The Seattle Seahawks went through their last practice in North America Wednesday afternoon before grabbing their backs and head towards merry old England for Sunday’s game against the Oakland Raiders at Wembley Stadium
QUARTERBACK RUSSELL WILSON
(On adjusting to the time difference)
“The time change isn’t too bad. It’s eight hours, I believe it is, so I think that in terms of the time change, it’s not crazy, crazy drastic. Once you get into that 12+ range, that’s when it really gets even worse but I think the key is we’ll get there around 1 or 2 o’clock in the afternoon and then we’ll have practice and kind of stay up and keep moving and then hopefully get to bed early and get some nice long rest once we get there and move on from there.”
(On if he’s been to Wembley Stadium)
“I went to Tottenham (Stadium). I didn’t get to go to Wembley but – I thought we were playing at (Tottenham Stadium) but unfortunately, we’re playing at Wembley but it’s exciting because it’s so much history there so I’m excited about that. I’m excited to play in Wembley. There are so many obviously great matchups and games that have been played there from soccer to other sports as well.
The one thing that I noticed about the National Football League and just Seahawks fans in general, is there is so much energy there. The emphasis around London and Europe in general is just growing, growing, growing, growing so it’s an exciting time and I’m excited to be playing there in London and hopefully come up with a big, big game.”
(On not having a rushing attempt for the first time in his career)
“Yeah, definitely the way things went. I’m never really trying – and this is always the case – I’m never really trying to look to run the ball. Especially with our running backs doing such a great job of running the football, there’s a time and place so if it’s there, it’s there. If it’s not, it’s not. I think some teams, they want to overplay me running it sometimes. That’s part of their game plan and we’ll let the running backs do their thing. I think that, in terms of the zone, we definitely called zone reads, if that’s the question. We’re definitely calling stuff, it’s just not there. It’s not there just because of how we’re playing it, which is fine because we’re rushing for a hundred and ninety yards or whatever it is, so that’s a good thing.”
(On if attention on the quarterback in zone reads is opening up other avenues)
“Yeah, I think so. I think it’s give-and-take. You’ve got to make a decision and that’s what makes it so tough. They’ve got to make a decision on pick and choose and how you want to defend it because there are big potential plays if I pull it because usually there’s only one person over there or maybe nobody and then inside, we’re running it with such great physicality with our offensive line.
It’s tough, because we’re going to gash them that way hopefully just in general. I think that’s the good thing about the zone read game and just us being able to maneuver and make great things happen.”
(On what was working well in the play action game)
“Well, I think we have tremendous receivers. They know how to get open and Doug (Baldwin) and Tyler (Lockett) and so many other guys, I’ve played with them for so long – those two guys in particular – they really see things really well. I think for us, we want to be able to attack the defense through running the football but you also want to attack them in the passing game. How you do that is mixing it up and I think that through our play action game has always been great for years and to be able to – Coach (Brian) Schottenheimer is doing a tremendous job of calling those plays and dialing them up and when they’re there, we take it.
If it’s not, we’ve got great running backs coming out of the backfield, we’ve got guys underneath and it’s just really good stuff. It’s really, really hard because once again, they’ve got to make a decision. Do they come up and try to tackle our running backs or the next thing you know, Doug Baldwin or Tyler Lockett or Brandon Marshall or Jaron Brown or David Moore might be running right by somebody. That’s always a good thing for us.”
