Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll began his press conference today with this blunt assessment of his team’s performance after a 33-3 loss here in Oakland, Carroll’s worst loss in his short tenure as head coach of this team.

“Well, there’s no mystery to us what happened today,” Carroll said. “We got nothing done. We accomplished nothing in any aspect of our ball. We got whipped at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, and the only redeeming factor is halfway through the third quarter we still had a chance, after really not playing well at any point. And when we didn’t get our points down there, we just couldn’t stop it.”

Injuries will be a major concern for the team moving forward. Defensive end Red Bryant suffered a sprained right knee according to Carroll and will be evaluated on Monday. Colin Cole has an ankle issue. Golden Tate has a sprained left ankle.

Ben Hamilton suffered a concussion. Tyler Polumbus suffered a leg injury but returned to the game. Nate Ness had cramping early in the game but returned. And Matt Hasselbeck suffered a head injury late in the game, which is the reason Charlie Whitehurst came in for the final series.

Mike Williams also suffered a bruised knee but came back in to play in the second half.

Read more »

This was not what anyone expected. Maybe the Raiders are better than we thought, and the Hawks aren’t nearly as good as we hoped. The game was truly awful to watch. Painful.

All of the momentum and anticipation for this game seemed to disappear almost immediately when the Oakland defensive front absolutely manhandled the Seahawks offensive line from the first series.

Nothing went right for the Seahawks. They couldn’t convert on third down. Olindo Mare missed two early field goals. Mike Williams was nonexistent and had a huge drop. And the defense made a couple big mistakes in an otherwise …

Read more »

Ryan Divish we’ll get it started at 12:45 p.m.

No real surprises in Seattle’s inactive list, just announced in the press box.

As expected, cornerback Kelly Jennings (hamstring) and Walter Thurmond (head) will not play today, so Roy Lewis will get his first career start at corner.

OL Russell Okung (ankle) did not practice all week and will not play today. Tyler Polumbus will start in his place.

Ol Chester Pitts, as Pete Carroll alluded to on Friday, will be active for the first time this season. With Jennings and Thurmond out, Nate Ness will come in and play corner on the outside and Lewis will play on the slot when Seattle goes with six defensive backs.

Receiver Brandon Stokley (oblique), was a limited participant in practice and will play today. Fullback Michael Robinson (hamstring) is not active today, and Oakland native Quinton Ganther will start.

Here’s the full list. We still have not received Oakland’s inactive list, but I’ll update the post when we get it.

Read more »

What’s going on folks. We’ve still got some time before they announce the inactive list, so I’ll have that for you shortly.

I did watch cornerback Kelly Jennings working with the trainers earlier this morning. He seemed to be laboring as he went through agility drills, so I would be surprised if he plays today. That means the Seahawks likely will play Nate Ness and Kennard Cox some today. I think we will see Roy Lewis stay at his role of nickel back.

I snapped some photos on my way in which you can check out below.

Read more »

Good morning. I’m getting ready to head out to Oakland Coliseum, but wanted to post my five keys to the game for the Seahawks against the Raiders. If the Seahawks get a victory today, they would be 5-2 for the first time since the team’s Super Bowl season in 2005.

Unleash the Beast: RB Marshawn Lynch won’t say it, but he’s certainly motivated to play well in his return to Oakland, his hometown. And Seattle needs to get the run game going today against one of the worst run defense in the league.

Throw it deep: Once they do get the run game going, there will be opportunities for Seattle to take some shots down the field because the Raiders like to play press coverage. So I think Seattle’s should test them with Deon Butler or Golden Tate and try and stretch the field. But of course I would avoid Nnamdi Asomugha, that’s just a turnover waiting to happen.

Contain McFadden: Running back Darren McFadden is Oakland’s most explosive playmaker, so the Seahawks, ranked second overall in run defense, need to continue to take care of that aspect of the game and make sure they swarm to the ball and wrap up because McFadden is very fast and very elusive.

Pressure the quarterback: The Seahawks have done a good job of getting after the quarterback so far with 19 sacks, good enough for seventh overall in the league. So look for the sub packages where they get Lawyer Milloy, Jordan Babineaux and Roy Lewis in blitz situations. I think Jason Campbell can be pressured into making some mistakes.

Get Leon going: It’s been a couple games since Leon Washington has made some explosive plays, so Seattle needs to figure out a way for him to impact the game, either through special teams or on offense.

Read more »

I posted this chart a couple weeks ago, and I will continue to update it throughout the season. The Seahawks were 14th the first time I looked at sudden change situations, which measures how much teams take advantage of turnover situations during a game.

Seattle moved up five spots to No. 9 on the list this week. The Seahawks have forced 13 turnovers, scoring 30 points off of those turnovers. But they also have turned it over 10 times, giving up 13 points in those situations, which shows how well the defense played in limiting points when defending the short field.

One of the reasons for Seattle’s two-game win streak is they are doing much better as an offense in taking care of the ball, with only one turnover in the last, two games.

Kansas City leads the league in sudden change situations, with 48 points scored off of turnovers and giving up zero points once they turn the ball over. So it’s no surprise the Chiefs are 4-2 and leading the AFC West.

Oakland is actually a spot of ahead of Seattle at 8th overall, giving up 24 points off turnovers but scoring 44 points off turnovers forced.

Teams in the top 10 have a combined 45-20 record, so I believe this stat is a good indicator for winning ball clubs.

Read more »

It was pretty typical Friday practice for the Seahawks. There was some music playing. Mike Williams caught passes, Charlie Whitehurst threw some incompletions, Ken Norton yelled a lot and the Seahawks worked in shorts and shells.

Perhaps the biggest concern is the status at right corner back position where normal starter Kelly Jennings has been out with a hamstring issue and his backup Walter Thurmond has missed practices after taking a shot to the head in last week’s win over Arizona.

Neither practiced on Friday, but Jennings did work out after practice, trying to get his hamstring in shape.

Head …

Read more »