Defensive line tad banged up. But Seahawks ‘counting on’ Jadeveon Clowney to play Monday
Three key parts of the Seahawks’ surging defensive line weren’t surging.
But it’s still early in game-prep week.
Tackles Al Woods and Jarran Reed stood and watched practice Wednesday. Jadeveon Clowney walked inside at the start of it, presumably for more rehabilitation in the training room.
Yet coach Pete Carroll sounded the most optimistic he has yet since his top sack man got an abdominal-muscle injury the last game he played, his domination at San Francisco Nov. 11.
“We’re counting on him getting back. We are. We’re counting on him getting back,” Carroll said of Clowney for the Seahawks (9-2) hosting Minnesota (8-3) Monday night.
“But he’s still got to make it. That’s a little twinge of optimism there, again. He feels good about it and he wants to go. He’s going to try and make it.”
Clowney flew to Philadelphia ahead of the team’s arrival there late Friday night for Sunday’s win at the Eagles. The three-time Pro Bowl defensive end met with a specialist, Dr. William Meyers, who is known to have pioneered treatment and procedures core-muscle injuries.
Meyers found Seattle’s edge rusher who has keyed Seattle’s late-season revival of its pass rush has a sports-hernia injury. He does not need surgery. Meyers recommended therapy instead. Carroll said that therapy initially pained Clowney, but at the expected benefit of quicker healing over the near term.
While Clowney missed the Eagles game, his first missed game of his Seattle debut season, Reed sprained his ankle 21 plays into the win. He left the visiting locker room in Philadelphia after the game wearing a walking boot.
“He’s determined to practice and to play in the game at the end of the week. He was out at walk-through doing his stuff (Wednesday morning), so we’ll see,” Carroll said. “It’s going to be day to day for us to figure it out.
“We won’t do (that) until probably game time.”
The 32-year-old Woods has quietly been excellent in his Seahawks debut season on the inside of the defensive line. Then again, that’s how defensive tackle normally excel: out of the limelight, taking up blockers so All-Pro Bobby Wagner and other linebackers and safeties can make the tackles.
Thing is, Woods has not just plugged gaps and tied up offensive linemen. He’s blown threw them into the backfield to ruin multiple plays per game. He did it again in Philadelphia.
Clowney, Reed, Woods and their teammates get a rest day Thursday. The Seahawks are off for Thanksgiving, a luxury they can afford because of the Monday night game and the extra day between games.
Carroll said he was going to meet with his players late Wednesday to give them a holiday reminder.
“We’ll talk about it before the day’s over, but (Thanksgiving) is not an eating circus,” Carroll said. “We’ve got to make sure the guys are well aware of that.”
The defensive backs are gathering at Shaquill Griffin’s house and bringing their own baked dishes to share, in one locker-room example of how the Seahawks will spend their holiday.
Are there some players Carroll is more concerned about than others in overeating on Thanksgiving?
“There’s a couple. We got a whole bunch of big guys,” Carroll said. “There are a few guys. I’m not going to mention any names. We’ll make the point.”
Woods’ health after not practicing at the start of drills the media were permitted to watch Wednesday will be a factor for Monday night’s game. The Vikings have a forceful, at-times dominant running game led by Dalvin Cook. He already has rushed for more than 1,000 yards this season.
“He’s really explosive. He’s elusive. He’s a really good tackle-breaker,” Carroll said. “Plus, they give him the football out of the backfield as well. In open field, he’s really tough to get down. He’s got a real good style about him, very aggressive running style that allows him to run through tackles. Sometimes, he just bounces off of guys.
“We’ve got to do a great job of tackling.”
And rushing Kirk Cousins. Minnesota’s maligned quarterback for getting an $84 million guaranteed contract and not producing last season is having a career year. He is completing more than 70 percent of his throws with 21 touchdowns against just three interceptions. That’s the same number of interceptions as Russell Wilson for Seattle.
Having Clowney opposite a revived Ziggy Ansah would go a long way to the Seahawks making Cousins uncomfortable.
Clowney was coming off a bye and his best game yet since arriving in Seattle Sept. 1 in his trade from Houston. On Nov. 11 he dominated the San Francisco 49ers’ offensive line. Clowney had a sack. He had five of Seattle’s season-high 10 quarterback hits. He forced a fumble. He recovered a fumble.
He thoroughly terrorized Jimmy Garoppolo and the Niners, and the Seahawks beat the last undefeated team in the NFL.
Ansah followed Clowney’s gem by playing his best game of his Seattle debut season on the opposite end of the defensive line last weekend. He constant pressure, 1 1/2 sacks, a forced fumble and a third sack and second force fumbled negated by penalty helped force five Eagles turnovers in the Seahawks’ latest win.
Clowney and Ansah the last two games have turned what had been Seattle’s potentially fatal flaw—a weak pass rush—into the largest reason why the Seahawks are in control of their fate for the NFC West division title.
Now second-year man Shaquem Griffin is speed rushing into the backfield the last two games. Quinton Jefferson has continued to be a consistent force. Last year’s third-round pick Rasheem Green is coming off his best game of his brief NFL career. And rookie first-round draft choice L.J. Collier showed enough in his 25 snaps to likely earn more time in a growing pass-rush rotation.
“You see it affecting the quarterback. It really helps to really put pressure on the quarterback.” defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. said following practice Wednesday. “It certainly changes the whole complex of the game. Any time you get them, you knock them down, you take the ball away, to me as a caller, it kind of helps. You get them in longer situations and things like that.
“It kind of affects how they call plays, as wellm because they feel like they can’t hold the ball longer. They can’t throw the deep ball and things like that.
“It certainly changes the whole complex of the game.”
This story was originally published November 27, 2019 at 5:58 PM.
