Seahawks, 20 - Washington, 15
PETE CARROLL: Okay. This is a really sweet win for us for a number of reasons. Coming across the country again, showing that we know how to do it again, I'm so proud of that. There is a really good chance if you -- if you win all the games you know you got to go a cross the country sometime.
Again, we know how to do it. I'm really proud of that for our club.
The defense continues to play really, really good football. They played great all day long. We had a couple lapses in there when they got to dinking the ball around, and they did a nice job moving it; give them credit.
But when we had to have it, finished the game off. Guys rallied and nailed three sacks in the lasts that drive and changed the football game from taking away their chance to win.
I'm sure you can see that we respected this opponent a great deal. We respected their pass rush, all the power of that defense up front and all.
I thought Schotty and the fellows on offense did a great job with the plan. Russell did a great job of carrying it out. We ran the ball for a bunch of yards. We found ways to do that. Keep the ball away from them, not get sacked.
I'm just really thrilled about the way that worked. Obviously we need another touchdown drive in the second half to separate this thing, because we really felt in control of the game.
But without that, I think we had three three-and-outs. Just didn't convert on third down keep the thing moving.
They had a nice turnover in there obviously. I just thought the whole team played together. Michael Dickson had a huge game today. We were playing field position all day long, and he did a great job keeping them deep and making their offense go the long haul.
So I really like that football. You saw it was the same last week. Hoping we can keep carrying it out and play the complementary football that really gives a chance to be really hard to beat.
Q. This is another playoff berth for you guys. I know you have bigger goals other than just getting to the playoffs. What does that mean to be back in the post season?
PETE CARROLL: It's a really big deal. There is a lot of stuff that happened. Getting ten wins is a marker, and being in the playoffs with games to go, that's a beautiful thing.
We're playing for everything, which is great. Again next week be another championship game for us, just what we been preparing for.
But to show -- and I said -- made a comment to the guys in the locker room, the guys who came to this program, the young guys have never been in it. They can't appreciate it like the guys that have been around the league that have come to our team to play with us, Russell and Bobby and K.J. and Duane and all those guys, and try to be part of something different than what they been having.
I'm really, really happy about being able to share that with these guys. It's a good day. Big accomplishment.
Q. Along those lines, you talk to Jamal about that at all? This will be his first post season.
PETE CARROLL: No, I have not talked to him specifically about that. No, and there is a number of guys in there that this is why they're here. Carlos is here for that, Dunlap. Anyway, so a lot of good stuff going on.
Q. DJ Reed continues to bring great energy and make big plays for you guys in the secondary each week. With Quintin and Trey coming back soon, do you see an a little bit of a corner back controversy brewing last few games of the season?
PETE CARROLL: No, I don't see it as a controversy. Whether it's with the running backs or going with the hot hand or with corner backs, he's playing good football. I like all the activity and the consistency that he's shown and he's tackling pretty well. He's just a playmaker. He has to hold this spot at least going into this week.
We should get Trey back this week. Quinton practiced all last week. He should be in better shape for this week. We'll see how that all works out. They're getting stronger.
Q. I know you take pride in consistency, not just being able to do it once, but over and over again. To make the playoffs eight times in nine years, how proud are you of that and is there anything that you attribute that to specifically?
PETE CARROLL: Well, yeah, I am really proud of that. That's what we're here to do, just keep on winning and give ourselves a chance to win championships, and so we got a shot.
I attribute it to the consistency of our leadership. Bobby and Russell, K.J., Duane, those guys have just been there and been through it. All the stuff that I say to these guys is only as meaningful as they make it. They continue to support the message and keep us on track and be beacons for how we do things and why we do what we do and the way we look at stuff.
We're a little different. We have different way of dealing with things. Without their help and support we would -- just wouldn't -- the message wouldn't be as strong. It is a strong message and these guys know it and they've come here to accomplish something and they're doing it.
I love this team. I been telling you guys that since way back when we first assembled. Just the makeup and the mentality and all that, and it's really guided by Russell and the Bobby and the guys.
Q. Why do you think you guys haven't been as sharp as you would like to be on third down offensively?
PETE CARROLL: I don't know. Just not hitting it as good as we'd like to. We're trying really hard. We're trying really hard. I don't know what the numbers were today, but we're trying really hard to convert every one of them. We just got to keep working at it. It would make the game so much easier.
Q. You said Russ and Schotty and all those guys.
PETE CARROLL: 5 of 12.
Q. Yeah, 5 of 12. You said Russ and Schotty did a good job of carrying out the plan. What exactly did you like about how they carried out the plan today?
PETE CARROLL: The rhythm of getting football. And this is a tremendous pass rush team. They've got four No. 1s or whatever up there hauling ass at you, and they didn't get Russ. That was awesome.
That's how they have won games, like we did at the end of that game, this game today. You saw our pass rush today. That was big time. Well, that's how they been playing and that's why they won four or five in a row, whatever the heck it is. That's why they're leading their division and all, and we didn't let them have it today.
They did not have the pass rush today that they been having, and that attributed to the guys up front and the plan and Russell carrying out, but getting the ball out of his hands all day long.
Q. Pete, going back to DJ Reed, when you pick him he's got a pectoral injury. I don't know if you guys knew at the time if he would even be able to get up and play for you. To have the impact that he's had through half the season jumping in midway through, how big of a pickup has he been for your defense?
PETE CARROLL: This is John Schneider working his magic. I can't tell you enough. John has done this so many times. He realized that there was going to be a big loop in there where we wouldn't have him available. We could take him off -- he's a really good player. We could take him off their roster and put him on our roster and wait it out with the thought that if we needed him down the stretch he would be available as a nickel and potentially other places.
We really didn't think about him being a starting corner when we brought him in. We thought he would be a great nickel. He played terrific at the nickel spot, and so we have that in him as well.
I just think this is John just projecting and looking towards the future. Instead of I need a guy right now and I can't bet on a guy that is going to have to sit for two months. He's done it again. I think this team and how we put it together, John deserves so much credit. He's had a great vision for all of this.
Q. What did you think of the running game and how it worked and getting Rashaad back in there?
PETE CARROLL: I thought the consistency of all of our guys, they all had 50, 60 yards, and Russ had a big play in there that pumps up the yards.
But I think the run game is really alive for us, and when you play us, you got to get ready. For Rashaad to get a couple carries, we hoped to get four or five carries if we could just to break him back in. This was a long, long recovery and return. We just wanted to get him out there.
He did it. He played in the game, and now next week we'll be able to do more and use him more. That works out perfectly well for us today.
Q. This is two games now Dunlap's saved at the end with a sack. Is this beyond what maybe you expected when you got him?
PETE CARROLL: You guys always want to know that we knew this was going to happen. But this is the hope, that he would come in here and be a factor, and he didn't have a great game early on. He was just getting out there. He had mistakes and stuff like that.
I thought Clint did a great job challenging him on the sidelines to go ahead and bring it. When we needed him most he really game through in a big way. I haven't seen the sack that he got. I don't know what it looked like, but guys were raving about it.
He's a powerful man, and his factor helps the other guys. It's one those of cases where a good player helps the other players play better. He's a real good factor for us. I thought Alton Robinson's rush was just a perfect rush today on the sack that he had, the forced fumble, we didn't get.
That's how we see him. We are hoping he can do that more and add to it. So, good day.
Q. And L.J. Collier, he's been frustrated about how his career has started. To come up with a big position, what can that do for him?
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, he continues to be a steady factor. He's playing really hard. He's got great energy and adds a bunch to our style of play. He's got stuff to him. He has real good reach and some real slippery ways of rushing the passer. I think he's just coming on. I really look at this as like his rookie year. I know it isn't, but this is the first year he really had a chance to really go for it, and he's having a terrific season for us.
Q. How did you balance tipping your cap to a good defense and potentially having some concern when your offense sputters in the fourth quarter?
PETE CARROLL: You guys do that. You go ahead and be concerned. I'm ain't concerned at all. We did exactly what we wanted to do. We didn't want them to be a factor in this game, and to give up some yards and the stats and all that stuff, I ain't worried about that at all. I don't know what Russ' numbers were.
18 for 27. That's another Bart Starr type of game. Playing the football with our whole team, that worked out great today. It'll be different next time or the game after, but on this game against that team, we neutralized their strength and that's what we had to do to get it done.
So I don't -- I don't think there is anything that you can see in this that's negative. I don't see anything about it. And you guys can look for it but, I just don't see that. This was the game we wanted to play. It's almost the score we thought it might be and all of that, that it was going to be really tight and a championship match, and that's what it felt like.
Q. So you attribute the fourth quarter to things that happen in football?
PETE CARROLL: We didn't convert our third downs. We just need to convert the third downs. We had a ball tipped. Guys makes a marvelous play to tip the ball up. That's how they got it back. Like I said, you can worry about it. I'm not worried about it all. I'm fine.
Q. Well, I think it's a valid question. You guys had 39 yards in the fourth quarter and had a 20-3 lead. I'm not being combative. I'm just asking how you feel about it.
PETE CARROLL: I didn't say you were. I said you guys are entitled to do it however you want to do it. I just don't see it like that. I wish we would've made a couple more first downs and not let them have the last couple drives.
We just didn't get it done today.
Q. Kind of touched on it earlier, but can you speak to the defense, their final stop there and the pass rush coming alive at the end?
PETE CARROLL: What was the start of the question?
Q. Can you speak to the defense coming alive there at the end.
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, I was so fired up to see them answer the finishing challenge like that. They just cranked it. We didn't have to do anything special, pressure or anything. We just let the guys cut them loose and it just all of a sudden took life right out of them.
It was a marvelous energy about them in the finish of the game. Gosh, just all we could have hope for. So we've had a bunch of interesting finishes this season. That was one of them.
Why would that all of a sudden happen? Well, those guys just stepped into that next level of going for it, and it was a beautiful thing.
Q. DJ Reed is not the typical sized guy that you have play at corner back on the outside, how have you seen him I guess overcome that not being the traditionally sized guy?
PETE CARROLL: He's just a different style player. His feet are just lightning fast and his athleticism is just -- he's so sudden. He can makeup for -- he has to stay out of situations where he gets pushed around or shoved around. 183 pounds, but he knows how to do it.
I'm really fired up about his play. You know, as much as we've worked, and everybody is about the long arm corners and all that stuff, I mean, that's what I've always wanted, but way back in the day at NC State we had Perry Williams. You guys don't remember him. Played for the Giants for a long time. He was beautiful; 6'2".
Then we had Donny LaGrand. He was about 5'7". Both those guys played back in the day. That's where all of our corner play, the source of it started. They come in different shapes and sizes. We just have to be open to it and not be stubborn that everybody has to be like whatever, this mold.
It couldn't be more obvious. Look at our quarterback.
Q. One more on DJ. Obviously did not look good there. Do you have any update on him?
PETE CARROLL: Yes, he sprained his ankle. He did not break anything, which we're all thrilled about. I don't know how severe the sprain is, but he did sprain his ankle and all the x-rays were negative, so that's a really good report to pass along.
Q. You talked about how well your defense finished the game. Just to start the fourth quarter though, is there anything that you saw that wasn't -- like what exactly was the lapses?
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, really we didn't turn our focus towards just getting after the passer. We were still playing running pass, so we kept staying kind of in more of a base mode. They just hadn't done very much. There was not much down the field, not much to the run game.
None of those things were factors until they started going back to back to back, and then they put together a couple drives. We just had to shift years, and I thought Kenny and those guys did it. They turned the guys loose like we needed to, and the last drive it all showed up.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports