Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Brian Fleury prioritized the middle of the field when attacking the Arizona Cardinals defense in Week 9, and it opened up the Seahawks’ run game by stretching the opposing linebackers thin. Mack Wilson Sr. and Jack Gibbens were caught looking for the chicken and the egg at the same time. They couldn’t catch the chicken, or crack the egg.

The chicken, in this case, were the in-breaking routes wide receivers Cooper Kupp and Jaxon Smith-Njigba were running over the middle of the field. They gave the offense space to work with underneath, allowing running back Zach Charbonnet to rush 16 times for 77 yards. That might not sound like a stat line to glorify, but the offense has been searching for methods to get to 4.8 yards per carry for several weeks. It’s actually the highest yards per carry average any Seahawks’ running back has allotted in a single game since Jadarian Price took 10 carries for 52 yards in Week 1. That’s where the egg comes in.

The egg, of course, was the efficiency of the running game. The Seahawks could rely on their inside run plays. They could rely on their in-breaking routes in the middle of the field. Neither were figured out during the course of this matchup. Fleury will see the positives on tape, and look to build in Week 10 when Seattle travels to face the Las Vegas Raiders.

Follow seahawkswire.usatoday.com and @TheSeahawksWire on X for human analysis of all things Seahawks.