Pool reports from Friday Seahawks and Broncos practices

Seattle Seahawks Practice Pool Report

By Peter King

Pro Football Writers of America

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.—The Seattle Seahawks, as healthy as they’ve been all season, finished their main preparations for Super Bowl XLVIII Friday afternoon inside the New York Giants’ practice facility in the shadow of MetLife Stadium, opening the five doors in the facility for the third straight day to simulate the mid-thirties temperatures they expect to feel Sunday night.

“And now,’’ said coach Pete Carroll, “we wait. We had a great day today. We finished like I hoped we’d finish, and I thought our execution today was very good.”

Carroll led his team through what he called a normal Friday afternoon practice, 77 minutes in length, in the Giants’ Quest Diagnostic Training Center, again serenaded by loud hip-hop and rap music from start to end. Second-year quarterback Russell Wilson appeared particularly crisp in his execution of the offense and his passes, and Carroll praised him afterward for his focus and preparation all week. A pool reporter asked Carroll what he thought of Wilson’s presence and performance in a week with so much riding on the outcome—with Seattle aiming for its first Super Bowl title in history, and with Wilson squaring off against one of the best quarterbacks of all time, Denver’s Peyton Manning.

“Russell is exactly where he’s always pictured he’d be in life,’’ Carroll said. “He prepares impeccably, and he has prepared like that this week. I think he is ready to play a very good game.’’

Seattle will hold its weekly walk-through practice Saturday here, but all practice prep is now done. The Seahawks’ offensive coordinator, Darrell Bevell, and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn installed the gameplan for the Super Bowl last week at home in Renton, Wash., and this week merely repeated the installation. Each day in New Jersey, Seattle practiced without pads, and Carroll also went without helmets on Friday. Most players wore green-and-blue knit Seahawks hats as they went through their paces in temperatures in the high thirties.

It is exceedingly rare for a team to be this healthy in the 19th game of the season (23rd if you count preseason games), and to have nobody an injury question. All 61 active and practice-squad players were on hand, and Carroll said all participated fully. Wideouts Percy Harvin (concussion) and Doug Baldwin (hip) ran freely for the third straight day, with Baldwin stretching consistently through practice to stay loose. Though first-year Seahawk Harvin has played only briefly in two of Seattle’s 18 games this year, he appears to be poised to play without limits—at least at the start of the game—in the biggest game of the year.

As a sign of camaraderie, four players switched jerseys. Right tackle Breno Giacomini squeezed into Marshawn Lynch’s number 24 jersey, while Giacomini’s number 66 looked like a mini-dress on Lynch. Giacomini and Lynch are good friends. Left tackle Russell Okung wore fullback Michael Robinson’s number 26, with Robinson wearing Okung’s 76. As tight as Lynch was around the media this week, that’s how loose he has been at practice, laughing with different position groups throughout practice and in general looking like he’s having the time of his life.

Friday’s work began with special teams practice, field goals by kicker Steven Hauschka and punts (some of them rugby-style, inside-the-20) by Jon Ryan. And, as usual for Friday, the team practiced red-zone plays on both sides of the ball as well. In scout team play, Richard Sherman intercepted practice-squad quarterback B.J. Daniels, his second pick of the week.

Afterward, Carroll praised the New York Giants organization and the staff at the training facility for cooperating so fully with the Seahawks. “The Giants have been fantastic in opening their doors to us. They’ve treated us great,’’ Carroll said. “Anything we’ve needed we’ve gotten. So we’re grateful to them for everything they’ve done.’’

The temperature is expected to be about 39 degrees for the 6:30 p.m. ET kickoff Sunday.

Denver Broncos Practice Pool Report

By Jarrett Bell

Pro Football Writers of America

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. – After putting his team through its final full practice of the season on Friday afternoon, Denver Broncos coach John Fox declared his team ready to go for Super Bowl XLVIII.

The Broncos used the indoor field at the Atlantic Health Center Training Center for their one-hour, 25-minute practice after Fox determined that the outdoor synthetic field was too hard.

Yet the regimen came with another twist: Fox used the outdoor field for the 30-minute walkthrough before the practice, allowing for more exposure to the type of wintry elements that will be in play on Sunday night at MetLife Stadium.

“I just wanted to see what shape the field was in,” Fox said. “We came back in here, just for the same reason as yesterday. It was a little too hard, so we came back in.”

As was the case after the two previous full practices this week, the Broncos didn’t suffer any injury setbacks. Of the 53 players on the active roster, defensive tackle Sione Fua was the only non-participant. Fua is nursing a calf injury and is listed as doubtful for Sunday’s game. All other players are probable, and none were limited in Friday’s work.

“I feel good about where we are,” Fox said. “Our guys have worked hard all week, and the preparation’s been good. Excited to play the game.”

The team will have a walk-through session on Saturday at the Super Bowl game site.

Friday’s session – part of which was observed by team owner Pat Bowlen, who stood along the sideline – could be described as spirited.

During team drills pitting the starting offense and defense, and in others with the starters facing scout teams, players cheered, jeered, whooped and hollered, pending the outcome of any given play.

As Fox talked after practice, a handful of players provided background noise as they engaged in post-practice banter in the end zone.

Fox turned and said, “They like each other.”

Such camaraderie might also explain the diversion that came during the walk-through, when a small aircraft flew over the field with a message banner that read: “MEET BRONCOS AARON BREWER TONITE AT TIME SQUARE” (sic)

Brewer is Denver’s low-profiled, second-year long-snapper.

The plane flew over the field twice, and was reminiscent of a similar stunt that highlighted special teams captain Keith Burns when the franchise last played in a Super Bowl, in 1998.

“It was a little gag,” Fox said. “They have no more appearances. That was just to gag him a little bit.”

Fox said that he has been pleased with his players’ professionalism and focus. He said the team has not had a single case of any players breaking curfew this week.

“I couldn’t ask for more, for the way they’ve done it,” Fox said. “We’ve been on par. Very focused.”

Still, after Friday’s practice, there were still more than two days before Super Bowl XLVIII kickoff.

With the practice work completed, Fox is hoping that players will strive for an even sharper focus.

“We talk about the mental preparation,” Fox said. “They’re going to continue to go through their playbooks, iPads, whatever information source they have, and continue to review. Now it’s mostly just reviewing and visualizing what their job is.”

To minimize distractions, the Broncos will leave the Jersey City hotel where they have quartered all week – and where family and guests of players are staying – and move to another hotel on Saturday and remain sequestered overnight.

Fox, who has participated in two Super Bowls as Carolina Panthers coach and as New York Giants defensive coordinator, won’t buck Super Bowl tradition or his team’s normal routine.

“It’s what we do all the time,” he said, “whether it’s on the road or at home.”

But first there will be the matter of visiting MetLife Stadium for the walk-through session on Saturday. The visit will be more about checking out the environment than fine-tuning strategy.

“Depending on the security and all, we’re not going to see a whole lot,” he said. “I’ve got a feeling, if it’s like past Super Bowls, they’ll be doing all kind of work around there. They’re probably not going to show a whole lot.”

Fox has been pleased by the level of practices during the playoff run, noticing fewer mental errors. He suspects that comes with the more repetitions that players get as the season progresses.

The sessions this week have only bolstered that belief.

“Guys appear ready,” Fox said. “We’ve worked hard. Now we’ve got to go perform.”