HEAD COACH JEFF FISHER(On his overall impressions…)The first preseason game for coaches -- and for players, for that matter – is always a tremendous challenge. You set out to win a ballgame, and things change throughout the ballgame. Overall I think there were some good things, and considering it was our first one, our goals were to tackle, to minimize penalties, to execute offensively and to improve in the kicking game. I think we did some of those things, really with our starters. Then once you start making some substitutions, there's going to be some issues, and we had some issues. Those are the types of things that normally happen in the first couple of preseason games. Overall, we've got a lot to do. We've got a lot of work next week. We've got an extra couple of days to take advantage of it. We anticipate getting some players back. A couple of guys who didn't come on the trip should be returning. As far as injuries, obviously we just had one. It's very, very difficult for Stefon (Johnson). What he was able to do in the last year and what he was able to overcome, you could see by the reaction of his teammates that he's a special young man. He'll overcome this as well.
(On Vince Young's TD drive and interception…) That (the interception) was a third-down situation where I think in a regular-season (game) he'd use his legs to pick up a first down. The opportunity was there. He just tried to fit it in.
(On Rusty Smith's play…) I think we learned lessons there. He learned lessons there. The only person who calls timeout on the sideline is me. I'd rather take the delay call than the time out. There's certainly a difference going into a two-minute drive with time outs in your back pocket compared to no time outs. The drive could have been executed differently and maybe he would have not forced that ball down there. But he made some throws. He got some guys lined up. I thought for his first time out, I thought he was OK.
(On if he was happy with the first-string offense's play…) Yeah, I was. We executed pretty well. We didn't game-plan. We just started with (a) first-15 call sheet. We executed pretty well the screen pass. The first run – when you can pi9ck up that kind of yardage with C.J. (Chris Johnson), knowing he was only going to get a few carries, so we spread the ball around a little bit. The screen to Ahmard (Hill) was well-blocked. It was a great effort downfield and we got the ball in the end zone.
(On the fake punt…) We've done it before. I'm going to have to put a stopwatch on the pass itself. I think I cauhgt him by surprise because I didn't give him a chance to warm his arm up. Yeah, it's nice to be able to execute those things. Overall, the punting game: Both guys punted well. Rich kicked off well. I told Rob to kick the short kickoff through the uprights ankd he split them, and that was a pretty good field goal he hit at the end considering he hadn't done much kicking since the first half.
QB VINCE YOUNG(How do you think the team played tonight…) We played like we have a little rust but at the same time I feel that next week, we will be a bit better.
(What do you want to accomplish in the first preseason game...) I did throw the ball away once when I should have walked the ball down the field two yards for the first down.
(How bad do you feel for Stafon (Johnson) who was hurt…) Man, that was very bad. Especially with all the stuff he has been through. We will definitely keep that guy in our prayers. He has a lot of heart and he has the potiential to be a great player. We want to continue to keep motivating him as he goes through that cycle of trying to get his ankle back together. Once he gets back, everybody knows what he can do.
(How did it feel to move the ball down the field on the opening drive…) It was definitely good. Its was something that coach (Mike) Heimerdinger preach to us, to start off and start good. That we need to make some plays and make some things happen. That was the first time with the offensive line as a whole group. I thought everybody did a great job of everybody being in the right place and reading the coverages and adjusting routes. And the offensive line did a great job of protecting.
RB LEGARRETT BLOUNT (Thoughts on the game…) We didn't win obviously. But it's a starting point. There are a lot of things we have to improve on. As a rookie, I feel that I always have to improve on somethings. I'm just trying to get better as time goes on.
(What did you think you did well tonight…) I thought I ran the ball decent but there is always something to improve on. You look at film and see something that you could have done differently.
(What did coach say to the team after the game…) That we should have won the game.
(What do you take from this game and use for next week…) We have to work harder and work on not turning the ball over.
HEAD COACH PETE CARROLL (Opening… ) Well it was fun to finally get into Qwest. Take our guys on a game field and watch them play. These guys have been working a long time to get to this first game. There were a lot of objectives to meet. It was really fun for me to get a win and enjoy it. We had some fun in the locker room and we'll go about our business. Keep moving upwards. We had a lot of good things happen tonight. In particular, to see Matt get a whole quarter playing which worked out great. We wanted to give him 15 plays to get him to function a little bit with the new guys and the new system, and that worked out fine. We didn't run the ball very well early, but at least we got out there and played some football. I thought Charlie came in and did a really good job, he played great. He had some big plays. A terrific decision on the big touchdown play to Mike. He checked off and used the system, and that was a real nice thing there. He drove the team down well again. He looked good and composed and did a nice job. He got fooled on the interception, the coverage breakdown that they did didn't help him. But, I thought he played well. Defensively I thought it was a nice night in a couple of areas--getting turnovers. To come up with the ball 3 times in a game is always what we're after. When you get a turnover ratio that's positive, you usually win. It worked out tonight. I thought that after the first drive we looked shaky. You dream about coming off that first drive in the stadium and playing great defense and knock them back and get off the field, but that dream didn't come true tonight. They did a nice job executing in the first sequence, and we looked like we were trying to find ourselves speed-wise. But, the defense really played very well for the whole night, and came back and did a lot of good things and we had a bunch of young guys playing, some guys that just got there, just got here in camp. They're getting a crash course to try to learn their stuff, and we made a couple of mistakes and balls broke out, but those guys did a good job. That's Hagler and Ace Bowen and those guys did a nice job of just filling in for us as we had everybody banged up. I thought Olindo Mare did very well. His calf bothered him and he couldn't get full approach on his kickoffs. He still banged the ball down there pretty good, and I think he had a 47 and a 48, something like that, which I didn't want to do. We wanted to keep kicking some shorter ones, but the situations just called for it and he took it and went ahead and did a nice job. Big play by Mike Williams, it was fun to see Mike make a play for us, and get into the end zone. And we kind of nuts about Kam Chancellor, he's a guy that everybody likes and he made a big play at the end of the game to end it. We had a good time, and we had fun playing football, and we have to go back to work now.
(On going for it on Fourth down…) I've been doing that for a long time. That's not that big of a decision. It's the 40 yard line, it's a little farther out then you would like to. When they gave us the chance by not taking the penalty, we went ahead and jumped on it. We could have punted the football there, but we had a chance to go in and have some fun playing ball and see if we could execute. It was a very well done play. Charlie again had to fix the routes and showed that he's very composed and really handled the offense very well tonight. It was a great throw and catch, too, by Deon. There's times to do that and there's times where you're going to have a field day with that.
(On how it felt to be back on an NFL field…) It was really cool. It was great to be out there. The game seems to be cleaner. I think the experience of the coaching staff just seems different in kind of a subtle way. It was very comfortable, and I learned a couple things tonight, and I won't tell you about them. I learned a couple things tonight that I needed to know. We'll continue to grow and get better at it. There's a lot of stuff that you wouldn't see that we need to clean up—the pregame stuff and some of our processing of things that we have to iron out, but we have plenty of time to do that. There was some stuff that was kind of shabby. We have a lot of work to do and a lot to get done, and hopefully we got out pretty clean as far as injury situation. I would like to say that it was just so sorry to see Stafon [Johnson] get hurt. This was a guy that had to undergo so much physical pressure and mental pressure—the stuff that he went through and to have a serious injury again right now. It looked bad, and he was very broken up by it. I know that Jeff [Fisher] really thinks the world of Stafon and if anybody can get back, he can. He's absolutely a warrior. He will do it; he's done it before under worse circumstances, and this will be a challenge for him. I just felt so sick for him. He looked good, had a real nice run, and we'll be pulling for him to get well right away.
(On what he said to Stafon Johnson went he went on the field…) I told him I loved him, and nobody could be stronger or tougher about coming back, and he'll be back as soon as anybody could ever get back. He's been through way worse, and we'll talk to him as soon as we get a chance to.
(On Earl Thomas and other young guys playing a lot…) By design, we wanted to give those guys a good half of football, and give them a chance to play more, because we are counting on those guys to be a big factor and they need more work than the other guys. I can't tell you, I don't know how Earl did, I think Earl was pretty quiet; he didn't get many chances. They just need to be out there. It's a good spirited football team. They like one another, they like playing together; I was real happy to see how they responded in tough situations, too. They started coming back. We didn't look real good early, but those guys hung really well on the sidelines and in the locker room. It's a good sign for us as we start to grow as a team together.
(On whether the play of Charlie Whitehurst was a step forward…) I think it is for you guys. We really thought we saw enough of Charlie to make a really good evaluation. People will say that it wasn't a regular season game, but it's still football, and he's still out there throwing and making the plays and the throws that you're going to see so you can get a good comparison with other guys. Give John [Schneider] the credit; John saw this thing from way back, really when he saw Charlie as a junior working out of Clemson with a senior for the draft. He caught his eye then, and he was right about him, and he's a really good football player, and Charlie's going to really help us. He's done nothing but tell us anything but that. The best things about this is that Charlie got out there for a long time; two quarters of play, he looked beautifully composed in moving in the pocket and doing what he to do; he got hit and it didn't bother him at all, he came back and threw some good balls. We're really excited about Charlie. He's a good dude that's working hard and knows our stuff, and can make the plays and that's going to help us somewhere down the road.
(On the Kam Chancellor interception, it appeared that a post route was breaking open…) I think they threw the ball right to him, to tell you the truth. We were pretty fortunate on that. Sometimes you have to get a little lucky. It was still a big play for Kam, let's not take anything away from him. It was a young quarterback trying to figure it out, and Gus was mixing up stuff and did a really nice job keeping them guessing. The unfortunate play was to give them the football on the 30 yard line. We were just a little bit late on the Out route and the guy made a good play on the football, and we wound up challenging it and the whole thing, because that was a critical time that we might be able to get it turned. That was a big play; that was the turnover that really gave them the chance. I felt we were really under control, other than that situation. We have to sudden changes for the defense—after the fake punt, which was unfortunate, and the other time when we stopped them earlier. The O-line did some good things tonight.
(On getting pressure on their quarterback…) I thought the guys rushed pretty well. We had 3 or 4 sacks. I was real happy to see those guys get some heat and give them some problems. There were a few of those times where the coverage was very good, and we got them to hold the football where we had a chance to rush. I thought Clemons looked good, he came off the edge real well one time and made a nice play.
(On the win…) It was fun. We didn't have to give them a chance to get back in the game at the end, to make it the real NFL, where everything comes down to the last 20 seconds. It was kind of classic in that regard. But just being here after all of this time and having a chance to represent this organization. I'm so proud to be here and to try to put this thing together for everybody. And the way our fans responded, and I know this is still preseason, and I know they'll continue to hype it. But, unfortunately, I did miss the 12th Man thing. I don't know what I was doing, but I missed it. Next time I will have somebody stand next to me and tell me "that's it." But, I'll tell you this, I missed the Trojan Horse running at USC for about the first 7 years. So, I never saw that. This is not the first time I have missed something really obvious.
*QB MATT HASSELBECK(On the game) *"I thought it was a good start for our team. We got the win. We set out to accomplish a lot of things in the first preseason game. All in all, (we) definitely enjoy winning the game and we did that tonight. You never know how a game's going to go and we didn't start out that well but there were a couple sudden change opportunities, things to learn from, took advantage of things – Olindo (Mare) came through with some big field goals, Charlie (Whitehurst) had two great touchdown passes. Some guys really stepped up and played really well."
QB CHARLIE WHITEHURST(On the check off to Mike Williams) "It looked like they were bringing some pressure there and Mike [Williams] was one-on-one, he's a big, thick target, and I just gave him that little short route there and he made a great play. I thought that he was going to go, I may have thrown my arms up a little too soon, but I'm glad he got there."
(On the touchdown to Anthony McCoy) "Yeah, that one ended up wide open there. For a goal line pass that thing came real open, so it was a good play design on that one. That one wasn't too tough. He's just standing there in the end zone and you throw it to him and he made a good catch."
(On how he felt playing his first game with the Seahawks) "It's nice to go out there and play well. But again, it's the first preseason game. You got three more preseason games, we got a long season, we'd like to go out and play well every time, it's nice it was the first one, but it doesn't mean all that much. We've got a bunch more this season and we've got to come every week and execute."
S EARL THOMAS(On playing his first NFL game) "Well, I learned pretty quick that it's a man's game out there. The speed, it looked way faster than college because you're playing against the best and everybody's good. It was just a great experience for me getting my feet wet and getting put in certain situations, and reacting."
*WR MIKE WILLIAMS(On his touchdown reception) *"They rolled up into a blitz and Charlie (Whitehurst) made a good check on the one-on-one (coverage). It was a good check by Charlie; I don't think it was anything special I did. I got to give the credit to the guys up front protecting. It looked like a "zero" blitz. We were outmanned as far as the blocking scheme and Charlie put everybody in position so I think the credit on that play pretty much goes to him."
*(On how he thought he did in the game) *"Yeah, I feel – I gotta get back to the film. The main thing I wanted to focus on tonight was just effort, you know, assignment, alignment, knowing what I was doing. But you get back to the film and it's never as good as you think it is and it's probably never as bad. Good start. We got a good win. It was good to see everyone get out there and play and fly around and have a good carryover from practice. I think Tennessee came out and put together a good drive in their first possession but Coach Carroll preaches, 'You got to play and keep playing and keep believing and trusting what you do.' They came out with a good drive but we showed reserve and bounced back. I think every group – ones, twos, threes, everybody that played – I think they did that part. I know it's only preseason but this new start that we're having here with this group that we're starting it off with a win."
*S KAM CHANCELLOR(On his interception) *"I felt like I made a lot of plays before then but the interception put icing on the cake and we just went out strong. It felt good."
*(On if that's how he dreamt it up last night) *"I mean everybody wants that big play and it just came to me and it felt good."
