OC Ryan Grubb’s spark for sputtering Seahawks offense: no huddle; Kenneth Walker update

If the Seahawks need zip in the Motor City, their play caller knows which key to turn.

Coordinator Ryan Grubb has used no-huddle pace to spark quarterback Geno Smith and Seattle’s offense out of dud periods in each of the team’s first three games.

The Seahawks have won them all. They are in first place in the NFC West heading into their toughest task yet Monday night at the Detroit Lions (2-1) inside roaring Ford Field (5:15 p.m., channel 4).

“I’ve always felt like generating tempo against a defense is, for us, (key),” Grubb, the former University of Washington play caller, said this week.

“We feel like we have more calls than they do.

“So there are more concepts and schemes that we can run on an uptick versus what a defense is capable of running.”

Grubb has opened the playbook and given Smith the license to change and free-wheel in hurry-up, no-huddle mode so far this season.

And it’s worked.

The Seahawks have run 26 plays without huddling through three games. They’ve gained 219 yards (8.4 yards per snap). They’ve scored two touchdowns directly out of no huddle. Not huddling and going in a hurry has jump started other drives that have led to 20 other points.

That’s 34 of Seattle’s 73 points this season coming after not huddling.

At New England in week two, the Seahawks trailed 7-0 late in the first quarter. After a 5-yard run by Zach Charbonnet, Grubb called for the offense to get straight into formation without huddling. He had running back Charbonnet line up wide left to the sideline as an X receiver. DK Metcalf was inside Charbonnet as the slot receiver on the left. Tight end Noah Fant lined up as a wing on the right. Grubb put Fant in motion across the formation to the left.

Grubb correctly predicted from his film study the Patriots would be in man-to-man coverage and blitzing off the edges. He had Fant, the motion man that way, pick up the free blitzer off the offense’s left edge.

In a hurry to merely line up before the no-huddle snap, Patriots safety Kyle Dugger and cornerback Christian Gonzalez got confused. They both covered Charbonnet’s short inside route.

Nobody covered Metcalf. He was open from Foxborough, Massachusetts, to New Hampshire as he ran to the north end zone on the freest, 56-yard touchdown pass on a go route Metcalf will ever have.

“I mean, I wasn’t surprised,” Metcalf deadpanned in Gillette Stadium following Seattle’s 23-20 overtime win over New England Sept. 15.

“Anytime a 6-4 guy, the biggest receiver on the field, running down scot-free, I would leave him open.”

Against Miami last weekend, the Seahawks offense went four drives from midway through the second quarter deep into the third with just one total first down and four Michael Dickson punts. A 17-3 lead after the first quarter was still that into the second half. Seattle’s stalled offense behind a malfunctioning offensive line was keeping the inert Dolphins in the game.

Grubb then had the Seahawks offense go no huddle. Smith ripped off five consecutive completions, to four different receivers. They got three times as many first downs in those five hurry-up plays as they’d had in the four previous drives.

That spark died when Smith got called for intentional grounding avoiding a sack, then threw his third-and-long pass into the arm of Miami defensive tackle Calais Campbell. Zach Sieler intercepted the pass for the Dolphins.

“They’re not used to making calls fast,” Grubb said of opposing defenses.

But Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, a former Pro Bowl defensive back for the Jets and Texans in the 1990s and early 2000s, is known across the NFL for his quick calls and aggressive defenses.

“I know Detroit does (have that),” Grubb said, “and we have to be aware of that and not think that the whole game plan is going to rely on just going fast (Monday night).

“But you certainly can see when teams struggle to line up quickly, and then you can attack that.”

Kenneth Walker trending to playing

Lead running back Kenneth Walker appears trending to play Monday night. It would be his first game after missing two following the oblique injury he got late in his 103-yard rushing day Sept. 8 in Seattle’s opening win over Denver.

The Seahawks listed Walker as a limited participant on its practice report Friday, for the second consecutive day.

The practice was a walk-through. The report was an estimation of what players would have been designated as had it been a full practice.

Nwosu, Williams, Murphy update

The estimation makes it less conclusive that outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu, defensive end Leonard Williams and top rookie defensive tackle Byron Murphy were listed as not participating in practice Friday.

Nwosu practiced Wednesday for the first time since Aug. 24, the night the key outside linebacker sprained the medial collateral ligament in his knee on a cut block by Cleveland guard Wyatt Teller in the final preseason game. Nwosu missed practice Thursday. How he responds Saturday will be telling on whether he can make his season debut Monday night.

Williams’ injured ribs are a concern for the Detroit game, because the Seahawks play three games in 10 days including Monday night. Murphy’s hamstring injury appears likely to keep him out of the game against the Lions.

Mike Morris again is ready for extended playing time on the defensive line, as he got after Williams and Murphy got hurt in the first half last weekend against Miami.

The Seahawks injury report for Monday night’s game will come out officially Saturday afternoon.

Murphy’s injury puts 12th-year veteran and Detroit-area native Johnathan Hankins, coming off a big game against Miami, on the spot in the middle of Seattle’s defensive line against the Lions’ rushing tandem of David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs.

Hankins is the only true nose tackle on Seattle’s active roster.