RENTON — On Monday the Seattle Seahawks were still basking in the glow of Sunday’s comprehensive 29-13 victory over the San Francisco 49ers at CenturyLink Field. However, that glow was muted by continuing concerns about the status of star running back Marshawn Lynch.
Lynch was a late scratch from Sunday’s game because of an abdominal injury, an ailment that also bothered him the previous week. The Seahawks were concerned enough to send Lynch across the country Monday to see a specialist in Philadelphia.
Thomas Rawls had a big game in Lynch’s absence, racking up 209 yards on the ground. It’s possible Rawls will be called upon to continue carrying the load, as Lynch’s status remains unknown.
“He’s on his way to Philadelphia, I know that,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said Monday afternoon at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. “Then (Tuesday) he has his meetings with the doctors and then we’ll find something out.
“It’s legitimately bothering him. He would have played yesterday if he could have.”
Lynch is scheduled to meet with Dr. William Meyers, a specialist in core and muscle injuries who has worked extensively with athletes. It’s possible Lynch has a sports hernia that would require surgery and rule Lynch out for the remainder of the season. Carroll said, however, that the reason the Seahawks sent Lynch to see Meyers was for an evaluation, not to undergo surgery — though Carroll acknowledged surgery may be necessary.
“I don’t know about the surgery,” Carroll said. “It could happen. I don’t know that. It’s a possibility, but he went back there for the evaluation to find out what’s next. There’s a couple choices possibly, depending on what the doctor thinks is necessary, and then we’ll just wait and see what that all means.”
Lynch was listed as questionable for Seattle’s game against Arizona the previous week because of the injury, but Lynch played and ran eight times for 42 yards.
“He pretty much played through it,” Carroll said. “I think afterwards, late in the game, he started to feel it activate and it got worse.”
Carroll said the injury did not get worse in the week leading up to the game against San Francisco.
“But he hadn’t done much, to protect it,” Carroll said. “Until he tested it, and we waited through the week to test it. He was doing stuff, but he wasn’t doing any running that would aggravate it in the hopes it would settle, calm down and he’d be OK. Then he went out in pregame and he just didn’t feel very good. All of the work they did, the stretching and all that stuff, it didn’t help him, so he couldn’t do it. It went right up to 10-15 minutes before we handed in the sheet for the pregame.”
Coming into the season Lynch had missed just one game in his four-plus seasons with the Seahawks, and he appeared in 61 consecutive regular season games from 2011-15 before missing Seattle’s Week 4 game against Detroit because of a hamstring injury. Lynch sat out two games because of the hamstring ailment, and has now missed one because of the abdominal issue.
Fortunately for the Seahawks, Rawls was on hand to take the reins, and he produced one of the best games in franchise history by a running back. The undrafted rookie out of Central Michigan University rushed 30 times for 209 yards and a touchdown, and caught three passes for 46 more yards and another TD. The 209 yards rushing were the second most in a single game by a Seattle runner, and the 255 total yards from scrimmage were the third most.
On Monday Carroll compared Rawls to former Houston Oilers great Earl Campbell — though he was quick to say Rawls still had a long way to go to reach Campbell’s level.
“Those of you who didn’t watch (Campbell) play, he was able to beat you with his speed and he was able to beat you being physical,” Carroll said. “He would run at people. He’d pick out guys and he’d run over them and try to attack them. It added to his stock that sometimes he’d make you miss. I (made the comparison) in the sense to challenge Thomas more than anything else.
“He’s got a unique body,” Carroll said of Rawls. “He’s not real tall, he’s got great strength in his lower body, and he can put his foot in the ground and just bang into those cuts. Sometimes it’s almost like he surprises himself with the cut that he makes. He’s got really good strength, and then also when he goes he’s fast. He’s got good speed, he’s a 4.4 guy. You put that all together and he suddenly heads off in a different direction. He’s still looking to hit someone, though. He makes someone miss to find somebody to hit, I think.”
Despite being a backup, Sundays game was Rawls’ third this season in which he rushed for more than 100 yards. He had 104 yards in little more than a half in Seattle’s 26-0 victory over Chicago in Week 3, then went for 169 yards in the Seahawks’ 27-24 overtime loss at Cincinnati in Week 5. For the season he has 604 yards on 101 carries for an astounding 6.0 yards per carry.
Extra points
On the injury front, Carroll said he was optimistic that center Patrick Lewis and receiver Doug Baldwin, who both suffered ankle injuries during Sunday’s game, will be able to make it back for next weekend’s game against Pittsburgh. Carroll was less optimistic that linebacker Bruce Irvin (knee) and receiver Paul Richardson (hamstring), who both missed Sunday’s game, would be able to return. … Carroll said cornerback Jeremy Lane (arm/knee), who’s been on the physically-unable-to-perform list, will be activated for the game against Pittsburgh. Lane has been practicing with the team, and Carroll said Lane would be among those in the mix to either start at cornerback or serve as the nickel corner. … The Baltimore Ravens signed former Seahawks receiver Chris Matthews to its practice squad Monday. Matthews was released by Seattle last week. The Seahawks travel to face the Ravens in three weeks.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Seattle Sidelines blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/seattlesidelines, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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