Coach Carroll (Thursday) Quotes:
Q: Detroit’s offense not running the ball as well?
A: “They’re a committed throwing team because their strengths are really there, Abdullah has looked really good in the numbers of carries that he’s had. He’s a very special addition to those guys. Golden is fitting in great in the slot for them, Calvin [Johnson] is such a dominant football player that it draws your focus. Matt Stafford can throw everything. He has every throw that you need, and they go after you. That’s all that potential to put a ton of yards on the board. You can cover guys and they can still make plays and they can run and catch with it after. All of that makes them very difficult.”
Q: Do teams know what is coming from Detroit's offense, as Tate claimed?
A:“No. We don’t know, I wish we did. You always know what they’ve done, you don’t know what’s going to happen in the game. They just tweak it here and there, move a guy a couple yards to one side or the other, and it changes everything for your indicators and stuff. It’s rare that that’s the case. We don’t even expect to know that stuff. Sometimes you get some, there’s tendencies and there’s athletes that are so good at what they do that you know the team is going to do that with them. I don’t see that happening very often.”
Q: Seahawks offensive line's growth?
A: “That’s it. They’re growing and they’re working at it hard. Their confidence is gaining and we’re going to see them continue to improve. I don’t think we’re going to know for another four, five weeks, maybe the half way point of the season. They’ll have some background, some history to figure things out and make evaluations and the communication will have been through a lot of stuff by then. If we can keep them together, it’ll really help us. They’re just progressing.”
Q: Was the offensive line's learning curve anticipated?
A: “I think I’ve been talking the exact same way the whole time. Yeah. We knew that they were not going to be a finished product and the start of this game, starting the season off, but we do like their approach and their toughness and the mentality about learning and the discipline that they’re trying to generate in their play. They’ve got all the right stuff to make up a good group, so it’s just time. This is a very difficult aspect of our game. Offensive line stuff is the most complicated, and they’re just working through it.”
Q: Are the poor the third down and red zone numbers due to the offensive line?
A: “No. It’s just stuff. It’s everything. We can be better. We’ll just get better. We did really well in the second half, but not in the first half. We just have to get it smoothed out, evened out, and I think it’s going to come here as we continue to work. Things don’t have to be so new to us in the first quarter, in the first half of the games. I think we can come out smoother and function a little bit better. You’ve seen us adapt and play much better in the second halves of games. I think we’ve kind of always done that, but we don’t need to only do that. We can fix that a little bit earlier, so we’re working at it.”
Q: Offensive line's chemistry?
A: “You can’t do it without it. They have to be out there together, they have to play the games, they have to go through the experiences and share them. Come back and reevaluate what they could do better, use the wisdom that Tom [Cable] and the coaches can bring to them and bring it to life in their play. It just takes time. It takes time, it doesn’t happen automatically. We don’t like that we have to wait for these guys, but it’s the natural process and we have to go through it.”
Q: Opportunities for the rookies?
A: “Without the opportunity, you wouldn’t know. We’ve kind of thrown our guys out there to see what they can do. Frank and Tyler for sure, we’ve seen a lot out of them. It’s like Justin Britt last year, if you’ll believe in these guys, they’ll develop and they’ll show. Thomas [Rawls] was a guy that, like I said, I’ve been real excited to see what he would be like when he finally got on the field. To see if he would be aggressive and tough like we’d seen, and he showed that. Without the opportunity you wouldn’t know to this extent. The limited amount of carries he had in preseason wasn’t enough. I’d hoped that we would know more, so we just kind of kept with the thought. When we got the chance, we threw him out there and he came through for us. He’s just getting started too. This is the first game, he carried the ball 16 times you know. He’ll improve, he’ll be more effective I think as we continue to let him get the ball.”
Q: Garry Gilliam?
A: “This is a good story. He was a tight end going into his senior year in college, and he didn’t even play all the time. I think he played about half the time. We just saw the athlete and the potential in him. I mentioned it to the players the other night when I was talking about some of our young guys that developed and how far they’ve come and he was one of the examples of a guy that just a year ago was barely holding on to making the team and we were holding on to him because of the potential. I think Tom [Cable] and the guys did a really nice job with developing him in really quick fashion, because they knew his was physically capable and he was smart enough, he just needed to get the knack of what it’s like to play O-line in this league. He’s learning that. He’s had pretty good games so far. He’s played well against some tough guys and he has such an upside. He will continue to improve and it’s a good story. It’s a really good story for us and hopefully he’ll keep going.”
Q: Russell Wilson calling protections?
A: “We’re the best we’ve been. It’s the best we’ve been because of the experience, but still the timing of things is going to improve I think. Our ability to use the seconds on the clock to make the adjustments we have to make, everything can get processed fully, and we can take advantage of that. That’s going to improve for us. There’s tons more for Russell to learn, there’s all kinds of stuff for him to gain. He’s just a fourth year guy, if you want to compare him to the guys that are really doing a great job in this league, those guys have played twice as long, and sometimes three times as long as he’s played. Just imagine how far along he can come in the years ahead. He’s making great progress, he’s working at it, but it’s still a work in progress, still developing, and that’s a cool part of it. We’re going to get better.”
Q: Ahtyba Rubin?
A: “He’s been really good. He’s been really good for us, he’s tough as nails, you can’t knock him off the football. He handles all the double team, the down and dirty work really well. And he’s got a motor about chasing the football that I love, for a big man. You just don’t see big men get up and get on that high horse as often as he does. I think he’s really good at it. It hasn’t manifested in a big play on the sidelines, but he’s going to knock the heck out of some guys and knock that ball loose a couple of times because that effort is there. The opportunity hasn’t really hit yet, but I think we’ll see him in the next couple, we’ll see something like that. He just keeps going for it.”
Q: Jimmy Graham’s blocking?
A: “He’s willing and he’s learning. It’s new for him, he’s a rookie in our system of learning how to block like we need him to. He’s done some good things and he’s had some things that got away from him. There’s a lot happening there, he’s an offensive lineman on some of those plays and there’s a lot to learn. His attitude about it is great, and his work habits and practice are on it, so I think he’s going to continue to progress and get better.”
Q: Jordan Hill?
A: “I think he would be sharing that with Frank. I think both those guys are really on the rise. We’ve seen a lot of good stuff out of Jordan. He’s really active and he’s been hard to block, he’s made stuff happen in the back field, which is really exciting. Frank has been really active as well. I don’t think we’ve corralled all of the things exactly, that we will eventually with Frank and what to count on. He’s playing fast and hard and he’s made a lot of plays and caused problems. I think that there’s a lot more to happen here, you’re going to see him even more so as he gets more comfortable with what we’re asking him. I think both those guys have really been terrific, and they look like they have the chance to really be a factor as we go down the schedule.”
Q: Terrelle Pryor?
A: “We brought him in to throw the football to him as a receiver. He played receiver this year in Cleveland for the first time. He had about a month in preparation from when he went to camp, so he’s really raw and learning, but he’s an extraordinary athlete and he showed that.”
Q: Marshawn Lynch?
A: “If he can’t play, we’ll find out. I liked the way we ran the ball last week, and we were able to get after it. We really ran the ball well in the first half, we just didn’t run it very much. Numbers were up, average was up in good order, we’ll see. How do you replace him? He’s a ridiculously good football player, he’s been for us and a great factor for us forever it seems. We’ll just do the best we can. Guys have to step up if that’s the case and we need that to happen. Thomas and Freddy [Jackson], they’re going to jump up and do some stuff for us.”
Q: Tharold Simon and Steven Terrell's injuries?
A: “They still look like it’s going to be a hard week to get back. I was hoping that they could make the turn. We won’t know, give us a couple days to see if they can even challenge for it. Right now, it’s very questionable whether they can make it back.”
Q: Tyler Lockett?
A: “First, did we mention that he was special teams player of the month or something like that? That’s really exciting recognition for him, but also for all the guys that blocked for him. The blocking for him on the kickoff return the other day was exquisite, and I don’t think we have enough stuff with him yet. He’s been pretty darn productive so far. We need more plays, more opportunities, he’s a very smart returner. I really trust him on the punt return decision making and there’s a lot of stuff that goes into that. You can’t always rely on your gunner, your protector to return punts for you like we did last week, which was fun. I think just with the experience and learning his guys, and guys learning him too. One of the things he’s really good at is getting started on his returns and that’s a big factor for us. We’re going to try to continue to see that be a part of this.”
