Greg Cosell's Week 10 Review: Seattle's strategic wrinkle that gave New England fits

The Seattle Seahawks had to figure out a way to pull off a road upset at the New England Patriots, who hadn’t lost since Tom Brady returned.

The answer for them turned out to be the use of empty backfield sets in critical situations.

The Patriots had a ton of trouble defending the Seahawks when they cleared out the backfield. That was the key strategic element for the Seahawks in a tight game.

That doesn’t fit with the image of the Seahawks, who rose to prominence with Marshawn Lynch and the run game as their foundation. But they are predominantly a spread passing team with Russell Wilson in the shotgun, working out of three-receiver personnel. They have incorporated more four-receiver personnel too.

Against the Patriots, they really spread it out. On the second possession, the Seahawks seemed to find that the Patriots had trouble matching up against empty sets. When Seattle came out with “01” personnel (no running back, one tight end) for the first time, they found the Patriots matched up in man.

Later in the drive, on third-and-6 out of an empty set with a four-man bunch set to one side and running back C.J. Prosise as the outside receiver, they got the matchup they wanted. Prosise went in motion from the backfield, bringing linebacker Shea McClellin with him. McClellin was matched against Prosise in space, Prosise had an inside stem with a whip route back outside that easily beat McClellin. It was a great design out of a 4 x 1 (four receivers to one side, one receiver to the other) set to break down man coverage.

The Seahawks also relied on bunch concepts to break down the Patriots’ coverage. They went empty again on third-and-7, with a three-man tight bunch and Jermaine Kearse as the outside receiver. Kearse ran a drive route underneath Jimmy Graham’s vertical release, which created a natural rub element. It went for 20 yards.

What helped in this game, especially with the reliance on empty sets in key spots, was that Seattle’s offensive line did a good job in this game. The Seahawks had an efficient run game and protected well for the most part. One dimension the Patriots lack is a consistent pass rush. They don’t have an individual pass rusher who needs to be accounted for. That allowed the Seahawks to keep attacking the Patriots like they did.

In the fourth quarter, the Seahawks went back to an empty set on third-and-6. Prosise was in the slot inside of Kearse, and the Patriots had linebacker Elandon Roberts matched on Prosise. Prosise ran a slot fade route, beat Roberts, and Wilson delivered a good pass for 38 yards.

The Seahawks had five huge third-down conversions out of empty sets. The final one was the game-winning touchdown.

Doug Baldwin was the inside slot on one side, and Jimmy Graham was the inside slot on the other. It was clear early in the game that Bill Belichick wanted to double-team Graham in the red zone, and on this play the Patriots had single-high safety Duron Harmon helping Patrick Chung on Graham. Baldwin beat Logan Ryan on the other side on a seam route and Wilson again made an excellent throw for a 15-yard touchdown. Because the Seahawks spread it out and the Patriots wanted extra attention on Graham, there was no safety help against Baldwin’s route.

The Seahawks did a great job with formations, route concepts and individual matchups in this game. They had been effective with empty sets before this season, and relied on that as a key piece of their game plan against New England.

Give the Seahawks coaching staff a lot of credit for knowing how to attack the Patriots defense, which led to a big road win on Sunday night.

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NFL analyst and NFL Films senior producer Greg Cosell watches as much NFL game film as anyone. Throughout the season, Cosell will join Shutdown Corner to share his observations on the teams, schemes and personnel from around the league.