Seahawks vs. Packers: Pete Carroll, Richard Sherman press conference notes

Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll and cornerback Richard Sherman spoke to reporters following Seattle's practice Wednesday. Here's a quick recap of what they said. Originally published on Reddit.

Coach Carroll:

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• On Marshawn Lynch's mother: "Mom looking after a kid. There's nothing wrong with that...There's a lot of passion with our following."

• Up-tempo offense doesn't put your defense in a tough situation if you can make first downs. Playing to the tempo that helps you get what you gotta get done, done. We are good at it, good at two minute stuff for a long time. Mix in when we think it is necessary.

• Jermaine Kearse has been really consistent for years now. Has made big plays for us. Plays on ST. Fact that he starts it off with a good ball game, no surprises there. Core guy for us.

• Kam Chancellor is not present. Has never been a negotiation, has been conversations.

• Randall Cobb is a real all around football player. They will run the ball with him back in the backfield. He can be a kick returner, his catch-run ability.

• Tharold Simon is held out from practice today (was running though) but hope he is back tomorrow.

• Richard Sherman playing the slot in nickel first off presented us an option, it plays to our strengths. "He's a marvelous player in terms of awareness and anticipation..he's jumped at the opportunity."Will use it when it fits. Investigate it every week.

• Depends on match-up in regards to Sherman following the #1. Have played Left and Right in the past and it has worked out fine. But there are times we have followed. We don't close the door on anything.

• After the big nickel competition in camp and after the cut to 53, we talked and Sherman jumped at it and he looks really good playing there. Preparing Tye Smith in there as well.

• I am just disappointed like he is and everyone is that Kam is still holding out.

• Our guys have dealt with everything straight up. (In regards to Kam effecting the locker-room).

• Only "new" thing that could happen with Kam is him show up.

• Very confident that everything that happened against the Rams (on D) is fundamental technique stuff that can be fixed. Every guy in the locker-room would tell you "I could have done this right, could have done that right, coaches could have been better coaching, I could have been more aware".

• Dion Bailey looks like he is coming back, got great support from his teammates, is ready to go.

• Darrell Bevell does a terrific job, the history shows that.

• (When asked about Michael Bennett being unhappy with his contract but not holding out); Bennett has had a great camp, has been focused, as serious as he can be to bring his best to this team. He has worked with young guys, he has tried to pass on the message. We have very few older players in the program and almost none have been to another club. He has always showed how much he cares. He has done everything well, thrilled. Been great.

• Nothing led to Jimmy Graham having a bigger second half. Were not resting him or anything. Just worked out better for us in the second half that the ball went to him.

• Jordy Nelson is a great football player but when James Jones does all that (against the Bears), what more could Jordy have done? Don't know what not having Jordy will change.

• Just want Dion Bailey to play like he is capable of playing. Don't ask anyone to make extraordinary plays, just play how we know you can play.

• We are going to have to play fantastic football to have a shot at beating them in Lambeau.

• Drew Nowak improved during the game, shaky early with cadence and stuff. Thinks this is how the season will go for the young guys up front. Will struggle and survive but improve. Sticking with that front 5.

• Was surprised Tyler Lockett how many plays Tyler played on (50 or so). Regular part of the offense now. A receiver that can return kicks, originally thought the other way. [We] Probably didn't come into the season thinking he would be that active.

Richard Sherman:

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• When asked if Kam Chancellor being gone is effecting the team right now; Not really. Said he believes missed tackles were the big issue last week. Said he felt they were rusty, had some communication issues. Personnel issues that we didn't get addressed. Doesn't think if Kam is here we don't make those same mistakes. 100% confidence in this defense. All fixable issues. No guy just getting straight up beat. Dion slipping is fixable. Guys missing tackles that 9 times outta 10 make those tackles.

• We have a pretty strong locker-room, guys know who they are, great players, great leaders. Concerned about fixing things we need to fix to play Green Bay.

• Sherman says he hasn't talked to Kam in a few weeks. Caught up with the season, text every now and then but gotta focus on the season. Don't text a lot of people during the season.

• Says when he, Kam and Earl came in there were very low expectations for them (besides Earl, he had highest, but he wasn't stepping into the #1 D) but says Dion is under spotlight of expectations. Live and you learn, make mistakes and you learn from them.

• Understanding route concepts, understanding leverage, how they are trying to attack you is why I am good at covering the nickel slot. I do what the Coach tells me to do.

• Everything has it's pluses and minuses. Slot is where they are trying to make their plays on third down. Green Bay is unique in that they stay in 11 personnel a lot of the time. 11 or 20 (3 WR). But most teams move to 11 personnel on third down, looking for that Zebra receiver to make a play or looking to get him the ball in some fashion [to get the first down]. Tried to limit that against the Rams the other day. Did a good job for the most part.

• Cobb is quick, decisive and strong. He is versatile, inside and outside.

• Knows Aaron Rodgers, he is a great guy on and off the field. We speak.

• No trash talking but we talk conversational during the game.

• Doug Baldwin has helped Sherman prepare for the slot.

• This game is won in the head, this game is a mental game. If you don't understand the plays, down and distance, etc. Football minds work different when you are playing chess out there. Some guys just go out and say "I got him". They don't think about the situation, where they are on the field, what their tendencies are.

• Slot receivers are typically smaller and quick receivers, they have more route options and more directions they can go. Inside release or outside release they have the whole route tree.

• Having Sherman in the slot changes the way the opposing team has to game plan.

• Don't know when the idea came up. Text him after Monday night before the Rams game and asked him to learn the Nickel Spot and he said okay. Do what I am coached to do.

• Too early to think about playoff ramifications. Some teams start off .500 and earn the first seed, some are undefeated and don't make the playoffs. Easily corrected, communication errors, personnel issue where we made a mistake when Rams were in a 0-1 Personnel (no RB, 1 TE, 4 WR's). Think the Defense still has great players out there, the intimidation factor is still there without Kam, just need to execute.

Relevant Tweets:

• @JacksonKJR: Cary Williams says that Dion Bailey made the call to send Williams on a corner blitz on the touchdown instead of a safety blitz.

• @Andy_Benoit: Seahawks Film: besides Kendricks TD and a missed tackle early on same drive, SS Bailey did not have a bad game. He's no Chancellor though.

• @Cianaf: Bears running game looked really good, especially working outside. Seahawks have to just fully commit to run this weekend.

• @Cianaf: Sam Shields was picked on a lot in this game. Both in coverage and run defense.

• @Cianaf: Bears averaged 5.7 per rush and it came relatively easily. Packers run defense in trouble...again.

• Packers injury report: S Morgan Burnett (calf), WR Randall Cobb (shoulder), LB Jayrone Elliott (quad) all listed as limited in practice.

My Thoughts:

• Moving Sherman in nickel situations to the slot receiver is really interesting. It implies a few things to me, that our nickel CB situation isn't good. That Tye Smith is just too raw to put out on the field yet and that Marcus Burley just isn't good enough to put out on the field as a starter. Instead much like our O-line moves, the Seahawks want to get the best 3 guys out on the field, and so having Cary Williams and Tharold Simon cover the outside wide receivers while you have Richard Sherman cover the slot makes sense. My worry: Sherman's weakness seems to be short, fast, shifty, quick receivers like John Brown and Randall Cobb. Hopefully he holds his own against Cobb when he lines up on him.

• The Packers run-D seems very weak, and only getting weaker with their ILB (Sam Barrington) most likely being out for the rest of the season. The Bears put up 189 yards rushing on them last week. If there was a game calling for our type of Offense I would say it is this one. By that I mean run the ball down their throats hard and often, hopefully ending up with 200 yards rushing. We averaged 200.5 yards rushing in last two Packers games. From play-action off of that rushing success Russell should see more opportunities to make throws to more developed routes than we saw against the Rams. I also hope our O-line not having to go against the best front-7 in the NFL (Rams) means we will have better pass protection, that some deep balls/explosive passes to Jimmy, to Tyler, to Doug, to Kearse, maybe even Matthews and Luke will happen. I do believe Russell will have to be really good in rushing the ball himself too though. We will need everything to be on point offensively to have a shot, just in case our Defense doesn't show up again or is just a bit better.

• I believe moving forward, even if we lose against Green Bay, we will see that week 1 was a really, really, really difficult week for our team. Not only do we always have a hard time with the Rams, but their front 7 is monstrous and our Linebackers played one of their worse games ever. You might think "If Kam was there!" or something like that but I think we had a poor game defensively no matter what. What I am happy about is I believe Pete and Sherm are right, that the problems aren't lack of talent, but instead we were rusty and not on it. The tackling, the communication, the fundamentals, the technique, everything was pretty bad. But we know KJ, we know Bobby, we know Irvin, we know all those guys can turn it back on and get it right. And now we aren't playing a team that is our Achilles heel to an extant.