson motions TE86 Miller to the left side of the formation and then snaps the ball. He scans the field looking at the coverage and then finds WR83 Lockette streaking up the right sideline on a go-route towards the endzone. The play call is two outside go-routes with the slot wide receiver running a post over the middle of the field. This play is designed to attack Cover 2 defenses by making the safeties choose the receivers to cover while still giving Wilson one extra wide receiver either on the sideline or over the middle of the field to attack deep on 1st down. The Broncos defense is in Cover 1 with off-man coverage on the outside. CB21 Talib is covering Ricardo Lockette. Lockette runs the stem of his route right to Talib and then cuts to the outside giving Talib the interior lane. By the 20 yard line Wilson releases the ball deep as Talib is still barely in front of Lockette. Lockette passes Talib by the 10 yard line to overtake him into the endzone and is able to turn around and locate the ball in the air on a beautifully thrown ball for the long touchdown score.

This is a difficult throw to make. Wilson gets a lot of credit for (a) trusting his wide receiver to get the ball, but (b) throwing on Talib, an excellent cornerback, where if he left the ball short it would be an easy interception for him. These type of throws are typically low percentage, but Lockette and Wilson make the most of it to score. Give credit also to the Seahawks offensive line for allowing this long play to develop.

Situation: 1st and 14 at STL 19Description: Q4 – (9:51) R.Wilson pass deep left to C.Helfet for 19 yards, TOUCHDOWN. (Pass formation) TWO-POINT CONVERSION ATTEMPT. R.Wilson pass to J.Kearse is incomplete. ATTEMPT FAILS.Opponent: 7. STL

Offensive Formation: Shotgun Slot Right Far

Offensive Personnel: 11

Defensive Formation: Cover 1

Wilson in shotgun takes the snap and DT92 Carrington gets an excellent push on LG77 Carpenter. Wilson feels the pressure and moves left in the pocket while from that side DE94 Quinn is playing contain to make sure Wilson doesn’t break free to the outside. Meanwhile, TE84 Helfet releases from the left side of the line of scrimmage running to the sideline before cutting north on a wheel route to the endzone. Wilson decides to release it to him on a touch pass to just out-of-bounds so that only Helfet would have a chance at the ball. Helfet catches the ball and holds onto it falling out of bounds Santonio Holmes-style for the touchdown.

What a beautiful pass using Helfet’s height advantage on the linebacker. For the most part the Seahawks did a good job of managing the Rams’ pass rush on 1st and 14. The Rams need to bring an extra defender on a delayed blitz through the A-gap to attack Wilson since DE94 Quinn and DE95 Hayes were playing contain. He was simply given too much time as the defense actually had good coverage down the field.

Situation: 2nd and 9 at STL 9Description: Q4 – (3:22) (Shotgun) R.Wilson pass short right to D.Baldwin for 9 yards, TOUCHDOWN. S.Hauschka extra point is GOOD, Center-C.Gresham, Holder-J.Ryan.Opponent: 7. STL

Offensive Formation: Shotgun Slot Right Near

Offensive Personnel: 11

Defensive Formation: Cover 3

I wanted to show this pass simply to illustrate the velocity that Wilson throws the ball at. Watch how quickly the ball flies to Baldwin on the hitch route at the 5 yard line underneath TE84 Helfet. Very impressive.

Situation: 1st and 10 at CAR 23Description: Q4 – (:53) (No Huddle, Shotgun) R.Wilson pass deep middle to L.Willson for 23 yards, TOUCHDOWN. S.Hauschka extra point is GOOD, Center-C.Gresham, Holder-J.Ryan.Opponent: 8. CAR

Offensive Formation: Shotgun Slot Right Near

Offensive Personnel: 11

Defensive Formation: Cover 1

R.Wilson recognizes the Cover 1 defense with SS41 Harper playing deep middle and instantly targets TE82 L.Willson over the middle of the field on a seam route. Perfect ball placement to keep it away from FS33 Boston in coverage.

Situation: 1st and 15 at ARI 20Description: Q3 – (1:02) R.Wilson pass short right to C.Helfet for 20 yards, TOUCHDOWN. S.Hauschka extra point is GOOD, Center-C.Gresham, Holder-J.Ryan.Opponent: 12. ARI

Offensive Formation: Singleback Twin TE Slot Left

Offensive Personnel: 12

Defensive Formation: Cover 6

I wanted to show this touchdown simply because of how much I liked the play design.

Wilson is in singleback with RB24 Lynch in the backfield. He fakes the handoff and runs a bootleg to the right side of the field. TE84 Helfet stays with LB94 Acho to block until Wilson completes the bootleg and Helfet releases to the flat waiting for the pass. Meanwhile TE88 Moeaki and WR15 Kearse (from the left slot) all flood the right side of the field to set up downfield blocking for him. Helfet navigates the running lanes and breaks free up the sideline for a diving touchdown. What a beautiful play design.

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