RENTON, WEash. -- The Seattle Seahawks have always taken pride in their ability to run the football during Pete Carroll's tenure as head coach. However, Seattle finds itself 25th in rushing through the first six weeks of the season. They're averaging just 88.8 yards rushing a game.
The Seahawks have not averaged under 100 yards rushing per game since Carroll's first season in Seattle in 2010.
"Still trying to find it, in truth," assistant head coach and offensive line coach Tom Cable said. "Sometimes it looks OK. And then other times it doesn't look worth a damn. So we have work to do and continuing to chase that."
Seattle had hoped to have a tandem attack to fill the void left by the retirement of Marshawn Lynch. Thomas Rawls and Christine Michael were expected to head the group with C.J. Prosise factoring in as a third-down back. However, little has gone to plan due to injuries.
Rawls played just a game and a half before suffering a hairline fracture in his fibula. Prosise broke a bone in his wrist in the season opener and hasn't returned to the lineup. Also, quarterback Russell Wilson - a major staple of Seattle's rushing attack - has been slowed due to a right high-ankle sprain and left MCL sprain.
"It's a different run game that we're using right now," offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell said. "It's still part of us. It's still something that we've always had. The zone-read part of it has not been used as much as we've gone to other style of runs."
Seattle just hasn't been able to supplement Michael's production with anything else.
"We're OK. We just need more emphasis added, we just need more turns. We need to run it more," Carroll said.
C.J. Spiller was signed as a free agent to plug a hole and rookie Alex Collins has been used sparingly. Prosise could return as soon as this week against Arizona, but Rawls won't be back for a few weeks.
The Seahawks have been successful with their passing game and have managed a 4-1 start without their typical rushing production, but Seattle still wants to get back to having the running game as a strength.
"You'd like to get them both," Cable said. "That's really what we're chasing here is to find that balance, I think, that makes us really dangerous, more explosive."
