Carroll touting Seattle’s ‘one-two punch’ approach
RENTON, Wash. — With the Seattle Seahawks reduced to one healthy running back against the Arizona Cardinals two weeks ago, Pete Carroll was alarmed to see Travis Homer smash viciously into a defender on his very first carry.
“Homer, no!” Carroll called out — and when the rookie running back got to the sideline after the series, the coach had a gentle talk with him.
“I told him, ‘Look, you have to pick your spots, because we don’t have any depth,’ ” Carroll said.
The Seahawks have a little more depth as they head into their playoff opener Sunday in Philadelphia, having augmented the position by signing Marshawn Lynch, to considerable fanfare. But it was the performance of that reckless rookie last week against the 49ers, coupled with an expected upturn by the rusty Lynch, that has Carroll far more optimistic about the Seahawks’ running game.
It had seemed dire when both Chris Carson and C.J. Prosise went down for the season against Arizona, following an earlier injury to emerging standout Rashaad Penny.
That thrust Homer, a sixth-round draft pick out of Miami who had ridden the bench all year except for special teams, as the entirely unexpected starter heading into the crux of the season. And Homer rose to the moment, gaining 62 yards on 10 carries against San Francisco in addition to catching five passes for 30 yards.
Now Carroll speaks optimistically of a “one-two punch” with Homer and Lynch that the Seahawks hope replicates that of Carson and Penny at their best. What Carroll also learned is that any requests for rushing reticence from Homer will fall on deaf ears. He is in the same mold as Lynch and Carson, seeking out contact rather than shying from it — despite being much lighter at 200 pounds.
“He didn’t listen to a word I said,” Carroll said with far more approval than reproach. “He looked at me like, ‘There ain’t no way.’ He was going to go downhill, and that’s the way I play. I love it about him. Discretion isn’t really going to be one of his strengths.”
That’s acceptable when you have the burst, wiggle and brute strength that Homer does. It has always been his style, he said with a shrug.
“It’s a physical position, so you’ve got to be physical,” Homer said.
No one embodies that style of running more than Lynch, of course. And it was another sideline conversation, captured on camera last week at CenturyLink Field, that thrilled Homer. You can hear Lynch, in the midst of the 49ers game, telling the rookie how much he inspires him.
Says Homer now: “It was definitely a cool moment for me to have one of the greatest come up to me and say what he said. I took that to heart.”
Lynch is clearly taking his leadership role to heart. Before the game he had insisted that Homer and fellow running back Robert Turbin share what everyone knew would be a thunderous ovation for Lynch’s return. They ran out of the tunnel together.
“I didn’t really know what he was doing at first, because he didn’t really explain it,” Homer said. “When I saw what was going on, I said, ‘OK, this is actually pretty cool.’ ”