Here’s the nuts and bolts of the injury report, which I’m sure you want to hear about first and foremost. We’ll try and update to this as well.
“I thought what we could do is get the injury stuff out of the way and then if we have any time for questions,” head coach Jim Mora said as he sat down at the table to open the press conference.
And he was right, just to give us the injury updates took like five minutes. The stuff in quotes on each player is obviously from Mora.
Sean Locklear (High ankle sprain) – OUT
Walter Jones (back knee) – He will practice and they see where he is at the end of the week. And make the determination closer to the game if he will play.
Chris Spencer (pulled quadriceps) – “If all goes well, he should be avaible. He will practice.
So will Spencer move into the starting center spot?
“We haven’t made that decision yet,” Mora said. “What we’ll do today is kind of split reps between him and Steve. Then we’ll see how Spencer comes out of the day. Tomorrow, probably move a little more towards Spencer, assuming he does fine today and then we’ll decide. We’d like to decide by tomorrow at the latest and then move on from there. We think Chris is a really good player and we’re not going to keep him on the bench if he can help us win.”
Matt Hasselbeck (fractured rib) – “Not ruling him out, but we’ll see it how it goes. He won’t practice today, might not practice tomorrow. We’ll see where he is on a day to day basis. He’s feeling better. I’m not ruling him out at all, but I’m not saying he’s going to play either.
Mora said that how much Hasselbeck practices during the week won’t be a determinant either.
“I’d feel fine, as long as our medical staff and Matt feels fine, I’d feel fine. ,” Mora said. “From a mental standpoint, from a physical standpoint, in terms of moving and making decisions, Matt is one of the best there is in the NFL. He’s smart. He’s intellectual. He understands the game. He has a grasp of our scheme. I’d feel fine with that. This is a guy that can pick things up without having to do the repetitions on the field. The key thing is what’s best for Matt’s health and what’s best for this team in terms of long term success.”
When told that Hasselbeck said he wanted to gut it out and play, and asked if he was ok with that, Mora said it wasn’t up to him.
“I’ll defer to the doctors and Matt,” Mora said. “If the doctors look at me and say, ‘Jim, Matt’s good to go.’ And Matt looks me in the eye and says, ‘I’m going.’ Then you know what, Matt Hasselbeck is going because we’re trying to win and we want to put the players out there that give us the best chance to win.”
Deion Branch (hamstring) – “If all goes well this week, he should be able to play Sunday.”
TJ Houshmandzadeh (back spasms) – Housh has been listed with a back injury the last few weeks and has not practiced on Wednesday very often. Eric calls it “Wednesdays with Housh.” According to Mora: “He will not practice today, he will practice tomorrow and he’ll be good to go on Sunday.”
Justin Griffith (sprained MCL) – “He won’t practice today, but if it all goes well, he should be ready to go on Sunday.”
LeRoy Hill (groin) – “LeRoy had surgery on Friday. It went very well. They were very encouraged. When the doctor got in there and looked at it, it didn’t seem to be as severe as they feared. That doesn’t mean he’ll be back any sooner.”
Mora admitted he didn’t like putting on a timetable on Hill’s return, but for the moment he’s sticking to the Nov. 1 return.
Josh Wilson (high ankle sprain) – OUT. Kelly Jennings will start at corner for Wilson. Justin Forsett will take his spot on kick return. As for the nickel package, the Hawks are looking at two options – moving Travis Fisher, who will be ready for Sunday after being inactive the first two games with a sore hamstring, into the nickel back spot, or else moving Jordan Babineaux to the nickel back and put Lawyer Milloy at safety.
Lofa Tatupu (hamstring) – “I don’t know if he’ll play or not. I’d say there is a chance that he will, but we’ll see. He won’t practice today, I don’t know that he will practice tomorrow. I don’t know that he’ll practice Friday. The one thing we have to make sure we do is make the right decision with him so it doesn’t linger any longer that it has.”
Brandon Mebane (calf) – “he won’t work today, but he’s feeling a lot better. And we’ll see how it goes through the week. If he’s feeling good by the weekend, we’ll do all we can to get him in there.”
Well, I guess the good news is we still have healthy receivers (more-or-less). A high ankle sprain can require six weeks to heal. Remember Weaver’s injury last year.
I’m wondering how many of these injuries can be attributed to dirty tackling by the 69ers?!
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I hear what you’re saying but I think it was more of the rough physical play of the 9ers as opposed to ‘dirty’. Plus most of the injuries are on the defense..
I think the 9ers only had a couple of late hits during the game. And not the Hass hit at the goal line. Willis snuck it in there legally. That was just unfortunate.
What’s the Ref’s name? Leavy? first the SB where he called to many penalties against us and now this game he didn’t call enuff on the 9ers. We’re always getting the short end of the stick. Maybe just an excuse but that’s what I recall thinking while watching the game. I see more holding on the DB’s this year than I recall in recent years. Maybe I’m just looking for it more.. I see the offense getting their hands inside the pads so you can’t see it as well. it’s when the db tries to break away from it you can see the jersey being pulled..
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Hey Ryan, thanks for the updates. It seems like the Seahawks are just taking it easy on a lot of players, almost like babying… do you see the similarities with Mora and Holmgren?
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I don’t know but It was interesting what Patrick Willis said about his hit on Matt.
“I just know it wasn’t an illegal hit. I didn’t take my helmet and spear him right in the back, it was straight shoulder pad. I wasn’t worried about it being an illegal hit or nothing like that. I knew that he was hurting a little bit as well. I don’t what his ordeal is know, but I hope that he’s okay. — Patrick Willis
Wonder what he meant by ” I knew that he was hurting a little bit as well.”?
Gee wonder if he meant “I didn’t want to spear him cuz I knew his back was injured last year” OR “I knew he was hurting so I made sure that when I saw him go down I hit him hard right in the back”?
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Does anyone else see the true irony of keeping starters from playing in the preseason then going down with an injury in one of the first 2 games of the year? It is not bad luck any more when it happens two years in a row. Either trainers or the conditioning coaches are not doing their job or we just have a bunch of injury prone players (ie. Branch).
Z.
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For what it’s worth, I watched the Bears / Pitts game on NFL Network last night and I liked the way Pitts was able to exploit the middle of the field., underneath the zone they were running. Seem like an area of the field Housh and Carlson should be able to have success.
I certainly hope Spencer is able to go. They must get stronger / better in the middle. Especially against a strong d line like the Bears.
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The hit on Matt wasn’t a cheap shot, its a goal line football play.
Where were all the dirty tackles last week?
Football is a contact sport, to me the more contact the better.
Hate to see our guys getting punished, but it’s part of the game. Rather see us do the punishing.
Every year the NFL comes up with more ways to limit contact, pretty soon theyll just drop the pads and put flags on.
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haha, good point MauMau!!
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Walter is listed still as having a “back” injury? It’s not at this point, though, is it? It’s his knee, right?
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Singletary’s groupies were playing beyond the limits of the rules and not getting called for it but that happens in every game. some of it seemed a little too obvious though not to be called–by billy boy.
it’s obvious this team is injury prone and that can easily be connected to the strength and conditioning coaches. I mean where else would you put the blame, there’s a reason why this has happened two years in a row to us and not other teams with the only difference being the coaching staff, primarily.
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Can someone by wallace some platform shoes so he can hit carlson down the middle!?!?
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If not, platform heels…maybe someone can hold Wallace in the air so he can see the field….is boosting a penalty?
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Come now. Was Seattle dirty when Rocky Bernard separated Alex Smith’s shoulder in 2007? When Brandon Mebane sprained Matt Cassell’s knee in preseason? I think some fans here were calling for Seattle to do to Shaun Hill what Bernard did in ’07 to Smith.
Part of the disappointment in this loss (for me) is due to my perception that the 49ers are still a sad-sack, below average team. But, what if they really are a tough, top ranked defense with a powerful, physical offensive line? If they beat, or are highly competitive, with Minnesota at Minnesota next week, then I’d feel a lot better about Sunday’s results.
Even so, Seattle still needs to be better because to be the best, you have to beat the best, but at least the gap won’t be as scary wide as it seemed when we thought SF was a bad football team.
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Nah, no boosting penalty…..we’re in business now!!!!
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Injuries happen to every team – i’m still not buying that our conditioning is poor, and that’s the reason for this. Broken bones and ankle sprains have zero to do with conditioning. With injuries, it’s all about who and where – by that I mean, we can survive Leroy Hill going down, but when Lofa is out too, then suddenly we are at two back-ups and a rookie. Obviosly, nobody is more key that your QB, and few teams can survive for long without their starter (I know, NE last year, but that’s an exception).
We’re 1-1, just like tons of other solid teams in the league – a win on Sunday, and things look good again.
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pdway… I’m with you overall, but football, as in many other sports, being aggressive is a critical key… I can’t judge this past weeks’ game as I missed the game view entirely… but from my sports experience, aggression, or more specifically, lack of aggression, seems to play strongly when players get hurt…. Matt’s injury aside, think of the others… The LB scenario can also be applied to the OT situation(bonker’s) … I feel we’re just a bit snakebit now…
Even if we lose both our next two games, and that’s most likely, we can still finish 8-8 or 9-7 and win our division… Like last years’ record was not Holmy’s fault, starting 1-4 won’t be Mora’s fault either… We work with what we have….
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Here’s my positive spin: no matter whether you lose 56-0, or 9-7 it is still one loss. There are a lot of good teams that are 1-1 right now(Patriots, Chargers, Steelers, Dallas…etc). I was motivated to hear Mora talk about how he addressed the team saying that he didn’t look at them as 1st, 2nd or 3rd stringers, but all as critical components to the team that he would count on if they were needed(I’m paraphrasing). He said this is the 45 he’s going with and he needs everything out of them-like a Band of Brothers(again poetic license).
I think it is time to either A.) Start Milloy B.) Start CJ Wallace-CJ is a bopper and plays with that nastiness we lack in the secondary. I think maybe Spencer and Walt both play, Jennings has started before, We could use Branchs’ hands(Burleson) and if Herring and Hawthorne are getting the reps all week, then they will have a little bit of familiarity, hopefully.
We’ll see what kind of coaching staff we have…If Seneca starts I want to see us milk as much clock as possible, without being predictable. Keep the ball away from Cutler-ideally 13-10 hawks.
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I’d rather see the tight end on the left side helping Frye, Spencer only get on the field to bring the Gatoraide squirt bottles to the real players, Deon Butler and Justin Forsett starting, and wave a huge contract under Eric Berry’s nose to quit Tennessee and come sign with us now…
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“I certainly hope Spencer is able to go. They must get stronger / better in the middle.”
Now there’s a contradictory statement.
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guys, guys… enough being crybabies about the 49ers… it’s bad enough I have to endure those bank commercials that stereotype the pacific northwest as full of a bunch of sock and sandal wearing, mocha drinking sissies… but then I come on here and it’s wa, wa, wa! Do you want some cheese with that whine? Perhaps a wambulance instead?
The hit on Hasselbeck was brutal, yes, but he was diving for the goal line. What do you expect Willis to do? Pull back and say, “Sorry, sir… I would never think about tackling a quarterback in the open field. Not me, one of the most savage linebackers in the game.” Puhleaze…
Let’s be honest–earlier in the drive Hasselbeck ran like eight yards for the first down and started feeling a little penisy and got to the goal line and was like, “Yeah, I’m feeling spry, why not?” And then Patrick Willis reminded Hasselbeck why he is not a mobile quarterback.
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Man, that is quite a list for week two. I hope the players aren’t feeding into the “last year and worst case scenario is happening all over.”
Variable575…Seneca targetted Carlson quite a bit and barely missed him in the endzone (I’m assuming he saw him…Carlson’s pretty tall).
Nighthawk…get your point about Spencer, but damn Vallos looked awful. It would be nice to be healthy enough to work Unger in there as a lasting solution.
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I hope this isn’t 2008 all over again (injury wise).
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10 starters at this point are injured I think so we may well be looking at a season like 2008 (more than just injury wise). On the bright side, two first round draft picks next year =)
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exactly my point mahk77..”barely missed him”. I bet Teel would have made the connection.
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In 2007 he was 2nd favourite behind Torres to finish top scorer in the premiership. ,
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