Here's how Pete Carroll plans to fix the Seattle Seahawks' offense for 2021

Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll believes that running the ball more effectively in 2021 will be a remedy for the offensive woes that defined the second half of their 2020 campaign, which culminated in an unexpected first-round exit to the LA Rams on Saturday.

"We have to run the ball better,” Carroll told reporters Monday at his end-of-season press conference. “Not even better. We have to run it more.”

Carroll for years has been known for his run-first offensive approach, but the Seahawks in 2020 found early success in the deep passing game, helping the team to a league-best 34.3 points per game through the first half of the season. They struggled adapting the last half of the season and into the playoffs, though, with teams taking away the deep ball and points were harder to come by. The Seahawks “lingered in the glow of the first half of the season” offensively, Carroll said.

So the Seahawks coach wants to double down on running the ball to “dictate” the flow of games. The great defenses Seattle faced in the second half of the season -- the Rams (three times), the Giants, Washington and the 49ers -- played versions of two-deep safety looks, via Cover 2 and Cover 4. Carroll wants to run defenses out of their fronts in those coverages, forcing them to bring a safety down to the box, which would open up more deep-play opportunities the Seahawks look for. And if opposing teams don’t relent, Carroll said, he’s fine with pummeling them with the ground attack. It’s the offensive approach he took in previous years with the Seahawks.

He’s fine if fans aren’t “too jacked about hearing that.”

“That doesn't mean we're going to run the ball 50 times a game,” Carroll explained. “It means we're going to run the ball with direction and focus and style that allows us to dictate the game. Frankly, I'd just like to not play against two-deep looks all season long next year. We have to be able to get that done. It's not just the running game. It's the style of passing that will help us some, but we have to get after it a little bit differently. As it unfolded in the end of the season, it became really obvious. In the last 4-5 games, it became really obvious.”

Carroll also pointed to third-down efficiency as being a big focus this offseason. The Seahawks were an abysmal 3 of 14 on third down in the wild-card loss to the Rams, continuing what was an issue all year. Seattle ranked 20th in the NFL during the regular season in third-down conversion rate at 40.2%.

Carroll told 710 ESPN Seattle that getting between a 45-48% conversion rate for next year, which would’ve ranked in the top seven in 2020, is the goal. The offense will be “dynamic” if that can be accomplished, he said. And that, per Carroll, comes down to finding their “go-go guys” more, mixing the run and pass game.

He also mentioned something else that needs to be cleaned up: killer sacks taken by Wilson that put the Seahawks in too many 3rd-and-long situations, hurting their overall conversion rate.

“Russ is good enough to be better than that,” Carroll said of the lackluster third-down numbers. “Our scheme is good enough. Tyler (Lockett). DK (Metcalf). We need to mix the throwing game on third down. We need to mix our run game on third down. So that we don't have to leave the field and we stay out there. We stay out there, we're dangerous. That's a really specific area of the game: it's running the football more effectively to control the scheme and its third-down play."

Carroll divulged that he adjusted the offensive game plan a bit as the season wore on, too -- prioritizing ball protection  -- because the defense started playing well in the second half of the year. Like he’d done during the Legion of Boom years, Carroll wanted to win with defense and manage the game with offense.

And one could say that worked (to an extent), with the Seahawks ending the regular season on a four-game winning streak. But the misfires from Wilson and drops from the receivers and falters in pass pro and turnovers reared their ugly head in the season-ending loss to the Rams on Saturday.

Carroll took responsibility for how the Seahawks’ offense was unable to adjust as quickly and well enough to sustain its success into the end of the season.

In Carroll’s eyes, it comes down to flexibility.

“We have to make sure we don’t get stuck,” Carroll said. “You can get stuck in running the football too much. You can get stuck in throwing the football. You can get stuck on how you throw the football.

“It's why balance is so important, so that you have what you need when it's time to go to it,” Carroll continued. “I think we weighed ourselves out of balance early in the year. It was so attractive throwing the football. … It was fun. I liked it. We got lured into it a little bit.”