RENTON — The Seahawks secondary, which was last seen giving up five touchdown passes in Minneapolis, could be down a starting safety this weekend.
Deon Grant, the Seattle’s starting strong safety since 2007, has a hand/wrist injury that will be evaluated by a specialist today. The Seahawks will get a member of their secondary back, however, as cornerback Josh Wilson is expected to return after missing Sunday’s game with a concussion.
“We’re going to send him to a hand specialist, and I don’t know the exact medical terms for it, but it is something that could pose a problem and we’ll just have to see what they say tomorrow,” Seahawks coach Jim Mora said.
Grant didn’t leave the game with an injury — Mora said he doesn’t know when it occurred — but has enough of an injury to merit concern.
“It might be something significant, it might be something that he’s OK with,” Mora said. “… They explained to me as a ligament issue, and really that’s all I know.”
If Grant can’t play Sunday, it would be the first game he missed since spending his rookie year on injured reserve. Going back to 2001, Grant has started every game of his career, a streak that now stands at 138 games.
Grant’s was the only significant injury suffered by a Seahawk. Backup defensive tackle Red Bryant has a minor knee sprain, Mora said, but is expected to be available for Sunday’s game in St. Louis.
Running back Julius Jones is also expected back this week in practice, and should return to the starting lineup this weekend. Jones suffered a bruised lung in the Seahawks’ loss to Arizona, and Mora said the biggest concern with him will be conditioning.
“A lot of these guys when they have an injury to an arm or a leg or a knee or an ankle, they continue to condition, but he couldn’t condition, so we’ve just got to make sure his conditioning is OK,” Mora said. “But he should be fine by Sunday.”
Reliving an ugly loss
Mora, his coaching staff and the Seahawks players had to sit through film Monday of the previous day’s 35-9 loss, and Mora said there are a few positives hiding among the wreckage.
“I thought our run defense was good for the most part against a very good runner. Believe it or not, there was some improvement in our zone coverage,” Mora said. “We still got picked apart a little bit, but there was some improvement.
“There are things we can build on, I think what’s important when you go though a game like that is that you recognize the deficiencies and the things that we didn’t do well, but you’ve also got to recognize and impress upon the guys the things that we are getting better at and say, ‘Hey, let’s continue to work the way we’re working because look, we are making progress.’ Maybe it’s disguised in a horrible loss, but there is some progress.”
As for the many negatives, Mora said two things stood out most: his team’s run game, which netted just 4 yards, a franchise low, and the pass rush, which sacked Brett Favre twice early, but struggled to get pressure the rest of the day.
“That we didn’t have any success running the football, and that we — besides the two sacks early — couldn’t get anything going in terms of forcing Brett to feel uncomfortable in the pocket, those things disappointed me, those things surprised me,” Mora said.
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
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