Tom Cable on ESPN: Patrick Lewis likely to get the start at center this week; Seahawks' improving at pass protection

Seahawks assistant head coach and offensive line coach Tom Cable joined Danny, Dave and Moore on 710 ESPN Seattle yesterday and had some interesting things to say about the state of the offensive line. Listen in.

On Patrick Lewis:

He did very well. This was the third time that this actually happened, twice by injury, and then of course, he had the start here a couple weeks ago at home, and played pretty well for little over a half. This time, he went in, he was really clean, took care of the snap, assignment-wise, he was on it, so we're making good progress that way.

On losing Unger and that being a big blow:

It is, you can't talk around that one, or say, well, "next man up" and all that sort of B.S. - it's real, he's a really good player and he's playing at a really high level again. So, you lose him, and it is a blow, but what we have to do is circle the wagons around Patrick, who has displayed that he's improving, and if we can that, and just raise his level up to everyone around him, I think we can be fine.

On Lemuel Jeanpierre:

He's very familiar with us, we're very familiar with him. With Steve Schilling going on IR, and now this issue with Max, you know, you're really up against it in terms of having depth, so to go get someone off the street who hasn't been with us, [as opposed to] someone that was with us in camp - and you know, Lem had been with us for three years - so it was kind of a no-brainer. This will give us a good backup role, and then we'll move forward and see if he can get in there and actually do it.

On Arizona:

Well, I think that Arizona is unique. They've had some struggles too in terms of the health of their defense, but the one thing you know about Todd and his defense is that they're going to blitz. They'll blitz from the time they wake up on Sunday morning, until it's over. You just have to get ready for it.

We have a saying around here: "When do we expect pressure? 100 percent of the time," and that's a truth this week. He'll bring it from anywhere, he'll bring it from anyone, out of any front, any personnel group, he'll zero blitz you, he'll zone pressure you, he'll drop everybody out, so you're constantly on it against this style and against this particular opponent. You have to be ready for it every down.

Any time anybody is going to pressure you this much, and the way they go about it, they're always at risk, so you know, that old saying - "You live by the sword, you die by it too," and it will be up to us to execute and do things that we can do, do our best, and put ourselves in the right situation and position to take advantage of it.

On pass pro:

This is our best year, statistically. I think we're tenth right now, and we've never been lower than the twenties. Hits on the quarterback, hurries, sacks, all that. So, knock on wood, I think we've given up 18 in ten games that we've played so far, so that's less than half of where we were at last year. At this point in the season (last year), i think we were already at 30-something, so a much, much better job by those guys, and I think they're getting a feel for protecting Russ - you know, he's not a spot thrower, he's all over the place - so it's not normal pass protection, but I think we've adapted quite well, and we're doing a good job right now.