The day in pictures
Check out some photos from Thursday’s practice, brought to you by Seahawks.com photographer Rod Mar:
Wideout Deon Butler brings in a short pass. [Photo by Rod Mar, Seahawks.com]
Cornerback Marcus Trufant knocks a pass away. [Photo by Rod Mar, Seahawks.com]
Charlie Whitehurst rolls out to throw. [Photo by Rod Mar, Seahawks.com]
Safety Earl Thomas tries to slow down receiver Deion Branch. [Photo by Rod Mar, Seahawks.com]
Tailback Julius Jones jukes while looking for a hole. [Photo by Rod Mar, Seahawks.com]
Morning links
Don’t miss these must-see features from Seahawks.com:
- Camp Com-Pete concludes: Examining the results from Bing Training Camp
- Seahawks Daily: Tony Ventrella takes a look at the final day of training camp
- Seahawks Insider: Clare Farnsworth sits down with Tony Ventrella to wrap up camp
A look ahead
The Seahawks are oh-so-close to their second exhibition game — a Saturday night home matchup against Green Bay — and with it comes an important mile marker.
The preseason will reach its halfway point.
This weekend marks the three-week mark since Bing Training Camp began and signals just three weeks until the season opener against San Francisco on Sept. 12.
Game preparation for Saturday’s matchup will kick into high gear on Friday, known as “the day before” for the Seahawks. The day will be split into a morning portion of meetings and a very light practice and then a night portion containing all the final pre-game meetings at a local hotel. Take a look at the agenda for the Seahawks on Friday:
6:30-8:30 a.m. • Breakfast
8 a.m. • Special teams meeting
8:45 a.m. • Team meeting
9 a.m. • Offense/defense meetings
11:25 a.m. • Practice #21
1:10 p.m. • Lunch
1:30-7:30 p.m. • Break
7:30 p.m. • Special teams meeting
8 p.m. • Offense/defense meetings
8:30 p.m. • Team meeting
8:45 p.m. • Snack
9 p.m. • Chapel/mass
11 p.m. • Bed check
Thursday in Hawkville
A recap of Bing Training Camp, and some camp honors, as the team breaks camp.
BEST PLAYER
Matt Hasselbeck. This was almost too obvious after the way the veteran quarterback first took to the new offense during the offseason and then took control of the offense during camp.
In discussing these selections with assistant coaches, players and scouts, other names were offered. Everyone, however, mentioned Hasselbeck and it often came with, “Oh, No. 8. That’s been obvious almost every day.”
As defensive coordinator Gus Bradley put it, “A guy who really has been impressive is Matt. All offseason and then all through camp, he has really accepted the challenge.”
Plays of the day
Here are the highlights from Thursday afternoon’s practice:
- On “Turnover Thursday,” cornerback Marcus Trufant made sure the defense lived up to the challenge. The veteran flew in front of an over route for an interception and had 85 yards of clear running room to reach the end zone for the pick-six.
- Cornerback Kelly Jennings also had an interception during the practice, snagging an underthrown deep ball for the defense’s other turnover on the day.
- On back-to-back goal-line plays, Julius Jones rushed for two short touchdowns to end the practice. Also, during earlier 11-on-11 work, the tailback also broke a long run up the middle thanks to excellent blocking by the offensive line.
- Matt Hasselbeck tossed a beautiful throw downfield to wideout Golden Tate, who jumped up over the cornerback to make an amazing catch on the play.
- During team period, tailback Justin Forsett turned in a juke-filled run to sneak through the line and break free for a 50 yard touchdown.
- Wideout Ruvell Martin made a fantastic shoe-string catch along the left sideline during team period.
Breaking camp without fanfare
Following this afternoon’s half-pads practice, the Seahawks will enjoy a team barbeque on the field with family members.
That’s not the only reason today’s special, though.
After 20 practices in 20 days, the Seahawks will officially break camp following the workout this afternoon. Bing Training Camp 2010 will have come to a close and the players will move out of a local hotel and return to their homes. But other than where they’ll sleep from here on out, not much will change as the preseason rolls along and the regular season — now just 24 days away — approaches.
Two-a-days wrapped up nearly two weeks ago and the daily grind has already started to taper off, so the preparation agenda won’t change at all after the team breaks camp. And because the team hosts training camp at its home practice facility, there’s no moving out of dorms and flying home tonight after practice. For the most part, life goes on as is for the Seahawks even though camp will have officially ended today.
“It’ll be business as usual,” Coach Pete Carroll said. “We didn’t even realize that today was anything different. Our preparation continues like normal.”
Working near the end zone
The Seahawks offense reviews a play at the goal line during this morning’s walk-thru. The team is in a lunch break now before practice at 1:30 p.m.
Media watch
Wondering how to watch, listen to or otherwise follow Saturday’s preseason game against Green Bay? Here’s all the pertinent information for the Seahawks-Packers game at Qwest Field:
- Kickoff: 7:05 p.m.
- Local TV • King 5
- National TV • NFL Network
- Regional TV: On 13 different networks across five states
- TV announcers: Curt Menefee and Warren Moon
- Radio • 710 AM and 97.3 FM
- Radio announcers: Steve Raible, Sam Adkins, Jen Mueller
- Online play-by-play: NFL.com Game Center
- Complete online coverage: Seahawks.com
- Tickets: Seahawks.com
Simple math
Near the end of this morning’s team meeting, Coach Pete Carroll scratched out a note and projected it on the screen.
It appeared to be a peculiar math problem that no one could figure out.
“(+1 = 1-0)”
While the players sat befuddled trying to find the answer, Carroll started to explain the formula. After going plus-1 in turnover margin in Saturday’s 20-18 win over Tennessee, the Seahawks are 1-0 when recording more takeaways than giveaways in a game.
“It couldn’t be more clear,” said Carroll. “We’ve got to maintain a conscience about getting after the football and taking care of the football.
“We can never lose sight of this. It’s so critical to our winning and losing.”
Hard rock
Like any other coach, Pete Carroll is imploring his players to play hard.
But unlike any other coach, he’s explaining exactly why.
Carroll used Wednesday’s practice as a springboard for that concept, addressing his players about the magnitude of going “full-speed every step.”
“If you want to be unique, if you want to be special, you’ve got to get yourself to go hard every chance you get,” Carroll said. “That’s when you become great. It’s hard to do, it’s uncommon, because it’s against human nature to go that hard for that long.”
As difficult as it is to go all-out all the time, the onus falls on each individual. As Carroll says, “it’s totally on us” and falls into the category of something that can be controlled internally. And the head coach will continue emphasizing this point because “it’s too important not to.”
“How good do you want to be? How far do you want to take this?” Carroll rhetorically asked his players. “Let’s not be normal. Let’s be serious about showing who we are every single play.
“And when we go hard every play, every day, it becomes who we are.”
