2. The pass protection is “well ahead” of where it was at this time last year.
Heading into the bye, Carroll was excited about the way his team was protecting quarterback Russell Wilson through four games, and on Sunday the offensive line once again held up well in the passing game. Wilson was sacked only one time, and that came on a blitz by cornerback Desmond Trufant. Wilson has now been sacked 10 times this season, down from 22 sacks through five games in 2015.
“It looks really good,” Carroll said. “It’s much improved. The connection between Russell and the fits and feeling the pockets, and the nice job that Bradley Sowell did and Glow (Mark Glowinski) on the left side, they did a really nice job yesterday. I thought you could see Russell very comfortable and he took advantage of moving subtly to make space for himself and find receivers and make some plays. That’s a good improvement for us. At this time last year we were way, way above in the sack totals, so we’re well ahead. Hopefully we can keep getting better and really put together a good season of protecting the quarterback.”
Carroll did acknowledge that rookie guard Germain Ifedi “had a hard time” at times on Sunday, but the first-round pick was playing in just his second game after missing the first three with an ankle injury, and the Seahawks remain very excited about his upside going forward.
“He’s just getting going,” Carroll said. “He did some great stuff, but he did have some plays that he would like to get back—just things that can get fixed fundamentally. There’s just so many areas that he can improve upon and will. We love the good stuff and we just have to get through the other stuff. It’s not a physical question, it’s not a mental thing, it’s just fundamentals and identification and stuff like that that we can really fix. He’s going to be really good and he’s made a difference, you can tell, just being out there.”
