HEAD COACH PETE CARROLL
Opening statement:
First off, one of the big plays of the night was Stephanie Solari singing the national anthem. I thought that was fantastic. I was so fired up to see her pull that off and do a great job. I was so excited for Mike, Mike was just chill about that. I said, I could not believe you're not nervous. I was nervous for her. She did a great job, she sounded terrific. So, that's kind of how the thing started. For us, this was a really concerted effort to finish. We wanted to practice finishing, we wanted to be in the finish mode and utilize it as an opportunity to learn, and see if we can draw the kind of focus that it takes to finish well. We think there's a lot that goes into that, so that was the talk of the week. I thought with all the young guys that played, it was a really nice night for those guys. They played in the style and the format that we like to play, in that they were jazzed up the whole night and had fun pulling for one another, and the spirit was great, and to us it was a really important game. To see those guys pull it off and win, that was really fun for us. It was a good locker, and everybody knows that there's some stuff coming up, but for this night, and tonight, it was really about the young guys pulling off the opportunity that they had and showing well and making the plays that will hopefully help them down the road. I loved it. We made it through the preseason without turning the ball over, but for the one last play of the game a couple weeks ago. That's a really good focus for us. It's such an important emphasis to give you a chance to have a good club. The mentality has to go all the way through the ranks. The emphasis that we put on it showed up, and that's a big deal to us. We're not getting the ball as much as we want. The play of the night certainly was Akeem King coming off the edge and forcing the fumble and making that big play, to leave us in the plus. I thought the running backs looked good again. A number of guys did a good job. C.J. looked good, and I just thought that Homer looked good, and Bo looked good. The X-man came in to ice the game for us at the end and did a great job and got that last first down. So, there's a lot of good stuff there. I'm sure you're wondering about the quarterbacks. I need to look at the film. It's really hard with the last group. As the game wore on, those guys were worn out, and it was hard on Paxton getting the time to throw and all that. But, we'll take a look at that and see what's going on, and see what it all means. We'll figure that out. We had a couple guys that got nicked. Really, just kind of the same injuries. Blair didn't make it through, Marquise didn't make it through with the same hip pointer thing; it kind of aggravated. Same thing happened again for Shaquem with his knee, unfortunately. Not injured, but they just bogged down and couldn't finish the game for us. We'll have to figure out what that's all about.
On the injury to Jamar Taylor:
I have nothing on him. He's OK.
On the play of C.J. Prosise:
I thought he did really well. I thought he looked good and he looked explosive. He is all of the things we've always known about him, but he just hasn't been available. So, when he had two weeks to be available, he showed again what he's made of. I thought it was a really good showing for him. He did everything he could.
On the play of Ben Burr-Kirven:
He had a huge game. He had a huge game. He was making plays everywhere. It's really important for him. He's trying to make the club. We'll take a look at all that. He had a great opportunity to play all night long. He was up for it. It's not like he's unfamiliar with making a lot of tackles. He's a good ballplayer, and I think that's what showed tonight. It was his best outing for sure, and it was great to see it. He was really kind of bogged down a little bit early in his return. He could get back, but he wasn't feeling really good, but tonight, he looked like he was back to full speed and flying and made a ton of big plays tonight.
On the mentality of Paxton Lynch and Geno Smith as they try to making the team:
These guys have been great. They've been focused and tuned in; positive and upbeat. Trying to figure out how to compete by studying and working, whether it's with Russ or with Austin Davis, or whenever they can get with Schotty. They really have applied themselves really well. They've both competed hard and shown mobility and showed arm strength and all of that stuff. We have a body of work, now. I don't know if it came out perfectly, but we have a body of work through all the practices, too. I feel real familiar with them and we'll just have to figure out what's going to happen here. We'll see how it goes. But, both guys could move the club and can do some good things.
On the play of Geno Smith:
I thought he looked really good. I thought he did a nice job. A great couple balls down the field. A great touchdown pass to Terry. It was a beautiful play. I think he was 5 for 7, or something like that, in the first half, and looked pretty good, or 4 for 7. He looks in control of the offense. He gets it. He really understands it, so that's a real positive.
On Geno Smith's knee:
I don't know that. We didn't put him back in to finish the half when we wanted to because he got a little tweak in it. We don't know what that's going to be. We're going to check it out. I'll know more in the next couple days.
On why they let Russell Wilson call some plays:
To keep engaged, challenge him, make him appreciate what it's like. Just for an opportunity for him to grow It was really fun on the sidelines when he was doing it. He took him downfield, and got a little win. What do you think he's going to do? He calls a drive and they go down and score a touchdown. It's like, yeah ok, what did you think was going to happen. It was fun. He didn't make a yard the next drive, too, so tell him that, too.
On Logan Tago and Will Holden just joining the team:
Unbelievable, and they played a ton of plays. It was a great job by those two guys. One at tackle and one playing defensive end. What a great job by those guys. The receivers that came in late, too, that helped us and gave us legs in the game, they did a great job. Let me go overview here: This has been a fantastic run through this time with these kids. The way that they've applied themselves, the sincerity that they've had to embrace the other guys and be all in for each other, which has really been the theme throughout the offseason and through the camp. It was really well done by the players. It just made it really fun to watch them grow, and to compete and to battle. They all the know that stuff's happening, but tonight was to have a good time playing football with each other, and they did that. The 30-something guys that didn't play in the game were in it the whole time; they're cheering for them and high fiving and chest bumping and all that stuff throughout, because they care about them, too. That chemistry is important to withstand the challenges and the hurdles and the obstacles that happen during a season, and we have a really good foundation. I'm really pleased with the leaders; the guys that, when they do speak out, and their direction is clear, and the players know who they are. It's been a very successful preseason and a very successful offseason for this group. It gives us a chance to have a really nice club. I don't think anything other than that. I think we're going to have a really good team. I don't care about saying that. I don't think there's any question in my mind that we're going to play really good football and we're going to be hard to beat, particularly if we can continue to run the ball. We've got the right guys.
On Gary Jennings:
He got those two glaring plays that you see; the penalty last week and the penalty in this one. Those are fantastic plays; he's just a hair early. Like Ugo did the week before, he just didn't quite hit it right, but he did everything he could to make a big play there. But other than that, we've seen a lot of him, and we've seen him in practice, and he's done a nice job, and he's competed like crazy, just like the other guys have. We have some extremely difficult decisions at this time, and it will take us all weekend to figure it out. That's exactly what we want. We want it to be like that. We want it to be really hard and challenging, with complexities and all of that. We're set up and organized to move into this weekend, with a lot of good information. You'll see. You'll see what happens.
On Gary Jennings' grasp of the playbook:
He's doing way better. He missed so much time, that it just wasn't possible; there wasn't enough time for a young guy to jump in, coming from where he came from, and the kind of system that he was in and all of that. So, he just didn't have enough time to really get to the top of his game in this amount of time. We'll see what happens, but you certainly can see the potential.
On Barkevious Mingo's play at defensive end:
Bark did a really good job. I told you early that he made a big jump. He leveled off a little bit, but he's played so much football; he's played a ton of ball because we needed him outside, because we are missing some guys on the rush. The other guy that I have to mention is Jacob Martin. He just played his butt off. He played all night long, he played all preseason long because of our depth. That was a fantastic job by both of those guys through the preseason. They both showed good speed and great motor and they give us a chance and they can be really good compliments to our pass rush.
On the pass rush:
Yeah, these are the guys we've got. We have to make something special of it. Ziggy has been in our minds the whole time that he was going to make it. He went through pregame tonight. He practiced during the week, he'll practice this next week and he's ready to go. The docs have given him the ready to go, as long as he makes it through his days. We'll have a plan on how to do that. I'm thrilled. This is a guy that we expected to come in here and be a big factor to us. He plays really hard. He's really a tough guy. That kind of mentality coming along with the big ability that he has will fit really well. We'll put that together.
On Jamie Meder being active:
He sure was. He's a good ballplayer. He just has a good knack and he really plays tough football and he finds his way to make his plays. I thought he showed up three or four different times to make huge plays for us; it was great.
On DeShawn Shead playing corner tonight:
I wanted to give him a chance to show us the versatility. He had been a long time corner for us. He never had played a lot of safety. That was the spot that we wanted to see if we could really bring him along, and then kick him back out there so he had enough time to show us where he fit there. We just have to figure it out. I don't know what to tell you, but DeShawn Shead is a great kid. He's a great champion kid. If we're fortunate enough to have him on our team, he's going to help us.
On Shaquem Griffin playing only special teams:
No, we wanted him to play linebacker, too, but he didn't feel well enough to do that. He made a couple of big plays, I believe in covering kicks.
On getting Mike Iupati and L.J. Collier back at practice:
L.J. had a really good workout in the stadium here tonight. It was really encouraging, really encouraging. We come back on Monday, and we have a practice, he might get some work out there. I'm a little bit hopeful, here, a little optimistic, but he might get work in that practice. We'll see what that means. This is not the injury or the guy, in my mind, to rush. He just hasn't been with us enough, to think he's going to come in and save the day, I'm not doing that with him. We'll get him well and make sure he's well. But, if we can get him back to practice, that would be really important for us. We'll see what happens. He did good stuff before, but he just hasn't had enough body of work to go on right now.
On Mike Iupati:
Mike's going to be close. Mike's fighting to get back and play in this game, as is George. They both want to. We'll see if they can pull it off. We're going to be fortunate to make that happen. They're battling for it. Every day next week is going to be important. We won't know until Thursday or Friday, [and that's] if they're successful in the first couple of days. We'll have to wait it out.
On whether Shaquem Griffin's injury is a potential long term impact:
I don't know that yet. I don't know what to tell you. It has persisted some, so we'll see. I think we're going to get him checked out again, tested again, MRI him again, just to make sure we know what's going on. It's been a little bit different injury than a normal knee injury. He got hit on it. We thought bruised early on, but it just hasn't gotten well fast enough for us.
QB GENO SMITH
On his performance:
It felt good. I always feel good, but it always comes down to preparation. Even on a short week, I feel like we had a really great week of preparation. When I go out there and play, I just try to take it one play at a time and do what's right. The coaches call a play, and it's designed to get a certain guy the ball versus a certain coverage, and my job is to read the coverage and make the play.
On how Russell Wilson was as a play caller:
Russ [Wilson] is a great play caller actually. I was impressed. He dialed up what we talked about earlier. He said he was going to dial up a few things and he was right on cue. We went out there and we executed, so we made him look good tonight, he did a great job. It was great to see him do that, that was pretty cool.
On his knee:
It's feeling good, it's feeling good. There was a little scare there, I kind of got rolled up on. I'm still not back to full strength, I just had surgery two weeks ago. So there are some things I have to strengthen up there, but just to go out there and play I felt ok.
LB BEN BURR-KIRVEN
On being on the field the whole game:
It was exciting. This was a game where we knew that we were going to play a lot of the young guys. The vets aren't going to take those snaps so we had the chance to go out and show the kind of players that we can be.
On his tackle for a loss and pressure near the goal line:
The [tackle for loss] is from Bobby [Wagner], K.J. [Wright] and those guys. They were telling me every time they were in a certain formation, they run the same thing over and over. I just trusted those guys and got a lot of experience playing this game and I took my shot. [On] the scramble, I saw him and I saw a chance to pull him up and try to put some pressure on him and not let him get a clean throw.
On the coaching of Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright:
They're great. They each almost have 10 years in the league and they know so much about the game and the intricacies of it. You come out of college and you're the guy and you thought you knew everything. You thought you knew the defense and the offense and you get to the NFL and there's so much little stuff that you can do. Those guys just know it all and they're always trying to help us and tell us
anything they can in between drives.
RB C.J. PROSISE
On how it felt playing back to back weeks:
It felt great, it was a great feel out there with the guys blocking for me up front and I just found the holes and made plays. I'm just happy to be back out there. It's a blessing, it really is.
On his future with the Seahawks:
I hope so. Whatever happens, happens. I'm excited for whatever happens next. If I'm here, I'm here. If I'm not, I'm not. I really want to be here, I love the organization, love being here. They're taking a chance on me and giving me a shot. I couldn't thank them enough. I couldn't be more appreciative. It's really a blessing to be here so I just appreciate everything.
On his health:
I feel great, I feel 100%. After two good games, I'm still ready to go again. I'm ready to go back out there and have some fun. I'm having a great time. It's been a couple years and I've been in a tough spot and I'm just ready to get back out there.
On how it feels to be back out there after many injuries:
It feels great. Like you said, it's been tough. There's been some tough days, a lot of dark days and a lot of days that I don't want to keep going. I have a great support system and I have a lot of people around me. It's paid off and I want to keep paying it off and I want to keep working.
CB AKEEM KING
On his mindset going into the game with a lot of opportunities:
It was an opportunity game for us. We just wanted to go out there and play to the standard. I think we did that tonight.
On his forced fumble:
That was just a great call by [defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr.]. The cornerback, if the tight end is blocking, we have the option to blitz. [The tight end] kind of blocked and I had the [opportunity] so I took it just the way that they coached it up and it was executed precisely.
On the Raiders style and tempo on offense:
I thought they were a conventional, west coast team. We saw that through watching film and they've been doing a great job this preseason. They're a good offense.
TE JACOB HOLLISTER
On his touchdown:
It was just a great throw honestly. That's exactly what the NFL's about. That's our throw and catch right there just passing the red zone, it's a really tight end zone. Geno [Smith] just made a really nice throw.
On the use of his body for the touchdown:
You can't think about that really. You just have to know you're going to get hit. At the same time, you just try and focus as much as you can and try and catch the ball, so that's what I'm trying to do.
On how he feels about his preseason performance:
I don't know if I'd say that I'm pleased with it. I try to do my best every day. There are always things you want to fix and make adjustments off of it. There's also always plays that you want to add back each and every day. I feel happy about how much I've learned and stuff like that throughout training camp, but there's always something.
WR GARY JENNINGS
On how he feels about his preseason play:
I don't feel any regrets. I put out what I put out and I just work with the opportunities I'm given. I just move forward.
On what happened during the play that he was overthrown:
It's an adjustment route. It's just based off of what he saw based on the defense. It was just a miscommunication and he was rushed.
WR TERRY WRIGHT
On his first career touchdown:
It's been a long dream for me to play in a game like this. I played in the game weeks ago. First game was against Denver, I had some decent kick returns and other decent plays, I had some decent plays against Minnesota. But, there's nothing like catching your first touchdown ever in your career and doing it in front of these amazing fans. Doing it, in front of your teammates – basically my brothers. I'm just grateful, I'm humble, and it's just a blessing. I thank God everyday, everyday.
