If you missed it on Tuesday, Pete Carroll did the “ice bucket challenge,” a campaign to raise money and awareness to fight ALS, and challenged his fellow NFC West coaches to do the same. Bruce Arians and Jeff Fisher have done so, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh has not (at least not as of Thursday afternoon).
And yes, Carroll has noticed: “As far as I know, as of practice time, it was still left out there for one to complete the circle there.” Carroll also brought it up on Twitter earlier in the day.
Props to Bruce Arians and Jeff Fisher for doing the #IceBucketChallenge! The NFC West is almost all in…
— Pete Carroll (@PeteCarroll) August 14, 2014
Onto the football-related news…
—A day after limping off the field with a knee injury, rookie defensive end Cassius Marsh was surprisingly back on the field.
“There must have been a laying of hands,” Carroll said. “He was at practice today, he got out there, did awesome, and if he’s OK tomorrow, he’s got a chance to play. So we’re very, very happy about that.”
—Of the things Carroll would like to see improve in preseason game No. 2, one that stands out is the play of the second and third-string defense.
“We’ve got to play a lot better,” Carroll said. “We played really poorly at the line of scrimmage last week and I was really disappointed that we looked like that. It was just technique-wise. We got blocked. So I’m hoping the line of scrimmage will start the chain reaction that we’ll play better in the second half.”
Carroll also mentioned third-down, both on offense and defense, and pass protection as things he’d like to get cleaned up.
—After a full week of practice, Marshawn Lynch is a maybe for Friday’s game.
“You’ll see at game-time,” Carroll said.
—It sounds like G James Carpenter and C Max Unger, who both sat out last week’s game, will be game-day decisions as well, though Carroll was more confident about Carpenter: “We’re still making those evaluations. Carp looks like he’s in good shape, we’ll wait and see on Max, see if he can go or not. Those guys got through practice this week, as well as Russell Okung, and did a good job. So we’ll wait to game time to figure all that out.”
—None of Seattle’s trio of injured linebackers— Korey Toomer, Malcolm Smith and Bobby Wagner— will play this week, though all have a shot at returning to practice next week, Carroll said: “Well we’ll just wait and see. They’ll have to put together a good week to do that, but we’re hopeful that they’ll start practicing next week, yeah.”
Bruce Irvin, who is recovering from hip surgery, is still a little further out in his recovery, though Carroll continues to be only positive when talking about Irvin’s recovery.
—On WR Kevin Norwood, who is recovering from surgery to have a bone spur removed from his foot, Carroll said, “He’s doing great. His foot feels good, he’s already walking around on it. They said it might be three-four weeks if we’re lucky. It looks like he’s doing really well. He feels great. He doesn’t feel it all, so he’s really encouraged. He’s had a sore foot for a long time, so he’s hoping that it’s going to be all better.”
—S Kam Chancellor was back at practice this week after missing the beginning of camp while recovering from hip surgery, isn’t expected to play Friday, but could be on the field for Seattle’s third preseason game.
“I hope so,” Carroll said. “He practiced really well this week, he felt great about it. We’ll go through next week then figure it out at the end.”
Rookie linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis, who missed last week’s game because of an oblique injury, is somebody that Seahawks coaches will have an eye on against the Chargers.
“We need to see him just play,” Carroll said. “We’re really thinking he’s going to be a factor on special teams too. He’s shown nothing but encouraging things. He’s a very disciplined kid, he’s very serious about learning and all, his attitude is on it, he just hasn’t had a chance to play yet, so these next three weeks will be enormous from him and he’ll get a lot of play time.”
—Asked if Earl Thomas is still leading in the punt return competition, Carroll said, “Yeah, Earl’s going to be back there again this week, we’ll see how he does. Some other guys will get some shots too.”
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