Seattle Seahawks Media Conference

Monday, November 30, 2020

Seattle, Washington, USA

Coach Pete Carroll

Postgame Press Conference


Seahawks, 23 - Eagles, 17

PETE CARROLL: Ready to go? Good, tough win tonight. Really happy to see couple things in a big sense.

We shut him out with the football tonight, pitched a goose egg for the offense, which is always where it starts?

Defense did a fantastic job all night long. Really started fast. Stayed with it. Unfortunately we slopped that last drive in there and gave them a chance to get in there.

But the whole night was really good. I don't know the numbers other than the six sacks, but we were in control. It was great to see our guys play like that and play consistently. Again, like last week, a lot of corrections, a lot of things fixes during the game, a lot of great communication.

We've taken a real nice step forward and I'm hoping we can just keep building on it.

Great to see Chris Carson back. Ran like a monster out there. The touchdown was fantastic. DK has a huge night. I heard he went over 1000 yards. Is that -- that is? That's a cool thing to have happen this early in the season.

What a big year he's having and a big night tonight. Played great.

So we spread six sacks out with a bunch of guys, so everybody have rushing the passer and we took advantage of some opportunities and we did a nice job with it.

Just a really good ball game all around. Also, Jason Meyers just continues to nail the fricking football. We kicked last field goal just to ice the thing and they just went out there and did it exactly like they were supposed to. There is a question whether you kick that or not.

I though also that kick my own butt, I had a terrible first quarter. Golly, we didn't handle the fourth down situations like we needed to. Felt like I took the momentum away, and so I was disappointed. I didn't play that much better later in the game either to tell you the truth, but started lousy. Anyway, sometimes you can screw it up.

Anyway, so it's big night for us. Great to be Monday night, primetime, and get it done, and let's get on back home and get going.

Q. You mentioned the defense. For them to kind of pick up where they left off after the last couple games, five straight three-and-outs, how encouraged are you but what you've seen not just this game, but really the last two and a half games.

PETE CARROLL: Very much so, John. You can just feel it. They're just on their game. They know our stuff. They know what they're trying to get done. Were able to adjust and tweak things as the game is going along. All of that stuff is just the fine tuning that it takes to really be able to play good ball.

Thought it was a really good night.

Q. Pete, looked like Slay and Metcalf were getting into it early on, and I don't know if it was deliberate by Slay or the Eagles to try to bait Metcalf into doing something foolish. What was your read?

PETE CARROLL: I hope they keep trying if they want to keep trying. He's very poised, very in command of what's going on. He handled that situation beautifully. I think he had pretty aggressive block on the play and they didn't like it.

DK is doing his thing. He's making it known that he's not just out there catching the football. He's doing the whole game and blocking and giving good effort and being tough and all that.

Q. Your pass rush continues to fire off and it's not all on Carlos coming in. What do you think has been the biggest change here where you guys have come to getting six more sacks tonight and the whole unit seems to be firing off like it is?

PETE CARROLL: Yeah, really a lot of guys contributed to that, which is great. Carlos had a couple really good rushes, of course. We see -- I don't know what -- Jamal had one I guess tonight. He's involved, too.

Bobby had a couple great rushes when we didn't maybe get the sack, but still good pressure. Everybody is hitting it. Kenny is doing a really nice job of mixing the calls and utilizing the personnel and keeping them off balance, and it's great that everybody is benefitting.

Q. Is Carlos okay? I think he left the game late. Is he all right?

PETE CARROLL: He's got something in his foot, sprained foot or something like that. Real technical term. Sprained something or other.

Q. Just to clarify, when you say you had a bad first quarter, are you regretting the play calls on the fourth down or...

PETE CARROLL: I didn't like my handling of it, the timing of it down there. I handcuffed the guys a little bit with that one. And neither one of them worked, you know, so if we had worked and converted would have been better.

We lost all of whatever momentum we could have had the first quarter by not getting scores and converting and completing the sequence. I just didn't like it. I was pissed at me.

Q. What's keeping you guys from maybe making those decisions quicker? You had to take a timeout prior to both those play calls.

PETE CARROLL: Well we wanted to talk about it and think it through. It was a big play. I just didn't like the whole thing.

I told you. It was me. I screwed it up. You asked what happened? It was me. I messed it up.

Q. How did you feel about the balance in your run game tonight, and is that indicative of how you see it going forward between Chris and Carlos?

PETE CARROLL: I don't know what the numbers were. I haven't seen those yet. Those two guys are going to keep pounding away. One gets hot, then he'll get more. But those guys red zone great at bringing it just like we want to.

We didn't run the ball as well as we would like to tonight. We have had a lot of trouble running the ball against these guys over the years, and it wasn't a whole lot different tonight.

We're going to keep working for the balance and continuing to have both aspects of our offense going.

Q. The results weren't there tonight, but is this the first time you have the personality of your team back the way you want, that's smash mouth on offense, attacking up front on defense? Does it feel now it's your type of team?

PETE CARROLL: I think the last couple weeks we've taken this move in the right direction. We just got to keep battling and working to get better each week here and climb our way through.

There are only on five games left in the whole season, in the regular season, and we just have to climb to the next game and get to the right mentality and the right approach to go bang out another football game, and then we just go to the next one and just keep charging our way through this thing.

I'm really excited about our belief, our resolve, the trust in one another, the offense trusting the defense back and forth. It feels the best it's been all year, and we're ready to go.

Q. You knew they'd probably do it, but were you surprised they stuck with Mann and Slay on Metcalf the entire night?

PETE CARROLL: No. No, we -- I don't know. We don't care what they do. They get to do whatever they want. That's their choice based on what they think of their guys and all that.

No, I wasn't surprised one way or the other.

Q. What did you think of the catch that DK made down the sideline, I believe it was your sideline, with one hand?

PETE CARROLL: Incredible one-handed catch. He knew he was fighting for space, and so he decided to make the space and go with the one-handed catch. He knew exactly what he was doing. Marvelous job keeping his feet in balance too and all that finishing the catch. He hit the ground real hard right there, too, and he just was tough as nails there to finish that one.

Q. And just to clarify, you said Carlos had a foot injury. Which Carlos was that?

PETE CARROLL: That was Carlos Dunlap has a sprained foot, sore foot, or a sore toe or something. I don't know what it is.

Q. You have touched on getting Carson back. What about having Shaquill Griffin and also getting and Ethan back into the mix?

PETE CARROLL: Yeah, it helped us in the continuity and the feel and all of that. The guys did a really nice job. It was great to get those guys back. We made a big deal last night in the meeting welcoming them back in and looking forward to them playing with us again. They did a really good job.

I though Jamal played really, really good. I don't know what the numbers came out, but you can see finally his shoulder came back and this was the first time he was playing with both shoulders firing in the last couple weeks. It was great to see him be able to make some plays with it.

Q. You talked a little bit about this in Greg's question. Now that you got everybody back, how much is the talk about being consistent moving forward as a team?

PETE CARROLL: How much -- I don't know. That's not the talk right now. But you're on it. I'm following your lead. Yeah, we should be talking about being consistent moving forward. That's really what we're always trying to do. Nothing is new.

We just have to take it one step at a time and one day at a time and one game at a time and make sure we're really clear about how much focus we need to learn how to generate getting ready for what's going to happen at the end of the season.

Every one of these game are so important. There is something to every one of these games that helps us be a better team in the postseason, and we got to work our way through to that and see if we can earn our way in there. Just lessons everywhere. Just got to really be focused.

Q. Do you have any consideration to Jamarco Jones playing right tackle?

PETE CARROLL: Yeah.

Q. And then how do you feel Cedric did today?

PETE CARROLL: Yeah, I got to look at the film. I don't know. I can't tell you, Joe. I don't know how well he did. I think he had a penalty in there that we didn't like. I mean, all in all he did pretty good. It was admirable to start. I can't tell you until I see the film.

Q. I was just curious your thoughts on the intentional grounding that wasn't on the snap behind Wentz and everything that happened with that, and then going to finish the drive with the touchdown and how that whole sequence played out for you guys.

PETE CARROLL: Yeah, you know, I don't know if that was obvious or not, but I couldn't have been griping any more than I was about that one. I thought that one and also the one that Russ threw in the corner. Those were just situations I thought could have gone the other way.

I haven't see -- I don't have a good look at them yet, so I'm not griping about the calls, I just wish it would've gone the other way.

Q. Bobby Wagner went over 100 tackles.

PETE CARROLL: Awesome.

Q. What does that tell you about his consistency that he's every year done that?

PETE CARROLL: You know, John, what can you say? We're looking at a Hall of Fame football player. We're so accustomed to the way he plays and this tremendously consistent, you know, numbers he continues to add up, and we maybe don't realize how great a player he is and how hard it is to do what he's doing.

That's just an all-timer, and I'm so happy that -- shoot, we've got five games left to play, so he's going to have a ton this year. That's great news. I wish I had known that. I would've shared that with the team. I didn't have that.

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