Seahawks' Marshawn Lynch ruled out for Sunday's game at Bengals

After it appeared that Marshawn Lynch was making progress toward playing Sunday, news came out Friday that he will be out against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Seattle Seahawks issued their injury report on Friday with Lynch (calf, hamstring) not making the trip to Cincy, and backup Fred Jackson questionable with a high-ankle sprain.

Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said this week that Lynch was improving, but he clearly wasn't able to go fully on Friday and thus will be held back another week at least. He was limited in Week 3 against the Chicago Bears, sat out Monday night against the Detroit Lions and now will miss back-to-back games for the first time as a Seahawk.

That means undrafted rookie Thomas Rawls, who has averaged 4.5 yards per carry this season on 35 carries, will be the loadbearer against the Bengals, who boast the league's sixth-best run defense at 85.8 yards allowed per contest. Rawls ran for 48 yards on 17 carries Monday against the Lions.

Jackson will make the trip to Cincinnati and attempt to play but is no sure thing.

There are no other true running backs on the Seahawks roster — save for fullbacks Derrick Coleman and Will Tukuafu — so the team could opt to sign a back to the roster in the next day. The team has another undrafted rookie, former Ohio State running back Rod Smith, on its practice squad.

A loss would drop the Seahawks to 2-3, but the team sat at 3-3 a year ago before they won nine of their final 10 regular-season games and advance all the way to the Super Bowl, where they lost to the New England Patriots.