By Bob Condotta
The Seattle Times
Among the non-Marshawn Lynch related highlights from Seahawks coach Pete Carroll’s weekly radio show on ESPN 710 Seattle included the declaration that defensive end Jadeveon Clowney will return for Sunday night’s clash with San Francisco.
Clowney has missed the last two games, with a core injury specifically to blame for sitting out Sunday’s 27-13 loss to Arizona.
He suffered the injury in the first half of the win against the 49ers on Nov. 11, when he ran roughshod through the 49ers offense and earned NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors.
Carroll sounded as optimistic as he could that Clowney will make it back for the rematch that will decide the NFC West title.
“I don’t think there’s any question that he’s going to play,” Carroll said. “He was close this week but he wasn’t right. Because this is kind of the last game on the schedule he’s going for it you know and I would think (he’ll play) unless he just can’t. And if he can’t he can’t. I know he’s fired up and he wants to contribute and be part of this thing, too. It’s killing him not playing.”
Brown’s surgery went well
Carroll said left tackle Duane Brown had surgery Monday morning to repair what is being reported as a meniscus injury in his knee. He confirmed Brown is out this week and likely another week or two. But he said there’s a chance he could be back depending on how long Seattle’s season lasts.
“He’s already out, and it went really well and they are hoping for two to three weeks,” Carroll said. “So that would, if we can be fortunate to be successful here as we get rolling in the playoffs, it gives him a chance. That was the reason that we rushed him to go get it done.”
Carroll said it was too early to say if Jamarco Jones will continue to start in place of Brown. But he noted that Jones attended Ohio State at the same time as 49ers rookie defensive end Nick Bosa, and the two went against each other often in practice, “so it’s not nothing new for him there. So that gives a little familiarity.”
Shaquill Griffin could return
Shaquill Griffin, the starting left cornerback, has missed the last two games with a hamstring injury. He has been replaced by Akeem King, whom Carroll said played well against Arizona.
But he hopes Griffin returns, noting that, like Clowney, he was close to making it back this week.
“Yeah he’ll practice this week and I think that he kind of, like JD, has a really good chance to play this week,” Carroll said. “He almost made it last time so I think they have a good shot. But they’ve still got to prove it, but I’m thinking they are going to make it just based on what happened as they went into the week and almost there.”
Free safety Quandre Diggs, though, could be more of a longshot after suffering a high ankle sprain against the Panthers.
“He’s maybe a little bit farther because I haven’t see him,” Carroll said. “Those guys (Griffin, Clowney) were able to do some work, do some things. But I know Quandre, he’s going to do everything he can to play. He’s got a great mentality about it.”
Carroll takes blame for delay
Carroll was far more candid on Monday in taking the blame for the delay-of-game miscue in the first quarter than he had been after the game.
To reset, with the game tied at 7, Seattle marched to the Arizona 33 and faced a fourth-and-one.
Carroll said he initially considered going for it before sending out the field goal team for Jason Myers to try what would have been a 51-yarder.
Only, the kick never happened as Seattle then got called for a delay.
After the game Carroll put the onus on Myers, saying “they got messed up up front, and he just felt it would be better to take the delay than to take the time out. And I couldn’t tell what was going on. We were supposed to kick the ball there but we didn’t.”
But Monday, Carroll took the blame and seemed to hint there was a potential for a fake.
“We had something going on the play and it didn’t work out right,” he said. ” … We didn’t get the look that we wanted so we wound up burning. … There was a chance it was going to go differently and all the sudden we ran out of time and so it messed up the opportunity. It’s totally my fault. I totally blew that one. I could have fixed that one and it was a very, very big play in the game, too. … That was a chance to go for it or kick the field and we didn’t get either one of them attempted, so I screwed that up.”
Hawks were healthy enough to win
Carroll said he would quickly turn the focus to the 49ers game, saying coaches had until 8:30 a.m. Monday to review the Arizona loss, and then it was time to move on.
Carroll said he didn’t want to blame two things some threw out as potential reasons for the loss — all the injuries, and that Seattle knew the division would come down to the 49ers game regardless.
Carroll said he didn’t think Seattle wasn’t ready, noting that the game began with the defense forcing a three-and-out and the Seahawks then driving 89 yards for a score.
“We went into this game knowing there was a championship game coming up here (this week),” Carroll said. “If that got in the way someway, maybe it did. And if that did then I didn’t do a good enough job of directing us through it. But it didn’t feel like it. It felt like we were ready to go.”
As for the injuries, Carroll said he also didn’t think that was an excuse.
“We had plenty of guys to play,” Carroll said. “You saw us come out firing, we came out firing looking good and everything was going to be the way we wanted it to and then a couple things happened and we didn’t respond very well and they did respond well.”
Carroll said his biggest disappointment was that Seattle was held to a season-low 224 yards by a defense that came into the game allowing 413.1 yards per game, most in the NFL.
“I was really surprised that we weren’t able to move the ball better than we did,” he said. “We just figured that we would. We ran the ball well all night (91 yards on 20 carries), we just didn’t run the ball as much as we would like to, and the rhythm of it, because it goes back to these deals when you have the really bad third down games it messes up the whole rhythm of your game and we were 1-12 last night … you can tell when that happens you better score on defense a couple of times or it’s going to be a hard night.”
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