Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll addressed several topics during his weekly Monday afternoon meeting with the media. Before addressing his teams dramatic 20-17 win over the Arizona Cardinals Sunday afternoon in Glendale, Carroll made a point to address the news that Seahawks owner Paul Allen’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer had returned and that the team was pulling for thier owner.
(On Paul Allen)
“I’m sure you saw the announcement about Paul (Allen)’s battle that he’s facing. We know that Paul has been through this before. He battled like a real warrior last time (and) he made it through it. The signals are that there will be a real positive outcome. We’re all pulling for him too. We are grateful for all that he stands for in this community and for all of us. We’re going to join together and battle along with him through this process he’s going through that he knows very well. We’re thinking only good thoughts.”
As for the game, Carroll discussed the season-ending injury to All-Pro Safety Earl Thomas and rookie tight End Will Dissly.
(On Earl Thomas’s injury)
“He fractured the tibia in almost the same area where he did it before. He was trying to jump over the receiver on the ground and he just kind of kicked him and they hit right in the same spot. He knew exactly what happened. He felt just the same and all that.”
(On if Earl Thomas had any conversations after the injury) “We were together in and around the locker room and on the plane, so we’ve connected.”
(On if there is a chance for an Earl Thomas return this season) “Last time it took him two or three months or something to get that done. It’s that kind of a situation.”
(On if Earl Thomas’ injury will require surgery) “I don’t know that yet. He hasn’t decided how he’s going to handle it. There is a choice on this break. Tyler (Lockett) had the same break and he did have surgery a couple of years ago. Earl chose not to.”
(On if the last time Earl Thomas opted not to have surgery came with the risk of re-injuring the leg) “I don’t know that. I don’t know about that. I don’t know how they conferred on that, I’m not sure.”
(On dealing with the loss of a player like Earl Thomas)
“Yeah, he’s played great. I don’t see it as replacing Earl Thomas, I don’t see that. He’s a great football player and this demonstrated that for a long period of time. Came out and had probably his best – we both acknowledged it – his best start of any season he could recall. It’s next guy up. This is not Earl coming back, this is Tedric playing in the game. He’s going to do the best he can in the way he plays.
I remind you that Tedric had the best camp and really late offseason work of anybody. He was the most spectacular player we had, making plays and doing things on the back end. I don’t know how high expectations were around about how our secondary was going to play, but these guys are playing good football.
I would expect Tedric to jump in there and do the things that he does really well. He’s a different player to some extent than Earl. Earl’s really one of a kind. He’ll do a good job for us. We intend to see him play really well.”
(On Will Dissly’s injury)
“Will’s going to have surgery this week. He injured his patellar tendon and it’s similar to what Jimmy (Graham) did a while back. I don’t know how similar, but it is the same kind of injury.”
(On if there’s a chance Will Dissly will return this season) “He’ll miss the season.”
Carrol was also asked to assess his team’s overall performance four games into the season with a 2-2 record.
“It’s clear-cut. Four games, so it’s the first quarter end (of the season). We have made marked improvement. We’re finding ourselves (and) we’re finding our way to play the game. Offense and defense fitting together very well. The kicking game continues to be solid. We have a chance to continue to improve.
I think we’re just getting rolling. There’s a lot more to come on the offensive side of the ball in terms of how we mix and how we do the things we want to do. We really needed to focus and establish that we could run the football and find our offensive line’s nature. I think we’ve really tapped into that. That’s really important and it’s a long, long season. There’s so many things that are going to happen during the course of the year.
The start isn’t really the telltale of what these seasons are all about. The fact that we’ve made progress and we have found something that we really like and the way we want to go is huge.”
