Pete Carroll previews Seahawks’ Week 6 matchup against Raiders

Pete Carroll spoke with KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Friday morning to preview the Seahawks’ Week 6 matchup against the Oakland Raiders.

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The game has taken on additional fanfare this week as the two teams speak with international media in London.

“It’s like a bowl game in college,” Carroll said of the feeling. “When you go and you travel and you go to new places, and there’s a brand new excitement and level of interest and all that. It does feel like that, and it’s a lot of fun.”

The Seahawks have a fairly small injury report heading into the game. Defensive end Rasheem Green (ankle) remains out, while defensive end Dion Jordan (knee) and tight end Nick Vannett (back) are questionable. Carroll said Thursday he expects Vannett to play.

The two teams will kick things off at 10 a.m. (PT) at the 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium.

Here are a few notes from Monson’s interview with Seattle’s head coach:

Marshawn Lynch is on pace to be one of the best running backs ever at his age (32): “What Marshawn has done, he’s really taken care of himself. He’s really come back to his playing time in great shape, in great health. It’s hard to stay healthy for older guys, with the kind of pounding that they undergo. I’ve just been really impressed. When we first saw him two years ago, I was shocked at how trimmed and just how well his body was in order, because I’ve seen him over the years and I know what it can look like,” Carroll added with a laugh. “ and he was really fit. And it’s shown up. His flexibility, his quickness, his explosion is still there. He’s very difficult to play against and it’ll be a great challenge for us.”

How are you looking on injuries for this weekend? “We’re in pretty good shape, actually. We came out of the last game pretty healthy. We still don’t have (linebacker) K.J. (Wright), but we have a pretty good group and we’re excited about being healthy at this point in the season.”

What do you think, for fans, is the least understood part of your job? “If you give me some more time I might have a different answer, but my first thought about it is understanding how important it is to deal with the players on a personal level. To help them stay connected so that they can perform at a really high level. Everyone of these guys has got their own life going on, and they’ve got their own issues and concerns. Where (fans) think it’s just football and all that, (the players) have got other things going on. We’re called upon as coaches to know each guy, to understand him, to watch the changes and the effects that the season and the events have on them, to try and maintain the kind of command of their life with them so that they can really stay balanced, stay focused, stay tuned it. It’s just regular life issues. Take Frank Clark last week. Frank was sick as a dog, he could not get out of bed for three days, he got back up and then went back in the hospital again. And he had a terrible week. But our guys stayed with him throughout, we were with him in and out of the hospital and all that, kind of nurtured him along here coming back to life. And he played a heck of a football game for us. And where you would think that a guy would never be able to pull that off, he did. That’s just one illustration. (Another is) J.R. Sweezy; his wife had a baby last week. And right in the middle of the week, you can imagine the excitement and life-changing moment he had, and then he comes back and plays a football game too and finds a way back to us. Some of our guys had issues with the hurricane that just happened down in Florida. Doug Baldwin, in particular. Those things affect these guys. And how we treat them and work with them to try to help them stay balanced and stay focused is really one of the real inside keys of our job, that we either do well or we don’t do well, but we certainly are called on to deal with a lot of interesting things to keep these guys going.”