Monday in Hawkville

Published on September 19, 2011 by Seahawks.Com News (Feed)     

A recap of the day’s activities at Virginia Mason Athletic Center:

FOCUS ON

Getting home, and getting it right. The Seahawks will play their home opener on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals at CenturyLink Field, after dropping back-to-back road games to open the season.

“Well, I’m looking at this week like it’s great to be coming home,” coach Pete Carroll said today. “And getting back to playing here at CenturyLink with our fans, we need them and we want to play well for them.

“We need to get going and get this season started. So it’s an exciting opportunity, because it feels like we haven’t been around much; seems like we’ve been on the road a lot.”

That’s because they have. In addition to playing their opener at San Francisco and Week 2 in Pittsburgh, the Seahawks also played their third preseason game in Denver. So they’ve played at home once in the past 30 days – the preseason finale against the Oakland Raiders on Sept. 2.

As for getting it right following the 33-17 and 24-0 losses to the 49ers and Steelers, Carroll pointed to two areas.

On defense, “We’ve got to get the football,” he said. The Seahawks have not generated a turnover in their first two games.

“That’s so far off the charts for us,” he said. “We’ve got to get the ball, which adds to so much. It puts the field position in a different setting. It gives the offense an opportunity for their movement. And just changes the climate of how we’re playing.”

On offense, “We have got to find the continuity that allows us to move the ball and make some first downs,” Carroll said.

Bottom line as they make a beeline for CenturyLink: “We’re not doing a lot of things the way we want to do them right now.”

INJURY UPDATES

The big news, of course, was Carroll’s announcement that veteran left guard Robert Gallery will be out four to six weeks because he needs surgery to repair a groin injury.

But Carroll also updated the situation with Sidney Rice’s ailing shoulder. The Pro Bowl wide receiver who was added in free agency has yet to play in the regular season, but has a chance to make his Seahawks debut this week. Rice has a damaged labrum, but Carroll compared it to the injury wide receiver Ben Obomanu got last season. Obomanu was able to finish the season before having surgery.

“Sidney’s working out hard. He’ll practice all week,” Carroll said. “We’ll see, as we go day to day, what that means. I know he’s encourages and wants to get back out.

“We can’t count on him until he can make it through the week. So we’ll see how that works out. But he’s determined.”

Of the three other injured players who sat out Sunday’s game against the Steelers – fullback Michael Robinson (ankle), cornerback Byron Maxwell (ankle) and linebacker Malcolm Smith (hamstring) – Carroll said two are pretty close to returning. But he did not say which two.

STAT DU JOUR

The Seahawks have won seven of their past eight home openers – by a combined score of 182-50, or an average score of 26-7. The lone loss came in 2008, in overtime to the 49ers:

Year     Outcome, opponent

2010    W, 31-6, 49ers

2009    W, 28-0, Rams

2008    L, 33-30, 49ers

2007    W, 20-6, Buccaneers

2006     W, 21-10, Cardinals

2005     W, 21-18, Falcons

2004     W, 34-0, 49ers

2003     W, 27-10, Saints

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Tags: 49ers, Arizona Cardinals, Beeline, Center Focus, coach pete carroll, Field Position, Groin Injury, Home Coach, Home Opener, Injury Updates, Oakland Raiders, Preseason Finale, Preseason Game, Road Games, Seahawks, Sidney Rice, steelers, Two Areas, Two Games, Virginia Mason