Pete Carroll: Seahawks’ run game, Wilson’s improvement, losing Adams

The Seahawks got back in the win column last week, beating the San Francisco 49ers 30-23 to sweep the season series over the division rival. Now, Seattle hits the road to take on the 2-10 Houston Texans.

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Head coach Pete Carroll is looking for the Seahawks to get back-to-back wins for the first time all season on Sunday, and he sat down with voice of the Seahawks Steve Raible on The Pete Carroll Preview on 97.3 KIRO FM’s Seattle’s Morning News to discuss the recent win over the 49ers and what it means going forward into this week’s game against the Texans and beyond.

Russ looks like Russ

The Seahawks snapped a three-game losing streak by beating the 49ers and a big reason why was the play of quarterback Russell Wilson.

Wilson started all three of those losses, and those were his first three games back after missing four weeks with a finger injury that required surgery.

Wilson didn’t look like himself during those three games, completing just over 50% of his passes and only finding the end zone twice in the three contests.

Sunday against the 49ers was a different story, though, as Wilson completed 30 of 37 attempts for 231 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Wilson also should have had at least one more touchdown pass — possibly two — as tight end Gerald Everett bobbled and dropped a would-be touchdown that the 49ers intercepted, and he later fumbled a shovel pass near the goal line that may have been another score.

“Russ, we should all understand that this is his ninth week (removed) from surgery, so this is really the (time) he can really start going,” Carroll told Raible. “For him to play after four weeks was a great challenge, but he did it and he was capable (enough) to do it. But now, he’s even better than ever, so we’re excited about that.”

Adams done for year

While Wilson looks to be back in form, the Seahawks will be without a star on defense for the rest of the season.

Safety Jamal Adams, who was a second-team All-Pro last year, injured his shoulder during the second quarter against the 49ers and didn’t return. Earlier this week, it was revealed that Adams re-injured the same shoulder he had surgery on last offseason and that he needed surgery again, ending his 2021 season after 12 games.

Carroll made it clear how big of a loss that is for his team for the next five weeks.

“Losing Jamal, there’s no way you can replace that kind of character and personality on your team, but we can replace the play,” he said.
“Ryan (Neal) will bring his part to it and he’ll do some great stuff for us, but Jamal is a rare football player and we love him and we’re all sending good wishes (for his recent surgery) … Hopefully everything turned out great and he’ll be roaring back at us. We certainly will miss him.”

Better running game

The Seahawks have typically been a run-heavy team under Carroll, but the run game has lacked in 2021 since starting running back Chris Carson’s season ended after just four games due to a neck injury.

The Seahawks enter Sunday 24th in rushing offense and that aspect of the offense has struggled in recent weeks to get going.

But against the 49ers, the Seahawks ran the ball 27 times for 146 yards, including a 73-yard touchdown by Travis Homer on a fake punt in the first quarter.

Carroll said he wants the offense to use the run game over the final five games of the year to help keep the offense balanced.

“We’re going to count on it to do that,” he said.

Carroll said that when you have rushing attempts and completions add up to 50 or more, “You win the game. The percentage of winning is close to 90%.”

That was the case against the 49ers with 27 rushing attempts and 30 Wilson completions.

“When you get that kind of combination done, you almost always win,” Carroll said.

The Seahawks may have ran it 27 times for 146 yards, but if you take out the long Homer run, Seattle had just 73 yards on 26 carries, good for only a 2.8 yards per carry average. Carroll said that yards aren’t everything when it comes to running the football in order to maintain balance.

“It’s not even about the yards you gain, it’s about that you take the effort to run the ball that much and make them defend it then everything else gets a benefit from that,” he said. “It was a good game for us, so we’re going to see if we can build off that.”

Listen to The Pete Carroll Preview at this link or in the player below.

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