BRADY HENDERSON
Seahawks’ Troymaine Pope has ‘severe’ ankle sprain; Will Tukuafu still out
Dec 12, 2016, 4:04 PM
Troymaine Pope suffered a severe ankle sprain on his one carry for the Seahawks in Sunday's loss. (AP)
(AP)
RENTON – Running back Troymaine Pope was the only Seahawk to suffer an injury during the team’s 38-10 loss to Green Bay on Sunday, but coach Pete Carroll said it was a serious one. He called it a “pretty severe” sprain to the same ankle that Pope injured three weeks earlier against Philadelphia.
Safe to say, then, that Pope won’t be available for Thursday night’s game against Los Angeles. That would leave the Seahawks with two healthy tailbacks, starter Thomas Rawls and rookie Alex Collins. George Farmer is back on Seattle’s practice squad and would be an obvious candidate for another call-up, especially with the short week making it harder to bring in an outside free agent.
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Pope was injured on a 12-yard gain in the fourth quarter, which was his only carry and one of only three offensive snaps he played Sunday. Curiously, Collins played ahead of him on Sunday despite seemingly having been passed up by Pope in recent weeks. But Collins lost a late fumble, his second in only 17 carries this season. He finished with 56 yards on 10 touches, the most he’s produced in limited playing time this season.
Carroll said fullback Will Tukuafu was still going through the concussion protocol as of Monday for an injury sustained the previous week, “So he hasn’t returned yet.” Marcel Reece, signed last week, handled fullback duties Sunday. He played 12 snaps on offense and caught two passes (on two targets) for 38 yards.
“He did fine. Didn’t play a lot of plays but he did fine in the opportunities that he had, and gave us some stuff that we kind of like,” Carroll said of Reece. “You couldn’t see a lot of it in this plan, but we’ll be able to use him in quite a number of ways.”
Carroll said defensive lineman Damontre Moore doesn’t look like he’ll be available for Thursday night’s game because of a foot injury, which also sidelined him Sunday. Linebacker Brock Coyle, who has missed the last three games with a foot injury of his own, has a chance to play.
“It’s an unusual week. We’ll see what happens,” Carroll said. “We won’t be able to really test them like we would normally like to, but Brock has a chance. He was kind of close last week so we’ll see what happens. I don’t have that for sure yet.”
