Seahawks excited for first opportunity to play in London
Heading across the pond to London for the first time in franchise history, head coach Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks hope to recapture the momentum that nearly led to an upset victory over the undefeated Los Angeles Rams last Sunday.
Carroll, who previously coached nine seasons at USC before being hired by the Seahawks in 2010, plans to approach this weekend’s international matchup with the Oakland Raiders by leaning on his past experiences preparing college teams.
“I think it’s going to be an exciting event.” Carroll said. “Nobody has home field, so we just go ahead and go for it kind of like a bowl game and we’ll go make the most of it.”
Aiming to keep the weekly schedule as normal as possible, Carroll said the Seahawks chose to leave for London on Wednesday rather than earlier in the week to help initiate game-planning before making the 11-hour flight. Of all the legitimate concerns undertaking this lengthy trip, he wants to establish a healthy sleeping schedule right away to help players and coaches adjust well before game day.
“There is some science to it.” Carroll said. “We’ll try to sleep on the way over and then keeping them up the day that we get there so that they can get a regular night’s sleep, a real healthy night’s sleep without going to sleep during the day – that’s one of the big issues. Then we have days to turn it around.”
Once they arrive at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, the Seahawks will square off with former star running back Marshawn Lynch and a Raiders squad that Carroll believes is far better than their 1-4 record indicates. Coming off a challenging 33-31 loss to the Rams, Seattle certainly won’t be overlooking the “home” team in a must-win contest.
“They’ve been ahead and had chances to play well in every game. Their games, they’ve struggled to get the finish,” Carroll stated respectfully. “They’ve got a lot of fire power, they’ve got a lot of offense. It’s a star-studded offensive group that they have there.”
Head coach Jon Gruden left the broadcast booth to return to the Raiders with a 10-year contract and added veteran receiver Jordy Nelson and enigmatic talent Martavis Bryant to an already-talented offense headlined by quarterback Derek Carr, Lynch, and ex-Alabama star Amari Cooper, but it hasn’t been smooth sailing in his first year back with the organization.
Despite racking up the sixth-most offensive yards in the NFL through five weeks of action, Oakland hasn’t been able to overcome turnover issues and has been inefficient offensively, ranking 22nd in the league in scoring. At the core of its offensive struggles, Carr currently leads the league with eight interceptions and has thrown three of them in the end zone, immediately ending potential scoring drives without any points.
Making matters worse for Carr, his normally reliable offensive line has been ravaged by injuries. Oakland placed long-time starting left tackle Donald Penn on injured reserve a week ago, first-round pick Kolton Miller has been playing with a sprained knee, and All-Pro guard Kelechi Osemele missed last week’s game with a knee injury of his own.
Carroll expects Gruden, who helped guide the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl championship in 2002, will get things turned in the right direction, though he’s hoping he’ll wait another week.
“They have caught our attention by just the playmaking ability that they have and they’ve got great coaching.” Carroll stated. “Unfortunately for somebody, and hopefully not us, it’s just a matter of time. These guys are going to get going and get ripping and be close enough to win all of their games.”
Knowing Oakland’s offensive potential, it’ll be key for the Seahawks to continue grinding out drives with a suddenly-potent ground attack. Since guard D.J. Fluker returned to the lineup in Week 3, Seattle has rattled off three straight games with a 100-yard rusher, including Chris Carson’s career-best 116-yard performance against the Rams. Mike Davis also added 68 yards in a reserve role as the team amassed over 190 yards rushing against a defense featuring defensive tackles Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh.
Along with Oakland’s inconsistencies on offense, they’ve been plagued by poor run defense, surrendering over 127 yards rushing per game and a healthy 4.9 yards per carry. Gruden’s defense has missed linebacker defensive end, who was dealt to the Bears prior to Week 1, as the Raiders sit at the bottom of the league with only 6.0 sacks.
With Carson and Davis both healthy, the offensive line playing as well as any group during the Carroll era, and quarterback Russell Wilson coming off a three-touchdown game, Seattle plans to keep the train rolling and take advantage of the Raiders defensive woes against the ground game and rushing the passer.
“We made a big turn. It’s taken us longer than I would’ve wanted to get to this point, but we feel like we can play the game that we want to play and the style we want to play it regardless of where we’re going,” Carroll said when asked about Seattle’s reestablished identity. “We’ll find out, let’s go see if we can take it across the ocean and do it as well, but that’s really important to us.”
SERIES HISTORY: 53rd regular-season meeting. Raiders lead series, 28-24. Formerly rivals in the AFC West, both teams have enjoyed long winning streaks against one another, including the then-Los Angeles Raiders winning eight straight games against the Seahawks from 1990 to 1993. Since Seattle relocated to the NFC West in 2002, the two franchises have split four meetings, with the Seahawks capturing a 30-24 victory in the most recent matchup in 2014. Seattle and Oakland have also split two playoff contests, with the Raiders winning the 1983 AFC Championship Game and the Seahawks enacting revenge in the wild-card round the following season.
