With Chris Carson and Rashaad Penny both getting involved in the team’s rushing attack on Monday night, the Seattle Seahawks rushed for a season-high 218 yards against the Minnesota Vikings.
The pair combined for three touchdowns on the night as the Seahawks carved up the a defense that ranked sixth in the league against the run entering the contest. As Carson and Penny begin to form a cohesive dual-threat attack for Seattle’s offense, the Seahawks are excited about the potential that brings to the table in the final month of the regular season.
“We’re very difficult to deal with when that’s going on like that,” offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said.
Seattle is third in the league in rushing with an average of 143.7 yards per game through 12 games. However, they’ve improving as the season progresses with an average of 159.8 yards per game over the last eight games and 171.0 yards per game over the last four. The only game since the start of October where they have failed to rush for 140 yards as a team was their Week 7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens when they rushed for just 106 yards.
After getting just 36 carries through the first 10 games of the season, Penny has rushed for 203 yards on 29 carries with two rushing touchdowns and a receiving touchdown the last two weeks.
“When those two guys are feeling it like that, it’s very energetic,” Schottenheimer said. The guys feel the energy. It’s truly tangible. You can just feel it like there’s no question.
“You’ll rarely get linemen who will come up to you and say, ‘Hey we need to throw it more.’ They don’t say that. They’re not programmed that way. ‘Hey Schotty, we need to spread them out in empty and throw it more!’ They always want to run the ball more, number one. This group of guys, they do feed off of the success. They do get going, they do take it personally.”
The Seahawks rushed for 273 yards in their last trip to face the Rams in Los Angeles a season ago. Another similar performance would go a long way toward Seattle maintaining their slim lead in the NFC West ahead of the San Francisco 49ers this weekend.