The Seattle Seahawks ( 1-2) are looking to even their season record when they entertain the Indianapolis Colts (1-2) Sunday Night 5:30 p.m. at CenturyLink Field before a Nationally televised audience. The Seahawks are looking to rebound from last weeks 33-27 road loss to the Tennesse Titans. The Seahawks lone victory this season has been at CenturyLink Field. The Colts are coming off a 31 to 28 home win over the Cleveland Browns.
The Colts are coming off a 31 to 28 home win over the Cleveland Browns. The Colts first two losses were to NFC West teams, Los Angeles Rams 46 to 9 in the season opener at Los Angeles and that was followed up by a 16 to 13 home loss to the Arizona Cardinals 16 to 13.
Heres what the coaches had to say leading up to Sunday’s prime-time matchup.
COLTS HEAD COACH CHUCK PAGANO
(On how tough of a challenge is it to start the season without Andrew Luck)
“Yeah, you want to have everybody and when you are missing the leader of your team and certainly, your quarterback, it’s hard. But we make no excuses. It’s next man up and we’ve been down that road before, unfortunately. Couple years ago, he misses nine games and lucky to have Hasselbeck, Matt in here, who you guys know well and he goes 5-3 as a starter. So we won games and found a way because it is a team sport. We know how important that guy is. We know how important that position is and to have your guy there but it takes a team to win football games and so it is challenge. We all know that. But again, it is next man up and everybody’s play’s got to rise.”
(On what allows Frank Gore to be an effective running back at age 34)
“Oh it’s just he takes great care of himself. He is a great pro. He takes very little time off in the offseason. He always comes into camp in shape. He trains and he works and he is a durable guy and he is a tough guy. He is still able to produce at a high level and that is because of his work ethic and obviously, probably more than anything, his toughness.”
SEAHAWKS HEAD COACH PETE CARROLL
(Opening) “We have a new team that we are learning this week in Indy. A team we haven’t played in a while. So it is a good challenge for us coming back home. We got a lot of work to do to figure these guys out and how they are playing. They have a new quarterback and also it’s a good challenge for us. It always feels so good for us to be coming back to CenturyLink, so we are looking forward to that and putting together a great week.”
(On an explanation for why the offense struggles to get going early)
“Yeah, we haven’t functioned as cleanly. We just haven’t. We didn’t at Green Bay and we dropped a couple balls that would have made a world of difference in game two and it was hard getting started in game three. It is that ability to make sure the throws and the catches are happening. We saw them against the Niners and the throws were there and the touchdown plays were there and we didn’t convert them.
So regardless of how it happened, that was a big part of it, so we just have to be cleaner and sharper and make sure we are functioning earlier to get a better start going. The first drive was a 15-play drive in the Niners game. Everything was perfect and beautiful and all that and then we ended up kicking a field goal. It is a couple different things here but it’s really clear what we need to get done, so we should be able to function a lot better. We are really counting on that happening and this would be a great week to get it started.”
