Pete Carroll gives quarter-season review, updates on Seahawks’ DE Cliff Avril

With first place in the NFC West on the line, the Seahawks travel to L.A. this weekend to take on the 3-1 Rams. Head coach Pete Carroll joined Dori Monson on 97.3 KIRO Radio FM to cover the season so far and give injury updates for Week 5.

On the injury front, Carroll said left Rees Odhiambo (sternum) is “certainly back in action” in practice and has a chance to play Sunday, while cornerback Jeremy Lane has a strained groin that will “likely keep him from getting back.” Carroll said he will be a game-time decision.

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Also concerning is the neck injury sustained by defensive end Cliff Avril, who left the game after making a tackle in Sunday’s win over the Colts. Carroll said that his status remains up in the air, and the Seahawks are taking their time with him.

“Whenever it’s the spinal stuff and you get stingers, that means that there’s some nerve action going on there and you’ve got to be really careful and really safe with all that stuff,” Carroll said. “Which is what we only would do. In this case in particular, you know, we’ve just got to  make sure. And so we’re going to take our time with this and let it quiet down. He’s really not uncomfortable, but just some of the tests he took showed some stuff and we just got to make sure we’re really honoring and make good choices here. We’re on the same page and take it one step at a time, and we’ll get to it when we can.”

Carroll said that while he’s not happy with the Seahawks’ inconsistency through the first four games, he believes the team is heading in the right direction. And now that the first quarter of the season has come to a close, Carroll also took some time to reflect on the Seahawks’ play thus far. Here are a few notes:

On the areas that he’s happiest with, or that have been a pleasant surprise: “I think if there’s really one area it’s the cover guys. We’re really covering people well. That’s been the emergence of Shaq Griffin, one, really good play by of course the guys that have been here — Earl (Thomas) is on his game, Kam (Chancellor) and (Richard Sherman) are playing well — and also the emergence of Justin Coleman is really positive, too. So, we’re covering really well and we have improved like we hoped to in the offensive line.”

On areas the team needs to work on: “We got to get after the quarterback better than we are. We’ve seen a lot of quick game and a lot of loaded protections and stuff, we got to get through that so that we can force the issues. We’ve got to get the ball away from our opponents better than we are, and that usually starts with pass rush. And that’s the combination of how we pressure and all that stuff that harasses the QB into making mistakes. You saw how it turned once we got ahead in the game last week, and all the sudden we’re getting after the quarterback just like we want to. So we need to put it in that mode better and more consistently.”

Listen to Dori’s entire interview with Pete Carroll above.

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