Pete Carroll smiling about Seahawks happy injury report for Saturday’s playoff game at Dallas
Pete Carroll playfully tapped the small interview table off the side of his team’s practice field, twice. He smiled even more than the sunny-side up coach usually does.
No wonder. The coach’s Seahawks have a mostly clear injury report for Saturday night’s NFC wild-card playoff game at Dallas.
The week began with six starters missing practice. But Thursday, Shaquill Griffin, Bradley McDougald and Tedric Thompson—starters in the secondary recently injured and out of practices—did not appear on the list of injuries for the NFC wild-card playoff game. All are full go, ready to start on Saturday in Arlington, Texas.
Seattle recently mixed-and-matched offensive line will be back to at least 80 percent of full health.
The only question among any of the team’s regulars for Dallas is left guard J.R. Sweezy. He is questionable with a sprained arch in his left foot. Both the Pro Bowl alternate and Carroll have said how much improved Sweezy is this week over last, after Sweezy got hurt in the first half of the playoff-clinching win over Kansas City on Dec. 23.
Fullback Tre Madden is doubtful to play because of a hamstring injury. He’s been playing only about one-fifth of Seattle’s offensive snaps recently.
This is as good a shape as this battered team has been entering a game this season.
“The rest of the guys are ready to go,” Carroll said, enthusiastically, on the eve of his 15th postseason game as Seattle’s coach since he arrived in 2010.
“Sweez’s got a good chance. He feels great. We’ll find out at game time if he can play, too.
“So we made it through the week, and we are feeling pretty good about that. It just helps everybody feel good and excited about moving forward. So I’m looking forward to it.”
The coach said Sweezy will have to show during pregame warm-ups Saturday evening at AT&T Stadium that he can make his game moves on the “unusual” foot injury, as Carroll called it last week. That means he will need to show coaches and the team’s medical staff he move laterally on the foot and drive off it to block.
Even if Sweezy can’t play—and knowing the rugged veteran, he is probably going to have to get physically pulled off the field not to—the Seahawks’ offensive line will be back to mostly normal. That is, compared to when it allowed six sacks of Russell Wilson last week in the regular-season finale against Arizona. It was his most times sacked since the dark ages of week two this season, when Seattle was mistakenly throwing 73 percent of the time and going 0-2 in losses at Denver and at Chicago.
The Seahawks held D.J. Fluker out of last weekend’s game with the playoffs already clinched. The starting right guard said this week he feels “10 times better” compared to last week after he had to play against the Chiefs following Sweezy’s injury.
Fluker’s return means Germain Ifedi will be back at his usual right-tackle spot in Dallas. He filled in at right guard for Fluker last week.
George Fant will be back at his 2018 spot of sixth offensive lineman/extra tight end, the unique role he does more than anyone else in the league. The backup offensive tackle has played 25 percent or more of a game’s snaps for the NFL’s top-ranked rushing offense this season. Fant had to play right tackle last week when Ifedi went inside to play guard for idling Fluker.
The Seahawks believe back to status quo on the right side of the line will solve most of their issues picking up Arizona’s crossing stunts on its defensive front on passing downs last week. Dallas’ 69-year-old defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli is renowned for the stunts and switching games he has his linemen and linebackers do on the Cowboys’ defense.
So communication and continuity among the Seahawks’ regulars on the line of scrimmage is a key to winning Saturday.
And Carroll had this assessment of lead back Chris Carson, who missed two regular-season games with hip and groin issues but finished with 1,134 yards rushing and nine touchdowns including 516 yards and five scores in December: “Here we are, 18 weeks in, and he’s at the top of his game.”
Plus, Carson backup, rookie first-round pick Rashaad Penny, is all the way back from knee issues that kept him out of two games last month.
Plenty of reasons for Carroll to be happy boarding the flight to Texas Thursday afternoon.
“It’s been a really fun week getting ready. It’s a great time of year to be playing football,” Carroll said. “For the guys that have been there, they really regard (being in the playoffs) highly. The new guys are trying to figure it out, trying to draw from the guys that have been around.
“But, man, it’s fun. It’s fun to coach. It’s fun to work. It’s fun to follow your teams, and all that. So we feel very fortunate that we are in this spot.”
This story was originally published January 3, 2019 at 2:53 PM.
