Seahawks grateful for Wilson’s durability
GLENDALE, Ariz. – Russell Wilson, Darrell Bevell – heck, all the Seahawks – don’t need anything elaborate or extensive for Christmas.
Sure, the NFC West title, top seed in the conference’s upcoming playoffs and the inside track to a second consecutive Super Bowl are what they want most.
But to get there, all they really need is a block of wood on which to knock.
There have been 73 quarterbacks to play in the NFL this season. Wilson, New Orleans’ Drew Brees and Detroit’s Matthew Stafford are the only three who have taken all their teams’ snaps.
Arizona and Houston are playing their fourth QBs this season. Wilson’s started every one of 46 regular-season games, four playoff games and one Super Bowl since he became the Seahawks’ starter in the first week of his rookie season of 2012.
Not only that, Wilson has never even been on an injury report in his 52 career game weeks the team has issued one. Not even for a practice day.
How remarkable is that, especially with Arizona (11-3) having to start third-string quarterback Ryan Lindley in tonight’s showdown against the Seahawks (10-4) in what is essentially the division championship game?
“It’s so remarkable,” Bevell said, “I probably don’t want to talk about it.”
Then the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator knocked on the round tabletop in front of him.
“Knock on wood,” he said.
Bevell likens Wilson to another quarterback the coordinator used to have when Bevell was the quarterbacks coach in Green Bay from 2003-05, and in 2009 when he was Minnesota’s offensive coordinator. That was when the Vikings signed some guy named Brett Favre.
Favre’s 321 consecutive starts in the regular season and playoffs is the NFL record for all positions.
“Yes, I’ve been so fortunate in my career. I was able to coach a guy that was able to play forever and ever, and you expected him to be at every game regardless,” Bevell said. “I think we have a similar guy in Russell.
“He’s taken some hits, but the best thing that we talk about him every time is the decisions that he makes. Most of the time, he keeps himself out of harm’s way and he’s able enough to escape some things when he gets out and runs, he gets down or he gets out of bounds. So all those decisions really help him to be able to stay in there.”
Said Wilson: “One of my goals is to never miss a practice in my career.”
Wilson never missed a game because of injury in high school or college. He began starting in the first game of his redshirt-freshman season, Aug. 28, 2008, for N.C. State in Columbia, South Carolina. Still honing his knack for avoiding huge hits from hungry defenders, he took a knee to his head in that game.
“It was kind of one of those freak accidents; nothing that I could have really done,” he said this week.
“I actually got knocked out my first college game ever. That was a good experience,” he deadpanned of the Wolfpack’s 38-0 loss in Wilson’s college debut. “We were playing South Carolina. I think we could have won that game if that wasn’t the case, but I got knocked out.”
Since then?
“I’ve been fortunate enough not to miss too many games. I try to get down, I try to play smart,” the 5-foot-11, 206-pound QB said. “Like I always say, I’m short and stocky for a reason, so I can take a couple of hits every once and a while.”
The blitzing, swarming Cardinals sacked Wilson seven times and hit him 11 other times in Seattle’s 19-3 home win last month. Wilson’s improvisational scrambles saved him from at least a half-dozen more sacks. That happened with the Seahawks missing two starters on its porous offensive line.
Tonight, the Seahawks are again going to be without two starters on their offensive line. Left tackle Russell Okung has a bruised lung, and center Max Unger isn’t yet back from a high-ankle sprain that’s had him out the last four games.
Plus, right guard J.R. Sweezy returned to practice only Friday; he sprained his ankle last week. He and coach Pete Carroll say he’s ready to go, but if he can’t make it through the game Lemuel Jeanpierre – Unger’s replacement at center the last four weeks – is ready to replace Sweezy at guard. That would force fourth-stringer Patrick Lewis in at center. Lewis struggled with line calls in the first Seahawks-Cardinals game.
The Cardinals have won five games by a single score, yet they’ve outscored foes 102-43 in the fourth quarter during their best start to a season since the 1975 St. Louis Cardinals finished that regular season 11-3.
The Seahawks’ defense hasn’t exactly been rolling over lately, either. It’s on a historic, four-game streak of stinginess. Seattle has allowed an average 6.8 points and 188 yards per game in wins over Arizona, San Francisco, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
Linebacker Bobby Wagner’s task today will be to shut down Arizona’s resurgent rushing game with practice-squad signee Kerwynn Williams. Wagner and Williams were teammates at Utah State, and Wagner calls the second-year running back a good friend.
“Yeah,” Wagner said, with a grin. “I can’t wait to hit him.”