Tuesday in Hawkville

Published on September 20, 2011 by Seahawks.Com News (Feed)     

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

FOCUS ON

The defense. This has been the Seahawks’ best unit during the team’s 0-2 start, but then there’s not a lot of competition with the offense being shut out in six of the eight quarters they’ve played and the special teams allowing a 102-yard kickoff return and punts returns of 55, 41 and 31 yards in two games.

But the defense is allowing an average of 315 yards to rank 10th in the league, compared to 191.5 for the 32nd-ranked offense. The defense also has been on the field for roughly 70 of the 120 minutes in the first two games, including almost 40 in Sunday’s loss to the Steelers.

Asked if he was worried about the slow-starting offense taking a toll on the defense, coach Pete Carroll offered, “Yeah, attitude-wise they’ve got to hang.”

But he quickly added, “The defense has got their issues too, now. We got torn up pretty good on third downs last week. So they’ve got their areas that they’re working on. Expectations are very high for our performance over there.”

The Steelers converted eight of 15 third-down situations, and Ben Roethlisberger was 9 of 13 for 171 yards on the pivotal down.

The team needs better than that, especially with the offense experiencing growing pains.

“After a while, they don’t feel the hope that something good is going to happen, so we need a little spark,” Carroll said of the defense/offense dynamic. “We need to get moving. I’d love to see us really catch fire. I don’t think we’re very far from doing that. That’s right there for us, but we still need to go do that.”

The next chance comes in Sunday’s home opener against the Arizona Cardinals at CenturyLink Field.

PRACTICE SQUAD ROULETTE

Guard Brent Osborne was re-signed to the practice squad today. Wide receiver Owen Spencer was released to clear a spot on the eight-man squad.

Osborne was part of the rookie free agent class that was signed on July 26, but then released. He was signed to the practice squad on Sept. 4, but released on Sept. 13.

STAT DU JOUR

It doesn’t just seem like Larry Fitzgerald has caught more passes against the Seahawks than any other team in the league, the Cardinals’ Pro Bowl wide receiver has – 88, in fact, for 1,158 yards and nine touchdowns. It helps, of course, that Fitzgerald has played against the Seahawks twice a season since entering the league in 2004.

Here’s a closer look at how he has done it:

Year      No.   Yards   TD

2010       3        30        0

2010       7        91        0

2009     13      100        1

2009       7         73       1

2008     10      151        0

2008       5      130        2

2007       7        87        0

2007       6        79        1

2006       4        52         0

2006      7       79        1

2005      3       41        0

2005       8    102        0

2004       4      73        1

2004       4      70        2

via Seahawks.com Blog | Tuesday in Hawkville «.

Tags: Arizona Cardinals, Ben Roethlisberger, Center Focus, coach pete carroll, Free Agent, Growing Pains, Home Opener, Little Spark, Man Squad, Practice Squad, Punts, Quarters, Roulette, Seahawks, Spencer, steelers, Two Games, Virginia Mason, Wide Receiver, Yard Kickoff Return