Seahawks, 16 - Rams, 23
PETE CARROLL: Disappointed in this game that we didn't improve over last week. Didn't work out for us. We had trouble in the first half slowing them down and kind of like the week before, so some things were similar.
We have to not give stuff up, and we made enough mistakes here that we were giving plays to teams that are executing well and they're making things happen and we're getting behind in the sticks and they're rolling against the defense.
It was hard in the first half. Second half guys rallied up and did a couple things at halftime. They were ahead and in control in that sense, but we did better. We played better. Tightened some things down. Didn't give up stuff.
So we improved by the time the game ended, but it was after the fact kind of. I was really disappointed we had trouble -- we moved the ball well early on offense and then we struggled. It was a hard game, and when we get big turnover and have a chance to do something, make some real noise in this game, we he turned it right back at them. Made a real big mistake there.
That really changed the opportunity for the momentum at the time, but we were still there. We were ten points with at least 12 minutes to go, which there is plenty of chance to get back. We just didn't find a way.
So we've got work to do. We've got a lot of work to do here. I want us to execute. Here is what I told them: I told them that I believe that we're going to start making the plays in the games early on that we been making in practice. Stuff that we saw happen in practice didn't happen in this game.
I believe that we're going to take care of the football. With all of the emphasis that we have on it, to turn the ball, what is it seven times in the last two weeks is just -- I don't recognize that kind of execution, giving the ball up.
I believe these guys will hang together and keep working. They're great people. They care. They want to work hard. They enjoy working it and going for to. They're okay about the challenge when it's tough. They still want to keep battling. You can see them hanging in there and supporting one another.
So I really believe we have plenty of time to get this thing going, and so that's the way I'm going. I conveyed that to them, and I hope they want to go along with it. We've got a lot of football ahead. We're bouncing back here on Thursday. We got to come back against the Cardinals that are doing great.
It's going to be a difficult challenge for us, but it's a challenge that we need. It's right there in the division where we need it. Need to get this win, get going, and go to the next game.
So that's what we'll do.
We had a couple guys get banged up in the game. Niko, his groin didn't make it. All the time we spent trying to get him back, we thought we had it, he had a lot of time to get ready, but it acted up again.
Jamal Adams hurt his shoulder a little bit in the first half. Came back and finished the game admirably and made some stuff happen. Did a nice job.
Travis Homer hurt his hand in there and missed some time.
Jordan Simmons' calf tightened up on him and couldn't go.
Kyle Fuller just hung in there with a high ankle sprain and just finished the game, was a stud about it. He had to go and he did it, so that was really admirable.
So go ahead.
Q. I know you mentioned the offense was struggling today, but you came into this game with the No. 1 ranked scoring offense and you had fourth and inches in that first drive end of the third quarter. Why did you opt to go out and try to catch them offsides instead of just going for it with it being such a short conversion the way the defense struggled early?
PETE CARROLL: That early in the game when there was so much going on and so many opportunities, I didn't want to give them the ball at the 40 yard line. That's a turnover. That's like you handed them an interception if you don't make it. If they penetrate and make a play in the backfield, knowing that Mikey will kick the ball inside the 10 yard line, do something go with that, we'll go ahead and play defense.
That's believing that we're going to all right.
There are times when you go for it when may be the logic doesn't add up the same, but on that one it was too early in the game. I was believing in our guys would pull it off and have plenty of time to get back and play well.
I didn't want to give them a turnover right there and just felt like it wasn't worth it.
One more thing. The logic of saying because we're such a high-scoring team we should go for it right there doesn't fit in my brain. I doesn't understand that. That's not really the case right there.
It's really about playing the game more than the potential of our play and that kind of stuff. The players would love to go for it. I know that. And I would love to go for it, too. I have to work against my nature to go ahead and kick that ball right there, but I would probably do it same way again.
Q. To continue on this, I think the logic is it comes off like you don't trust your offense to get a couple inches, where you are putting faith in the defense that has given up more yards than any team in football this year. So what's the difference of giving up a potential 40 yard field and an 80 yard field when I they did go back and march down the field. I guess are you putting too much faith in the defense that hasn't earned it to this point?
PETE CARROLL: Joe, I don't know. You can say that, but I'm just playing the game. The game there was that it wasn't worth giving them the football as well as they had done in the first half there. You know, I didn't mind giving them the ball inside the 10 yard line. We'll go play defense back there.
Just thought there were too many opportunities to give them that advantage. What if they took the ball and went and scored right there? Then the game feels lopsided and you're way behind it.
So that didn't factor in. I wish we could've gone for it and made it on third down. We missed it by an inch.
Q. I guess the counter would be they did go down and score that touchdown and already had a 90 yard touchdown drive if the game.
PETE CARROLL: Sure. But think about it. You know, you don't think they're going to score every time they get the football. They scored one time in the second half. That was it. So that's easy to think that, and I don't blame you for bringing it up. Just at that time I would probably do it again. I might not, though. It just depends on what's going on.
Q. If you have Chris Carson do you go for it there? I know we'll never know, but my point is are you hamstrung on offense to the point you can't try to do the things on short yardage?
PETE CARROLL: At this point we don't feel the same in our mix. We're working, the guys are busting their tails to get it done and all that, but I fell in love with Chris' play a long time ago and style of play. It adds something to us and to me as well. You know, again, we might not have been in fourth and inches if he was there. But he's not there, so we have to keep figuring it out and got to play with when we got and try to figure out the game and keep believing that there is -- there is no reason to feel desperate is what I didn't want to do.
So that's why that happened.
Q. And then Russell Wilson told us last week he didn't feel pressure because of how the defense has given up yards and points, but that fumbled snap where if he goes down he avoids a turnover there, but he tries to pick it up. Is that an example of trying to make plays he knows he's...
PETE CARROLL: I don't know that, Greg. I don't know that. I didn't see that, the way that happened. You know, I mean, he's going to battle to try to finish the play. But I haven't seen that yet. I don't know. I don't think that went through his mind right there. He's playing football and he's an athlete and he's a great athlete that makes things happen, so...
Q. What was your view of the first Russell interception and your the thoughts on the game he played overall?
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, it was a bad play. It was a decision that rarely have we seen Russ do. He's on the other side of the field moving that way and turning the ball back across. He does miraculous things often; that wasn't one of them.
I'm screaming for him to up run because he could have got 10, 15 yards I thought, and all of a sudden he chucked it. I though, Oh, maybe he's got a touchdown. When Russ makes a decision like to go for it, he's usually pretty darn good. For years and years and years.
That one didn't work out. That was a mistake.
Q. And I know you kind of hinted at it being a little bit too little too late, but the way the defense clamped down in the second half, did you see improvement there in the second half from your defense?
PETE CARROLL: Absolutely. Yes, I did. And I was glad. Gave us a chance to win the football game. We had a shot. It's too bad. The reasons is we need to execute better early and not give up stuff. There are reasons why I think maybe we can address this week and do some stuff to help us out.
Q. Jalen Ramsey is obviously a great player, but why couldn't you get Metcalf involved earlier?
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, we had every intention to do that, to get him the football. There was stuff called; ball just didn't go there. We made the point at halftime, you know, that that was the case.
We knew he's was a really good player and all, but we certainly didn't have a game plan that we were going to stay way from him. We had all kinds of things we could have done; we just didn't do it.
Q. Seven turnovers from Russ in two games. Are you concerned about him at all?
PETE CARROLL: I'm just concerned in general. We can't play football and win games like that. Can't win. And philosophically that's so far against the grain of what we believe and how we practice and prepare for the last ten years, twenty years. It couldn't rub against the grain anymore obviously.
I'm worried about the fact that it's so loose in this game and the last game. One or two sometimes, but seven? That's too many. We got to get our act together. We got to get better. We won't beat anybody turning the ball over like that.
Q. How is Mike Iupati?
PETE CARROLL: You know, I did not get a word on him so I don't know. Can't help you.
Q. You had a number of guys, Carson, Hyde, not be able to make it for this game, but the game Thursday night, how much of an eye ahead was it, and do you think these guys have a chance to get back?
PETE CARROLL: I'm wishful thinking on these guys that they can pull it off at the end of the week. Carlos practiced on Friday; he wasn't able to go full speed, but he ran and went through the practice.
Chris tried to get there on Friday and couldn't get it.
So they're that close, but it's only a few days and you're after it. I won't know until we get to game time probably. Probably go all the way to Thursday on this one. We'll keep our fingers crossed. Love to have him back.
Q. Six sacks allowed. How did you feel about the protection of Russ and were there situations where you felt like he should have gotten ball out sooner?
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, we had a couple chases. Russell will tell you more, I'm sure. There was a couple hops; we could have got the ball out, just to get the football out of his hands so he didn't have to get banged.
It works together. They've got some pretty hot stuff coming up front, but when we have our chances we got to get rid of the football and didn't do it well. We need to do it more consistently throughout. We were fine early in the game and it kind of snowballed on us later in the game.
Q. Going with Alex Collins and DJ Reed, what went into those and how you felt they played?
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, the fact that Homer barely made it to game time and all was part of it. We needed to have the guys ready to play third down, so we thought it would give us more than one format if we went with Alex as the starter and lead guy, and then use the other two guys, DJ and Travis, to make the third down stuff and the passing game stuff fit together.
So that was just the way we put it in order. I was thinking during the week if we had Chris how would we do it, if we had Carlos how old with you do it, and put Alex into that. Alex couldn't practice Thursday or Friday. We wanted him to. He was just a little bit stiff from the week before and all.
In the game hoping that he would be able to be okay and the three guys would be able to work it out.
Q. DJ Reed, how do you think he did, and sort of going with him, I guess?
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, he's been really impressive and just shown great quickness. Showed fantastic burst on the kickoff return. He's just been good enough that we think let's put him out there and see what he can do.
Quintin wasn't going be able to play. He is going to need some time to get right. So I thought he had the best background to be able to handle the situation, and he did okay. I thought he played all right. I need to see the film.
Q. Following up, is the entries at corner, is that having to change the way you and Ken are calling games, or are treating the guys who are playing the way you treat Shaquill and Quintin?
PETE CARROLL: It is a little bit different. I'll just leave it at that. We have not had DJ with us for a long time. Probably his third week with us. He really focused on the nickel spot in the first week that he was preparing to come back, and then the second week, and then somebody had to play and decided to go with him there.
We don't have a lot of background in developing his took unique and style. He's doing the best he can right now to play with us. But he's a good football player. I like him out there.
Q. We saw Jamal come back in pretty quickly with the shoulder injury. How is he doing, and more generally, how do you think he played and how do you think talking about a new guy still here, he was out a month, how do you feel like week to week you guys are game planning with him and using him, and do you feel like you have a better sense of what he can and...
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, first off, he had to man up today. His shoulder was hurting. To make it out there and play for his team, that was a great demonstration of that. He's going to be sore.
I thought he was very active. I need to see all of the plays to see if there was any things he could have done, stuff I didn't see. I thought, again, you knew he was on the field, and that's kind of the player he is. So we're putting him in situations that allow him to utilize the talent that he has and the playmaking that he has in hopes that we can really make it fit together well.
But for him just to be on the field today after getting banged like he did, that was pretty heroic.
Q. Talking about Alex Collins a little bit more. His first touchdown today, first NFL touchdown in nearly two years. What has it been like to see him come back to the league and have an instant impact for you guys?
PETE CARROLL: He just looked really good in practice the days we had him, particularly the first week; not so much this past week.
But his quickness and he's got a really suddenness to him. He is a real decisive runner, an experienced runner. He's carried the ball a lot in his early days, and I just had to make the call about going with him. I thought he looked good today. He did fine. Real nice toss for the touchdown. He was explosive and gave us a chance. I thought he did a nice job.
Q. Not just on the running, but did I see he picked up a few key blocks on blitzes. Can you talk about the impact that made on giving Russ a little bit more time?
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, I saw a couple of those too that I thought were better than he was in the first week. He realized he had to step up and do a nice job as he's just coming back to us. We really tried to rely on the other guys more because we hadn't had enough time with him.
The chances that he had he did stick it up in there pretty nice. Did a nice job.
Q. What did you think of special teams and that 61-yard field goal by Myers?
PETE CARROLL: Fantastic kick. You know, he's off to a great season. He's doing everything we could ask. Both he and Mikey are kicking the heck out of the football, giving us field position, keeping people pinned back. We've had one return it seems like that was worth a darn in eight or nine games because of the placement of the kicks on both sides of. Maybe there is a couple of them.
So the kicking game has been solid. I really liked the flash that we saw from DJ taking off today. He's had a kickoff return for a touchdown in his history, and you can see why. He really hit it today. Maybe that gives him a chance next week. We'll see.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports