What The Seahawks Are Saying About The Chargers

HEAD COACH PETE CARROLL (On the upcoming game against the Los Angeles Chargers) “Okay, well here we go. Wednesday is upon us and it’s time to kick this thing into high gear for this week. We’re playing a really good football team. The guys have been really good. They’ve been on it. They’ve been winning for a good while now. You can go back into the end of last year when they got going and a four-game win streak now. Playing tough, playing good defense, scoring on offense, really solid team. This is a really difficult challenge with a great quarterback. I can’t say enough about how good this guy is. He’s having a great year. He’s almost completing 70% of his passes, and they’re doing it in a nice, balanced offense too because they’re running the ball well. Their running backs are averaging over five yards a carry and it just makes it really hard. Very similar to what we saw last week in a really experienced quarterback and a good running game. These guys are on it. Probably the biggest extent of the issue is that they’ve got a really good receiving group too and they’re big and they can make the plays and they’ve got great averages if you look at it so really, there’s nowhere to turn. We’ve just got to play great to have a chance to win.” (On Philip Rivers) “He’s so smart. You just can’t fool the guy. He just sees everything. He’s got great sense. That’s kind of where it starts, but he also has extremely great accuracy. He throws the ball in all kinds of situations whether he’s in trouble or not. He’s not a guy that’s going to run around a lot, but he moves really adeptly in the pocket and then he finds ways to make great throws. We saw him in preseason. He made a couple of great throws in about a six-play sequence, but he’s doing it. He’s doing a great job to get the ball out so you can’t sack him, because he’s so smart and so fast with the football. Just, as hard as it gets.” (On the challenge of the Chargers receiving corps) “They’re really good. They’re just really good ball players all around. They happen to be pretty tall. They can do everything. They can run good routes, short, deep, intermediate, all that stuff is no big deal to them. They’re really good at the point of attack on the ball when the ball is up. Philip (Rivers) does a great job of using space to get the ball in the right positions for them to make plays. He has great trust and faith in those guys. You can tell by the way he throws it to them. It’s a top-notch crew.” (On preparing to face a veteran quarterback) “Well, in this case, there’s reasons to go back for certain things we’re looking for but because it’s a new staff, new play caller the last couple of years, we stay pretty much in these past two years. That’s really what’s important to us.” (On younger pass rushers defending quarterbacks like Philip Rivers) “What we’ve got to hope for is that he doesn’t stay on his lightning fast rhythm. If he does, the rush can’t get there. Nine sacks – he’s been sacked nine times in all these games. It’s a great tribute to his tempo and getting the ball out. We’ve got to hope that we can make him hold the football so the guys have chances to get to him, so we have to stay consistent and stay patient and keep working at it and we’ve got to break the pocket down too. We’ve got to see if we can move him if we can and keep him off the spot. All quarterbacks aren’t as effective when they move off the spot (or) their set point, where they set up in the pocket. We just have to stay after (him), stay active and keep moving and use all of the calls that we’ll incorporate in the game to try to keep him off-tempo and off-rhythm.” (On Russell Okung and Brandon Mebane) “Those guys were great Seahawks. I know they’ve been gone a while now, but it seems like they’re our guys. I feel like that just because (Mebane) was here when we started and then Russell was, well, he was our first pick. Like last week too, we met up with some of our guys. It’s significant. We had a lot of time, we did a lot of stuff together that we competed so hard and far and long and took it to a great place.” (On playing the Chargers at home compared to a couple of years ago when players were cramping up) “Yeah, that was a tough day. That was a really hot day down there. That was as hot as any place we’ve played and just showed up that day and the sun was beating down on us. That was a hard day down there on the players. I was okay, in case you were worried about me, but the players had a hard time. I was fine. Yeah, I was okay. We’re playing in our element. We’re going out today to play out in the rain and ready if it rains on Sunday. They don’t get much of that down in LA.” OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR BRIAN SCHOTTENHEIMER (On the challenge of playing a team with a S/LB that can move all over the place like the Chargers do with Derwin James) “It’s hard. It’s difficult. They were certainly always looking for a couple of those guys. They’re a good defense. Whether it’s (Melvin) Ingram or (Derwin) James or (Denzel) Perryman, they’re interchangeable. They slide them around so we just kind of keep our eyes on them. We’re tracking them, but they do a nice job of putting them in all kinds of spots. I think he looks very, very comfortable now in those roles, talking about James. Very, very good blitzer when they bring him on pressures. He’s a really big, strong, physical guy that comes hard and plays to the whistle. It’s a challenge but one that we think we feel good about with our backs and our tight ends and picking up some of those things.” (On Philip Rivers) “A terrific player. I was around him for his first couple of years (in San Diego). His field vision is probably unlike any I’ve ever been around. I don’t know whether it’s the size that helps him, but just his ability to see the whole field is crazy. A cute story about Philip, he’ll probably remember, but we coached him in the Senior Bowl when were with the Chargers. We went 4-12 and went down to the Senior Bowl down in Mobile (Alabama) and we had that staff. We actually had a good group – we had Rivers, (Matt) Schaub and J.P. Losman were the quarterbacks. We went out for that first practice and he was warming up and I was like, ‘sheesh, look at this guy.’ He’s got this herky-jerky motion. So then, the very first competitive drill, the ball was coming out (quickly) and you’re like, ‘where did that come from?’ I think when you watch him and he plays, his mind processes things so fast and his arm responds. Terrific player, awesome competitor, one of the biggest trash talkers I’ve ever been around in anything – whether it’s cards, football, basketball, tremendous competitor.” QB RUSSELL WILSON (On what stands out about the Chargers defense) “Well, I think first of all, (Melvin) Ingram is one of the best defensive ends in the game. He’s a spectacular player. He’s always one of my favorite guys to play against and just watch because you want to play against some of the best guys and he’s always – I don’t like when he’s chasing me, though. He’s always one of those guys. I’ve known him for several years now and just to be around him and stuff at Pro Bowls or whatever it may be. He’s got great enthusiasm and plays the game the right way, brings great energy. He’s a really good player so we’ve got to know where he is. I think about Derwin James as well. He’s playing great football. Those guys are – Casey (Hayward) is a great player too. They’ve got a lot of guys that can make a lot of plays, and then obviously (Brandon) Mebane up front. Knowing him and his intelligence and how he plays the game, his physicality at the point of attack. It’s going to be a very tough task. They’re rolling, too. I think they’re 5-2. They can make a lot of plays. They’ve got Philip Rivers on the other side, one of the best to ever play the game, so it will be a battle of the (North Carolina State) Wolfpack this weekend. Just playing against Phil and the things he’s been able to do over his career, he’s been spectacular so it’s going to be a battle for sure.” DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR KEN NORTON JR. (On the challenge of playing Philip Rivers) “We’ve been watching him for a long time. He’s seen everything, he’s been very successful. He knows what he’s looking for, you can’t trick him. He has a fantastic group of receivers and weapons around him, so it’s going to be a real big challenge for us.” (On playing against a quarterback that has the ability to read defenses) “He’s pretty good. I’ve been in the AFC West the last three years. I’ve played him twice a year for three years, so I have some background with him.” (On if he learned anything about how to attack the Chargers offense from the preseason matchup) “No, you don’t learn a whole lot from the preseason. They aren’t playing much, we aren’t playing our guys, it was early in the year. I think that it was the first or second game. At the same time, I’ve had a lot of experience with their offense, their head coach – he and I are former teammates – the linebacker coach is my former linebacker coach as a player, Gus Bradley used to be here. So, we have a lot of carryover between both teams. Their special teams coach is my former special teams coach as a player, so there’s a lot of familiarity with both sides. We both know each other pretty well.” LB BOBBY WAGNER (On what makes Philip Rivers an effective quarterback) “He’s really smart. Even in the preseason game, he called a timeout one time because he was in an offense that wasn’t good for the defensive play that we had, he knew the name. I think he knew the name because of Gus (Bradley), so he called timeout. It was kind of a funny thing. I just was frustrated because he didn’t recognize it sooner. That style, that type, it’s always fun to go against somebody like that that’s really, really smart and really challenges the way that you show things, the way that you kind of hide your coverages. He’s confident in his arm and whether you’re on it or not on it, he’s going to throw it and we’re going to be there.” (On where Philip Rivers ranks amongst other quarterbacks he’s played against) “I leave the ranking stuff to you. Russell’s (Wilson) number one.” (On how he knew that Philip Rivers knew what defense they were in) “Well, he said the play. He called timeout and was like, ‘dang, they’re running strong something’, and I’m like we just changed the name yesterday, how’d you do that? I think it was because Gus (Bradley) knows our defense, so he probably was like it’s either this or that. Maybe, he just luckily chose that, I don’t know. It was kind of funny, I’m like how did he know the name. The quarterbacks know the play, they never know the name of the play.

What The Seahawks Are Saying About The Chargers

Take a look at what the Seahawks are saying about the Los Angeles Chargers before the two teams meet in Week 9 in Seattle.