Pete Carroll previews Seahawks-49ers: KJ Wright ruled out, Prosise to IR
Nov 30, 2018, 1:36 PM | Updated: Dec 1, 2018, 1:05 pm
Pete Carroll's Seahawks could win 10 games in a year they weren't expected to be over .500. (AP)
(AP)
The (6-5) Seahawks control their own playoff destiny following a 30-27 win over the Carolina Panthers in Week 12. They’ll play four of their five remaining games at home, with the first matchup being a 1:25 p.m. kickoff against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, Dec. 2.
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Despite that, it’s not going to be an easy road to the postseason. During his weekly interview with KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll cautioned against underestimated the 49ers, now 2-9 and coming off a 27-9 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“This is a team that’s more talented than their record,” Carroll said. “The problem for their season is minus-17 turnovers. When you’re in that situation you can’t win games… so that’s really, really hard to deal with. That’s the story of their year as I would look at it. So when we play them, the day we play them, they’re talented and they can run, they’re physical, they’ve got a good front, they’ve got a really, really good scheme on offense, a great playcaller, they’ve got a committed running game. So they’ve got a lot of aspects. If on this day they take care of the ball and play a good, solid football game they’re going to be as hard as anybody. That’s how we’re preparing. We’re preparing for their very best… that’s how we see it. The running back is really good, the receivers and tight end are really good. There’s problems on both sides of the ball for us.”
On the injury front for Seattle, linebacker K.J. Wright (knee) and running back C.J. Prosise (abdomen) were ruled out Friday, with Prosise hitting the injured reserve on Saturday, ending his season. Fullback Tre Madden (chest) and safety Shalom Luani (quadricep) are doubtful, while defensive tackle Shamar Stephen is questionable with a foot injury.
The Seahawks promoted linebacker Emmanuel Ellerbee from the practice squad Saturday to take Prosise’s spot on the active roster.
Here are a few highlights from Carroll’s interview with Monson. You can hear the full interview in the audio clip embedded above, or on KIRO radio’s Pete Carroll Show podcast page.
You’re sitting at 6-5 right now. Does that sound about right for the type of team you’re coaching up every day? “Heck no, no,” Carroll said with a laugh. “I’m totally not happy with that. We’ve given too many opportunities away at this point, so now we’re really on it. For us it’s like playoff time. Every game is championship and we’ve got to go for it and give it everything we have and see if we can stack some wins up together here and do something special with this year.”
There are a lot of people that think this has been one of your best coaching jobs, but can you talk a little bit about the unique challenges of this season? “Well we really did have to find ourselves, and it took a month or five weeks into the season to really get a feel and then when we started to establish it we could tell. So that was frustrating early (but) it’s been really exciting to see us change it and turn it… and now we have a chance here with five weeks of the season left to go ahead and do something with it.”
Richard Sherman took a few shots at the organization after being released. Your number one rule is to protect the team. Does it bother you when there are shots at the organization on the way out? “You know, I don’t really care, I don’t care what they say. Guys say what they have to say because they’re in their world, particularly when they’re leaving. And whatever they come to, they come to. Like anybody else, you don’t like people saying bad things about you. But I don’t really feel that’s really what’s happened. I think guys are just stating their opinion on the way out and trying to justify their next step that they’re making, and they do whatever they’ve got to do, and I’m not going to worry about that… I would like to think that when guys leave here they’re grateful for the time because they were treated well and we handled their situation the best we could and all that, but it doesn’t come across like that to them. So whatever comes out, comes out.”
Any injury updates? “There’s a couple guys here that are going to challenge us all the way up to gametime… (linebacker) K.J. (Wright) is in a routine he’s doing to see if we can get him healthy for the next weeks to come. (Fullback) Tre Madden is banged up a little bit, we’ll see where he is. It’s going to be hard for him to make it back. We’ll see. A couple guys gotta run in pregame to see where they are also. No definitives at this point, everything’s gonna go to gametime.”
