RENTON — The Seattle Seahawks are back in town and refreshed following their bye week. But more than anything else, the Seahawks are buoyed by being back in a realm they’ve made their own: the second half of the season.
Seattle begins the second half of its season when it entertains the NFC West-leading Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, and the Seahawks are hoping to kick off another strong second half to propel themselves into the playoffs.
“We’ve taken pride in being a really good finishing team,” Seattle head coach Pete Carroll said Monday as the team reported back to the Virginia Mason Athletic Center following a full week off. “That’s why it was so hard to see the games that happened in the early part of the year. Taking great pride in how you finish, that’s playing well in the end, outlasting your opponent, doing things right longer than they can. That’s always the way we’ve gone about it.”
Seattle, which is looking to reach its third straight Super Bowl, suffered through an inconsistent first half in which the team went 4-4. However, the second half has been the Seahawks’ domain. The previous four seasons Seattle had a .563 winning percentage in the first half, but a .781 winning percentage in the second half.
The Seahawks hope that pattern holds true this season.
“I think it’s because we have a lot of veterans,” Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett said about why Seattle has traditionally been a second-half team. “I always say the beginning of the season is kind of where the pretenders are, and the last is where the contenders are. You see a lot of times there’s teams that have a losing record and they play strong in the playoffs. Last year you look at the (Carolina) Panthers when they were 7-9 and they come back and whip Arizona, which was 12-4. The contenders are usually in November and December.”
While Bennett highlighted the veterans, Carroll also said being willing to play the kids early in the season and let them learn on the job has helped Seattle in past second halves.
“I tend to think we play a lot of young guys extensively early and make them fit to the point where in the midseason they’re regulars,” Carroll said. “It’s easy for us to see Tyler (Lockett) and Frank (Clark) and those guys jumping in right now, we don’t think of them as young guys playing anymore. That also helps us keep down the reps to an extent for the older guys playing ahead of them. I don’t know if that allows us to be fresher. I like to think the conditioning factor has always been in our favor, we finish fast and strong and hopefully we can do that again.”
One thing that should help the Seahawks in their quest for a strong second half is a surprisingly healthy team for the midpoint of the NFL season. Tackle Russell Okung, who sat out the game at Dallas prior to the bye week because of a sprained ankle, returned to practice Monday, and he was the only member of the active roster who missed the game against the Cowboys because of injury. Defensive end Cliff Avril and tight end Luke Willson, who both emerged from the Dallas game with ankle injuries, sat out practice Monday. However, Carroll said both are expected to return Wednesday in a limited fashion.
Now the Seahawks are starting to get players who began the season on the physically-unable-to-perform list back. Receiver Paul Richardson (torn ACL in his knee), who’s been back practicing with the team for two weeks, is expected to be activated for Sunday’s game.
Also, cornerback Jeremy Lane practiced with the team for the first time this season Monday. Lane has been out since suffering a broken arm and torn ACL in the Super Bowl. Lane practiced in a limited fashion Monday, and Carroll didn’t rule out the possibility of Lane playing Sunday against Arizona.
“Everyone benefitted from the rest and we’ll come back pretty darn healthy here going into this week, which is a great sign for the midpoint of the season,” Carroll said.
“It took us a while to get back to even and we’re hopefully going to get going with a good game this week and start moving in the second half of the season,” Carroll added. “Our guys are setting their sights on doing that. It’s good the first half is over, let’s get going.”
Check out Nick Patterson’s Seattle Sidelines blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/seattlesidelines, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
