Gregg Bell
The News Tribune
The Seahawks are back from their bye.
And back from reconnecting this past weekend.
As usual, coach Pete Carroll gave his players the entire bye off last week from practicing and meetings.
Many players took advantage of their extended time off following the previous weekend’s blowout win over Oakland in London, their last break until at least the end of the regular season through December, back at their college campuses.
That included Shaquill and Shaquem Griffin.
The twin brothers and Seahawks defenders and roommates spent this past weekend marveling at the new digs at their University of Central Florida.
UCF, by the way, is undefeated again.
Shaquem Griffin starred last season at linebacker for UCF when it went 13-0 and won the Peach Bowl over Auburn in January.
Quarterback Russell Wilson apparently spent his bye weekend with his family.
The Seahawks were set to return to practice at team headquarters Monday afternoon.
Pro Bowl linebacker K.J. Wright is expected to make his season debut Sunday in Seattle’s game at Detroit (3-3). He hasn’t been on the field since arthroscopic knee surgery in late August. If he doesn’t practice Monday that doesn’t necessarily signal Wright won’t play again. Monday’s is what Carroll calls a “bonus” practice, one the team usually does not have the day after a normal Sunday game day.
Starting tight end Ed Dickson is the other veteran Seahawk to watch for his status during practices Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (the players take their one day off of the week on Tuesday, as usual and as mandated by the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement). The Seahawks signed Dickson from Carolina in March to a three-year contract to replace departed Jimmy Graham. But Dickson missed the preseason with groin and quadriceps injuries. He began the season on the non-football-injury list. That required him to miss the first six games.
Sunday’s game at the Lions is the first one Dickson is eligible to play, and Carroll has said Dickson is on track to debut this weekend.
The Seahawks are coming back off their bye to a division that looks the same as it did before they went away.
The Los Angeles Rams are running away with the NFC West. The Rams, the league’s only undefeated team, ransacked San Francisco 39-10 on Sunday. The Rams have a 3 1/2-game lead on the Seahawks (3-3), plus, for now, the head-to-head tiebreaker. L.A. won 33-31 at Seattle two weeks ago, a game the Seahawks still believe they should have won.
The Rams host Green Bay (3-2-1) on Sunday. They play four more games before their bye in week 12. That includes Nov. 11 in a rematch with the Seahawks in Los Angeles.
The Rams’ undefeated streak, and specifically their defense, are going to get huge tests over the next four weeks. In addition to Aaron Rodgers and the Packers on Sunday, Los Angeles plays Drew Brees and the 5-1 New Orleans Saints plus wunderkind Patrick Mahomes and the 6-1 Kansas City Chiefs.
The 49ers and Cardinals are in the same 1-6 ditch at the bottom of the division. San Francisco has lost five in a row and is adrift without quarterback Jimmy Garopplo. Arizona got blown out at home Thursday by Denver.
The Seahawks will say they aren’t looking at the big picture; we are going to get more “every week is a championship opportunity” from Carroll, Wilson and many players between now and Sunday’s kickoff in Detroit. But with the Rams rolling, Seattle needs a bigger picture on which to focus.
The Seahawks realistically need to get to 10 wins for a possible wild-card berth into the playoffs, which they missed last season for the first time in six years.
That’s seven more victories. Seattle plays four of its final five games at home to finish the regular season. At 3-3 now the Seahawks must win almost all those games against the 49ers, Vikings, Chiefs and Cardinals.
If they can pull that off — admittedly a huge “if” — that’s seven wins. Seattle would need three more. It plays at San Francisco still, Dec. 16. That leaves the need for two more victories among these remaining games: this coming one at Detroit, home to the surging Los Angeles Chargers on Nov. 4, at the Rams, then home against the Packers on a Thursday night next month and at Carolina on Nov. 25.
That’s what makes Sunday’s game at the Lions rather sizable, to the bigger picture.
It’s a scene that after three wins in four games looks tons better for the Seahawks than it did a few weeks ago.
“We’ve put together really four weeks of pretty good football here, and I like the way that we’re playing, the style we’re playing with, how physical we’re playing,” Carroll said.
“So I’m just really pleased with where we are right now taking (this) break. We needed to be better, but we made the most of it.”
SEAHAWKS’ REMAINING SCHEDULE
Sunday at Detroit (3-3)
Nov. 4 vs Los Angeles Chargers (5-2)
Nov. 11 at Los Angeles Rams (7-0)
Nov. 15 vs Green Bay (3-2-1)
Nov. 25 at Carolina (4-2)
Dec. 2 San Francisco (1-6)
Dec. 10 Minnesota (4-2-1)
Dec. 16 at San Francisco
Dec. 23 Kansas City (6-1)
Dec. 30 Arizona (1-6)
