Familiar faces abound when Seahawks face Raiders in London

Marshawn Lynch and Bruce Irvin helped win a Super Bowl in Seattle before becoming stalwarts in Oakland.

Sebastian Janikowski rewrote the record book for the Raiders before booming long kicks for the Seahawks.

Seattle defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. and Oakland offensive line coach Tom Cable spent the past few seasons doing the same job with the other team.

When the Seahawks and Raiders kick off in London on Sunday, it will be a reunion of sorts — even though the game will be played several thousand miles from home.

“I’ve always enjoyed the most playing against the people I like the most. There’s guys on the club, coaches and all kinds of connections,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “There’s just connections across the board. It just makes it fun. If you’re competitive and you like competing against the best and your friends. I do. I just look forward to it.”

Both teams have more pressing issues than seeing old friends. The Seahawks (2-3) are already three games back in the NFC West and the Raiders (1-4) have struggled all season in the first year in Jon Gruden’s second stint as coach.

“I just don’t like to lose,” Gruden said. “I think we have work to do. There’s not enough time in the day to do it. I’m depressed. I’m tired. I want to win. I want to do better.”

Here are some other things to watch:

BEAST MODE

The Seahawks will finally get a chance to tackle Lynch, who starred for the team from 2010-15 and helped Seattle win a Super Bowl. Lynch was mostly off-limits at practice, although linebacker Bobby Wagner recalls getting scolded by Lynch for hitting him as a rookie and dislocating Lynch’s finger while trying to punch the ball out.

There will be no limits on contact Sunday.

“Never got the chance to tackle Marshawn,” Wagner said. “Talked a lot of trash. We finally get to go against each other. So it’s going to be fun.”

RUNNING AWAY

Any question about Seattle’s commitment to the run has been answered by the productivity of the last three weeks. The Seahawks have seen a running back rush for 100 yards in three straight games for the first time since late in the 2012 season. Chris Carson had 100-yard games against Dallas and Los Angeles, and Mike Davis had 101 yards against Arizona.

Most impressive was the 190 yards rushing against the Rams, when Seattle averaged 5.9 yards per carry. Even more shocking, the Seahawks got those yards on the ground without a single yard coming from quarterback Russell Wilson. For the first time in his career, Wilson didn’t have an official run play against the Rams.

“We made a big turn. It’s taken us longer than I would’ve wanted to get to this point, but we feel like we can play the game that we want to play and the style we want to play it regardless of where we’re going,” Carroll said. “We’ll find out, let’s go see if we can take it across the ocean and do it as well, but that’s really important to us.”

WEST COAST GOING EAST

The matchup between the Seahawks and Raiders is just the second in London between teams from the Pacific time zone. The Rams and Cardinals played last year in an NFC West game, with Los Angeles rolling to a 33-0 win. Take away that Los Angeles-Arizona matchup a year ago and teams from the Pacific area playing in London are 2-3 all-time. Both wins belong to San Francisco, beating Denver in 2010 and Jacksonville in 2013.

Both teams opted to spend part of the week at home, with the Seahawks leaving Wednesday and the Raiders on Thursday.

TARGETING

Doug Baldwin caught a dump-off pass from Wilson for a 1-yard gain on Seattle’s second offensive play against the Rams. It was the only target and only catch for Seattle’s leading receiver in each of the past four seasons. Baldwin has been bothered by issues with both knees early in the schedule. He missed most of training camp because of an unspecified issue with his left knee, then suffered a sprained MCL in his right knee in the season opener against Denver. Baldwin has just six catches for 42 yards and no TDs in the three games he’s played.

“It’s frustrating because I want to be more a part of it. I want to be part of the party, too,” Baldwin said.

FREQUENT VISITOR

Few players or coaches have been part of more games in London than Raiders offensive coordinator Greg Olson. He will coach his seventh game there, having gone 3-3 on previous trips with Tampa Bay (2009, ‘11), Oakland (2014), Jacksonville (2015, ‘16) and the Rams (2017).

“He leads the league in London trips, so he’s going to be my tour guide,” said Gruden, who added he doesn’t believe he’ll have much time for sightseeing.