Seahawks Confident, Yet Wary on Day Before Showdown With ‘Boys
No one ever accused Seattle head coach Pete Carroll of lacking belief in his team.
The long-time skipper is supremely confident headed into Saturday evening’s NFC Wild Card Round playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. “I don’t see many things that aren’t encouraging,” he told reporters at a recent press conference.
Seattle has reason to feel encouraged. The Seahawks have re-discovered their trademark ability to run the football as the 2018-19 season has worn on, rushing for at least 154 yards 12 times in the past 13 games. Prior to that, Saturday’s visitors managed a 24-13 win over the Cowboys at CenturyLink Field. But it was in mid-November that the Seahawks’ season was set alight. Carroll’s squad won 6 of its last 7 games to finish 10-6, good enough for the 5th out of 6 playoff seeds in the conference.
Led by QB Russell Wilson and 1000+ yard rusher Chris Carson, the Seahawks have scored 428 points in 16 games, the 2nd-highest total in franchise history. The offensive line has been wracked with injury but is starting to look somewhat healthy again. Guards D.J. Fluker and J.R. Sweezy could both return to the starting lineup in Arlington.
But Carroll understands that he is facing a far-different Dallas team than the one he saw back in early autumn. The Cowboys closed the regular season with a tremendous flurry of victories, notching 7 wins in the final 8 games.
QB Dak Prescott, who threw 2 interceptions and was out-played by Wilson in the loss on September 23rd, rebounded to finish the regular-season slate with almost 4000 passing yards and 6 rushing touchdowns.
Meanwhile, the Cowboy defense has allowed only 3.8 yards per carry, while the offense has looked twice as explosive with the addition of former Oakland WR Amari Cooper.
