Pete Carroll on Marshawn Lynch injury mystery: ‘I don’t even know’

“There’s going to be times that he’s going to penetrate instead of play the block the way another guy would because he knows where the ball’s going”.

Running back Marshawn Lynch will be a day-to-day proposition this week for the Seahawks after not making the trip to Minnesota for Seattle’s 10-9 victory over the Vikings on Sunday in the NFC wild-card round. “Seeing Bud out there early in the shirt-sleeves thing and everything, that was a great start to the game”, Carroll, who was an assistant coach under Grant with the Vikings in 1985, said Monday at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. “Just doesn’t make any sense at all now”. “They’ve had so many dominant games on both sides of the ball”.

With the temperature at kickoff a frigid minus 6, the NFC wild card matchup at TCF Bank Stadium turned out to be the coldest ever for the Vikings and the third coldest in league history. But while the prospect of playing and coaching in those conditions would make most shudder, for Carroll it made the experience all the more exhilarating. I though he ran hard all day”, Carroll said, then adding – with room to read between the lines, “I thought he ran hard all day long…. Zimmer has occasionally prodded him to be more assertive, and Bridgewater said he’ll keep working on that. If Walsh has to be encouraged by anything, it’s that it can’t get any worse for him and that he’s not alone.

The latest example of a kicker screwing his team with a missed kick was Blair Walsh and the Minnesota Vikings. “And that’s it. He just didn’t feel like he had it. There wasn’t enough time to build the confidence that he needed to come in and do something”.

“The final kick was kicked much faster than their other kicks”.

If Lynch is back and healthy, it will only amplify the Seattle Seahawks potent ground game because not only can he gain yards on the ground, but he can help sell the read option.

“A lot of people would’ve folded up and said, ‘That’s it, ‘ but we’ve got a team full of fighters”, Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman said. “That’s what we’re talking about, that’s how we hope to be”.

The 88-year-old Grant got a roar of approval from the crowd, most of which was dressed in as many layers as those purple replica jerseys would allow. It’s a really good thing to know about yourself when you’re going into these games. “I feel the sky’s the limit for us”. Whatever it takes, the offense or the defense, to get it going again. “A little less unique was the continued excellent play by Seattle’s defense”.

Only three times, excluding the game Sunday against the Seahawks, did he finish with fewer than 60 yards rushing. But Peterson’s next three carries left the Vikings a yard short of the first down. What happened on each of those plays impacted Seattle’s defensive strategy on Minnesota’s last drive and also may have affected Walsh’s timing on his decisive miss.

“Just tried to extend the play”, said Wilson, who went 13 for 26 for 142 yards. “When it’s me out there, I’m just focused on what I’ve got to do to put a good kick out there”.

Gostkowski continued: “I was at least proud of the way he stood up there and took it on his shoulders”. “It was play after play after play of continuing to do the right thing. That’s how it goes.