The Seahawks finished their install package friday afternoon as they prepared to host the New Orlean Saints. Gone for the Saints is the shock of losing Drew Brees to a thumb injury during last weeks game against the Los Angeles Rams. With said calamitous disaster behind them the Saints are looking to pull off an upset Sunday afternoon at CenturyLink Field. The Saints are averaging 102.5 yards a game and have the 17th best rungame in the league led by versatile and durable running back Alvin Kamara. Teddy Bridgewater will start for the Saints and has sufficient talent to test the Seahawks defense.
If the Seahawks are to avert the upset the will need to play their best football to date according to Pete Carroll.
PETE CARROLL ON PLAYING SMART FOOTBALL
“This has been a really challenging week for us in getting ready. You figure by week three of the season, you’ve got a pretty good feel for what’s going on, but we really have some questions on how they’re going to play this weekend. We’re ready for a lot of stuff, kind of like the opener. I know they’ve been right across the water over here so, it’s kind of spooky that they’ve just been right over there practicing, getting ready. We haven’t seen them at all, so that’s good, I guess.
We’re hoping it’s a really good matchup for us. We really need to come back to CenturyLink Field and play good ball and we’re going to try to play really smart across the board and make it really hard on our opponent to get us. That means Teams got to come through with a big challenge against their group.
Both O and D got to come through too and give us a chance to win. It’s going to be a good match.”
Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll on his team needing to play their best football against the Saints.
INJURIES: SOME GOOD NEWS SOME BAD NEWS
The injury report from Friday’s practice went from optimistic to bleak when Carroll announced that Rashaad Penny suffered a hamstring injury twenty minutes from the end of practice. Penny, Tre Flowers ( ankle ) and Tedric Thompson ( hamstring ) who missed last week’s game were all listed as questionable for Sunday’s game. The good news according to Carroll was Ziggy Ansah being cleared and ready to participate in Sunday’s game.
INJURY REPORT
CARROLL UPDATE ON INJURIES
(On how Ziggy Ansah did this week)
“Ziggy’s ready to play. Ready to play football. We’re excited to see that. It’s been a really good process to get him to this. He’s in good shape too. He’s worked hard and long. He’s in better shape than sometimes when a guy is just coming back. We’ll be able to get him a bunch of plays here in this game. Look forward to his participation with us.”
(On what happened to Tre Flowers)
“He turned his ankle yesterday, just got it. If you really want to go at it, we can talk ankles and hamstrings if you want to. I can’t tell you what’s going to happen, we’re going to take him up to game time on that one. It wasn’t severe at all, but something happened that we had to hold him back. You’ll see too that [Rashaad] Penny came up a little bit today, so we held him back a little bit. He’ll wind up on the injury report with a hamstring. This is a classic day for us on Friday.”
(On is Rashaad Penny is questionable for the game)
“We’re putting him down as questionable until we know more. Just happened about twenty minutes ago.
(On what he saw from Jamar Taylor when he was practicing as a corner) “Well, he understands the position. He’s played a lot of football and he’s experienced and all that. We really won’t hesitate at any time if he goes outside, we feel comfortable with it and his background, his savvy. He’s really smart and so you really feel confident in his ability to understand what’s going on and how to fill the role and all that. He’s a good experience guy to have.”
(On if he’s starting to see the defensive line come together with Ziggy Ansah and Poona Ford coming back) “Well, we’ll see. Poona did a really good job this week, he made it through the whole week of work. He’s definitely back and ready to go. It was a great recovery, just took a week to get him back. We’re getting closer. When you get your guys back, it doesn’t mean you’ve got it. It means now you can start growing with him and figuring out the way they all fit together and all that. That’s kind of where we are.”
(On if Tedric Thompson has a chance to play) “He’s questionable right now. We’ll work him out at the stadium and see what happens.”
(On if there was a reason that they gave Ziggy a few extra weeks instead of starting him week one) “It really turned out in the process. That’s the way I think, and we took a shot at it. He made it back to practice in week one in time to do that, but we just felt like it was better to build his confidence and the return and all of that. He just waited out to secure the return. Hopefully, that’s what happened.”
(On if Ziggy will have to wear a harness) “He’s got something he’s wearing. I don’t know what it is.”
(On how Jadeveon Clowney has fit in the past few weeks) “I couldn’t be more excited to see these guys play together and get going. JD is just getting started too. It’s pretty fun. Can’t wait to see what it looks like.”
(On Ethan Pocic’s status)
“He’s hurting. He’s hurting. He’s still pretty sore.”
(On how Joey Hunt has bounced back from his ankle injury) “He did. He did bounce back in practice. He made it through the week and did just fine. He’s ready to play.”
(On if Jaron Brown is healthy) “Yeah, he’s fine.”
(On what Akeem King brings to the team)
“He’s really smart, knows our system. He’s one of our guys, been here long enough technique-wise, where he’s really grooved, we’re really counting on him. He has the flexibility to play around different spots. We’ve always done different things with him which is a good sign that he’s got good understanding of depths in the system and all that. So, he’ll do fine, he’s ready to play if we need him.”
(On if he learned anything from week one on how to approach a team that you don’t know much about)
“Yeah we learned some stuff. You learn that your players can adapt. Coaches have to make sense to the players so the communication is really solid, so the things that you do show up and come through. It just helps. Any time you’re challenged it just helps you get better. So, we feel more comfortable having a kind of quieter game plan if we need to call on it, so it has helped us.”
(On how Travis Homer is doing)
“Travis [Homer] is doing fine, everything we’re asking of him, he’s doing great. Really, really plays hard on special teams. If you want to watch him – we haven’t had many kicks returned against us- just watch how he fast he runs. He’s ready to go make something happen, so we’re really excited about his contribution. If he had to go in the game, he will do the full complement of our offense. He can do all the stuff.”
(On Joey Hunt being able to play both backup guard and center)
“Joey’s [Hunt] worked hard at that so that he can give that to us. If we needed to make that kind of choice, Joey can jump in there.”
