Seahawks notebook: More pancakes for rookie Abe Lucas; tackling woes; Charles Cross’ flags

We don’t know what Abe Lucas does for breakfasts.

But we already know he can do pancakes.

He’s stacking those in his bid for a Seahawks starting job as a rookie at right tackle for his hometown team.

Jake Curhan started the second consecutive game at right tackle, next to right guard Gabe Jackson, Thursday night in Seattle’s 27-11 preseason loss to the Chicago Bears at Lumen Field. And Curhan started well.

He and the veteran Jackson deftly picked up a Bears stunt of crossing pass rushers on third down on Seattle’s first possession. That gave Smith a lot of time to check multiple receiving options. Geno Smith threw deep and accurately to Freddie Swain into Bears territory for what would have been a smooth third-down conversion.

Par for the Seahawks’ night, Swain dropped it. The wide receiver allowed the ball to bang off the chest plate of his shoulder pads. So it was the first of eight three-and-out drives and one of 10 punts by Michael Dickson to begin the game.

For the Seahawks’ third possession of the game, Lucas replaced Curhan, as he did in the second quarter of the preseason opener last weekend. On his second snap, Lucas drove Chicago defensive end Trevis Gipson 7 yards off the line of scrimmage. Then Lucas flattened Gipson into the turf.

It was the fourth “pancake” block in one game plus two plays by the third-round draft choice from Washington State and Everett’s Archbishop Murphy High School to begin his career. It’s especially gratifying for a tackle from WSU’s former Air Raid offense that was told he can’t run block with his hand on the ground in the NFL.

He’s doing that as well as any Seahawks offensive linemen.

“It was OK,” Lucas said of his game in the Lumen Field locker room Thursday night. “Unfortunately, we lost, so that puts a damper on it. ...

“I mean, certainly it’s nice to have that success (with pancakes), but it’s more about doing things right to help the team out. Anybody can do it one game. Anybody can do it for two games, you know? I’d like for it to be as consistent as possible.”

Curhan re-entered at right tackle in the second half. He twice got beaten off the edge by Bears pass rushers in three plays during a series against Seattle’s own goal line. Then he committed a false-start penalty with 93 seconds left.

The chances of the Seahawks becoming the third NFL team in the last 50 years to start two rookie offensive tackles in week one of a regular season are going up with each day.

Cross’ bad night

Rookie Charles Cross is entrenched as the starting left tackle. That’s even though the first-round draft choice, Seattle’s highest pick in a dozen drafts at ninth overall, committed five penalties against Chicago.

Four of his flags were for false starts before the snap. One was for holding. That ruined a drive that had reached the Bears 27-yard line, an epic march relative to how the rest of the first half went for Seattle.

Jason Myers then missed a 47-yard field goal.

“We already talked through it,” Carroll said.

“But him being comfortable, assessing the cadence adjustment and the things that we have to do, it’s just experience. And so this is not going to be something that bothers him forever. We’ve just got to get it cleaned up and settle him in and make sure each situation, that he makes the right assessment does the right job.

“It’s like the tackling thing.”

Awful tackling

Marquise Blair started at safety for Jamal Adams. And it did not go well.

Blair missed three tackles on Seattle’s first two defensive drives. He had five missed tackles in all, plus a personal foul for unnecessarily roughing a Bears receiver after he tackled him at the sideline.

The team had five missed tackles on those first two drives. Fill-in inside linebacker Joel Dublanko whiffed on two would-be stops playing for Brooks, next to Cody Barton.

Asked about the tackling issue, Carroll said more tersely than he normally speaks: “I’m going to check on the tacklers. I’m going to check on the tacklers, the guys missing (them). That’s the important thing. I’m going to see who is missing tackles and fix that problem.

“I don’t think it’s like an epidemic kind of thing. It looked like that last week a little bit. But we’ve got to clean some stuff up with some guys.

“If they don’t get it right, then they won’t be able to be here. We’ll get guys that can.”

Barton often charged through A gaps between Chicago’s center and guard seemingly not seeing the ball carrier running directly past him for gains. Barton, the Seahawks’ third-round pick in 2019, is entering his first full season as a starter with Bobby Wagner now on the Los Angeles Rams.

The Seahawks were missing tackles and plays on special teams, too. The coverage team turned the best of Dickson’s nine punts, a boomer of 60 yards, into a 48-yard Bears return. Long snapper Tyler Ott saved a touchdown on that one, forcing rookie Velus Jones out of bounds at the Seattle 33-yard line.

The Seahawks in past preseasons have had giant landing pads like pole vaulters fall into to practice tackling and bringing guys to ground. No Seahawk has gone to ground in a tackle in any practice this offseason or preseason; the team just doesn’t practice tackling to true ground, ever, to prevent injuries.

Will that now change?

“You have to drill it. You have to drill it and emphasize it,” Carroll said. “We did a bunch of stuff this week to point out the situational tackling, understanding the situation.”

Asked if the landing mats are coming back out to practice tackling Sunday through Wednesday before the trip to Dallas for next Friday’s preseason finale, Carroll said: “We’re doing all kinds of stuff. We’re going to do everything again.”

Josh Jones gives defense options

About the only consistently sure tackler this Seahawks preseason has been safety Josh Jones.

On a Bears third and 4 in the first quarter Seattle showed blitz, then dropped out of it at the snap. Chicago quarterback Josh Fields threw the hot read quickly out to the right flat, fooled by the fake blitz. Jones made a thudding, immediate stop of Khalil Herbert for a loss of 2 yards. The Bears had to punt.

A former Jacksonville starter the Seahawks signed during last season, Jones may get a lot of playing time this season. Seattle may go with three safeties and five defensive backs as something of a new base defense often this season. That would give Adams freedom to play nearer the line to blitz more, as he did while setting an NFL record for defensive backs with 9 1/2 sacks two seasons ago.

Last season, the Seahawks didn’t trust their other defensive backs enough to blitz Adams. So he played back as a second safety with Pro Bowler Quandre Diggs in deep coverage to prevent big plays. That didn’t work. Seattle finished 31st in the 32-team league in yards allowed.

Rookie corners, and Jackson

Carroll wanted to see rookie cornerbacks Coby Bryant and Tariq Woolen do Thursday what they didn’t do in their first preseason game last weekend: make the plays they’ve been making all impressive training camp.

Woolen who gave up a touchdown pass on a coverage he blew at Pittsburgh, appeared to be sound on his assignments against Chicago. He started for the second consecutive game at right cornerback, opposite Michael Jackson who started for Sidney Jones. Jones rested two weeks after getting a concussion.

Jackson played well, defending two passes in the first half. He was also one of the defense’s only consistent tacklers against Chicago.

“I’m 210 (pounds). I’m a big corner. If I can’t tackle, it’s over with. I might as well go home.”

Bryant allowed a touchdown in the first quarter against the Steelers because he did not turn his head to the pass while in tight coverage in the end zone.

Thursday, he again was tight on his man running a fade route with a back-shoulder throw inbound. This time, Bryant read receiver Isaiah Coulter’s eyes as the ball was arriving and knocked it away. That was on third and goal from the 1-yard line in the fourth quarter.

A stop by linebacker Iggy Iyiegbuniwe on a fourth-down run kept the Bears from adding to their 27-3 lead.

“With him making kind of a wider release, I felt like I didn’t have time to turn my head. At that point you just play to the hands and be violent,” Bryant said. “Get the ball.”

Bryant again also played nickel, inside against slot receivers. He started doing that two weeks ago. Jackson marveled at how well Bryant is doing that.

Carroll gushed about Bryant after Thursday’s game, more than about any other player from the ugly loss.

“He was really aggressive. You can see the difference. He played at a different level of some of the other guys, running and hitting and making tackles,” Carroll said of his fourth-round pick. “He’s a football player. We’re getting that information on this guy. He’s a ball player.”

Mafe hurt, returns

Rookie linebacker Boye Mafe left to the locker room with trainers during play in the first half with an injured shoulder. About 10 minutes later he ran back onto the field and returned to the game, on defense and special teams.

Mafe, Seattle’s second-round pick, had four tackles on defense and one on special teams. Against Pittsburgh in his NFL debut last weekend he had two sacks with a forced fumble and a fourth-down stop late in the game.