Raiders' HC Pete Carroll Gives Critical Update on Bowers, Meyers

Below is a partial transcript of Carroll's comments.

Q: When you think about the time of the bye week, what do you hope to accomplish?

Coach Pete Carroll: "Well, the first thing is it gives us a chance to have two weeks to get three or four guys back out there, get some starters back out there. It should help. Brock [Bowers] should be ready to go, Jakobi [Meyers] I think he worked out in pregame, was close, he should be ready to go. Gives us a chance to get Maxx [Crosby]. 

“Maxx was not full speed yesterday. He tried, did everything he could, and we had to get him out of there, but he'll be better. So, that's a real boost. I mean, those are three guys that are legitimate leader players on this football team that we need to get back out there. So, hopefully that that will take place. Big self-scouting opportunity for us, big chance to make sure that we know what our opponents are seeing, and to tweak and adjust and be creative with how we do that.

That's what this time is always for. A chance to take a look at some young guys, to give them a better shot, and a couple days that we practice with them, just a better chance to show us where they fit or how far they've come and can they help us. So, it's all pretty much the normal stuff, but that's what we're focusing on." 

Q: What happened with Isaiah Pola-Mao and is that something that should be concerning? 

Coach Carroll: "Yeah, I don't have an update on Isaiah [Pola-Mao]. He hurt his ankle and he got stepped on or something. It got caught a little bit. So, I don't know what the update is there."

Q: At this point in the season, has anything surprised you how this season has played out so far? 

Coach Carroll: "Yeah, I'm surprised that we're not farther along than we are. I thought we would be, and I anticipated being further along and being cleaner with our game. What I'm trying to show you is that we can play really balanced football, meaning that all three phases can do their part and give us a chance to play the game where we're not giving the game away.

And early on, we've turned the ball over like crazy, and the kicking game was struggling, and defense was kind of holding it together for us, it seemed. And so, the kicking game has come back around. Couple guys have been switched around, moved around, I think Tom [McMahon] did a nice job adjusting and the last couple games have been very solid.

"You kind of don't even want to know they're out there and every once in a while they make a play, and that's kind of taking place. And defensively was different yesterday, we really missed Maxx [Crosby]. Maxx's dynamic play and the things that he does, that was obvious to me, but that's come along. Offensively now, we've settled down giving the football up, and so now we need to kind of get going again and get moving and get productive. Yesterday was a mess of making first downs and they did a great job on us. We missed some guys out there.

"Jakobi [Meyers] was really important to us, not having him, and the fact that we were so close to getting Brock [Bowers] back. We've been without Brock for almost a month now. He missed three games. It seems like forever. And he's such a central figure in our offense, to have him coming back will just seem different. I think everything about it will look different. And we're counting on that."