Russell Wilson Talks On Oakland Raiders Week 9 Visit

Russell Wilson is slowly becoming one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, one of the players at the forefront of the new generation of “elite” passers in the game as a Super Bowl champion with the Seattle Seahawks. Already with one championship ring to his name, Wilson’s newest challenge is to keep the Seahawks in the Super Bowl picture as defending champions while trying to raise his game after two successful years being blessed with one of the best supporting casts in the league.

That hasn’t been easy for Wilson and the Seahawks as they have been upset by the St. Louis Rams as well as the Dallas Cowboys this season, toiling behind the Arizona Cardinals and tied with the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC West standings at a surprising 4-3. Looking to turn that around against a 0-7 Raiders team, Wilson talked to Bay Area media members on Wednesday on a conference call. Following is a transcript of that interview from the Raiders official team website:

Q: How do you like Khalil Mack? It seems like he’s all over the place these days.

Wilson: “Khalil Mack, he’s doing a great job. He’s playing so physical. He’s a rookie, he’s so talented and he’s all over the field, you can really notice that. Their whole defense, man, they can really play. They’ve got a lot of experience. They also have some guys that can fly around and get to the quarterback and they do a good job of stopping the run game. They’re a physical defense. It’s going to be a tough game for us. We’re going to have to play our best football and go out there and just execute.”

Q: How much of a benefit is it going to be for you guys to kind of get right and be back at home in that comfortable environment?

Wilson: “I think it’s always a good thing to come back home and play on our own turf and to play at CenturyLink. We love our fans. We believe we have the best fans in the world in terms of the 12s and the 12th Man. We always say it doesn’t matter where you play the game. It’s 100 yards [long], 53-and-a-third [wide] – it doesn’t change. Whether we play at home or away, we have to bring it. We have to bring our best football. We have to bring our energy and our fire and our passion for the game, and try to play a great football game.”

Q: What have the last couple of weeks been like? There’s been a lot of stuff written about you guys, not always in a positive way. I’m not really interested in the exact content of it, necessarily, but how have you guys dealt with increased scrutiny?

Wilson: “We’re together more than ever. We ignore the noise. We just focus on trying to win football games. We have high expectations for ourselves and that’s all we’re trying to do, is live up to them and be a great football team on Sunday.”

Q: The last couple of performances maybe have not been Seahawk-like, or at least not what outsiders have come to expect. Do you think you guys have hit a little bump in the road football-wise?

Wilson: “I don’t focus on that. I just focus on this week. I focus on what we can do this week to try to play at a high level. I believe we have a great football team. I believe we have the right guys in the room and the right guys on the field, and we’re excited about that.”

Q: When you look at this Raiders secondary, is it strange to think that Charles Woodson is 38 with the way that he’s playing?

Wilson: “He’s playing tremendous football. Just to watch him back there, to watch Charles Woodson back there in his 17th year, I believe, in the league this year. He’s one of the best players to ever play the game and I’ve got a lot of respect for him and how he plays the game.”

Q: Was it nice last week in Carolina to have a close game and to win that one at the end after losing to St. Louis?

Wilson: “It’s always a good thing to win and we had to go all the way to the East Coast and travel, and they always play us tough there in Carolina. We’ve played three years in a row and the games come down to the last minute and we’ve capitalized in the last minute of the game, and that’s how we need to play. We always think we can play better though, but a win is a win and we’re excited about that. We’re moving on to this week and we know that coming back at home against the Oakland Raiders team that is a very talented team and we’re going to have to play excellent football.”

Q: How do you go into a game against a team that is winless and has struggled at times, they’ve been competitive the last three weeks?

Wilson: “We always believe that we’re going to get a team’s best effort, because coming off the Super Bowl and this is the National Football League. Everybody is going to play hard. We know they’re a very talented team, we’ve seen it in preseason, we know these guys, we’ve gotten to play against some of them obviously, and just how talented they really are. So, we’re going to have to…You know, every week is a championship week for us and we’re just trying to go 1-0, we’re trying to focus on that and have a championship performance.”

Q: What have you seen out of Khalil Mack on film? Is he one of those guys that you want to be aware of where he is?

Wilson: “Yeah, he’s playing like the rookie of the year in terms of defense. He’s a spectacular football player. You notice it on film and I’ve got a lot of respect for his game.”

Quotes from Raiders.com