Seahawks 27, Giants 13
PETE CARROLL: That was a really satisfying win. This was one of those games where you've got so much respect for the other team and what they've been playing like and accomplishing, the players and the way that Brian has done such a great job with these guys and going, that we held this match-up in high regard.
To play that well across the board, all three phases, our effort was terrific, our hitting was great. The team had two penalties, and then I had one. (Laughter.) That was terrible. But it was a good call, not a bad call.
But just a complete win here for everybody.
I know that it's kind of been an alert, what's going on here, what are these guys doing, how is this happening. They're hanging together, and they're playing together, and they know that they can improve and they know that there's areas in their football that they can get better.
There's just nobody satisfied at all, and it's a great feeling. It's the way you want your team to be at this time here at the midway point, all but, and we're in good position in the division to make some noise if we can keep rolling.
But it's about where we're going. These guys have kept their eye on it. Tyler has done a great job of keeping the message solid, about the story is not written yet and we've got a lot to do. It's just a really cool feeling for these guys, and they've accomplished a tremendous amount in half a season.
The defense was great today. They played great football. This is the team that was rushing for 170 something, and with an incredible back. He doesn't get going today and they don't get going today. It was an all-day job. It wasn't like in flashes, it was all day long. We played consistently hard and tough and solid and disciplined and strict, just like we needed to, and I thought Clint and his guys did a great job today. The game plan was excellent. There was just so few plays in there that got out of hand and just a couple of them. They were good enough to get some points out of it.
But just all in all, a great day's work. All the sacks that happened, Chenna again, run and pass, two sacks today, Mafe gets his first one, great for him. He's playing good. He played really well, did some really good things. Mike Jackson had a heck of a game today it seemed.
I can talk about all of them because everybody did something good today.
Geno, again, solid as a rock, right on point with the whole day's work, handled the line of scrimmage beautifully. They did all kinds of stuff at us, and he dealt with it and handled it and checked off and did the things we needed to in the game plan to keep it moving.
They're a tough team to deal with. They're very high tech in what they do on defense, and the stuff they throw at you, and it called for the quarterback to really be in command.
Even when Austin goes out and he gets banged up and then Kyle comes in, to keep that flowing going and to continue to play winning football, it's just a tribute to the guys doing the work and the players and everybody being on board and all of that.
Man, there's just praise to go everywhere. Nothing more favorite than knocking the ball out of their hands and taking the ball of them on the special teams.
Diss had a great hit. Homer had a great hit, to do that. I think Diss recovered Homer's. It was just -- yeah, it was exactly the way we want to do it.
The stadium felt it and they were with us, and we played to them the whole time, and all the way to the end when you could feel the pass rush is picking up and they're going backwards. It was like it was last time when we were here, too.
It's happening, and I'm really excited about it.
We're just really getting warmed up. We're right in the middle of it all, and we've a long ways to go.
Q. For Tyler to bounce back with that touchdown, he never drops anything, and to come back with that.
PETE CARROLL: Huge, huge. Tyler is the best receiver I've ever been around. I've never seen anybody do all the things so consistently for such a long time. Of course he's going to make a double move and score a touchdown. Of course he's going to come back. I told him I think you're going to get two. Before it happened I just had a feeling he was going to do something and sure enough he runs just a great double move and gets in the end zone just to let you know who he is again.
Everybody is going to make a mistake sometime.
Q. Is that what you said to him when you kind of knelt down to console him during the game --
PETE CARROLL: I told him he's the best receiver I've ever seen. You're going to do something; I can't wait. You're going to score twice. I know something is going to happen right here. Anyway, it's no prophecy. It's just loving the kid up because he is who he is, an amazing player.
Q. What do you make of DK's performance out there?
PETE CARROLL: Let's says both those guys. For both those guys to play, Lock got hurt on Thursday, I think it was Thursday the last play of practice he got a little thing going in his rib cage, but he never wavered. He was going to play. When DK showed up on Friday's practice, we didn't know if he could play or not. We didn't know if he could go. He ripped around the field, showed us he could do it. However he pulled that together, that was a phenomenal effort by him to hang through it and to -- and then to play like that, too, and play great football for us. Those two guys, they're just champions, man.
Q. Did he make it through okay, DK?
PETE CARROLL: As far as I know.
Q. What about Lock after he dropped that pass, what did you tell him?
PETE CARROLL: Because I know he took it hard. He was disappointed. He's trying to be the leader and every -- he's one of the great players to ever play this game, and so he's got high expectations for himself. I love him, and so I just -- that's it. Just loved him up. Just like he deserved.
Q. Going into the Cardinals' game, winding the clock back a little bit, the team only had eight sacks, and the last three weeks you guys have had 14. What has shifted that has made this a little more consistent, sustainable --
PETE CARROLL: Really it's the guys. We adjusted some things, and they embraced it. They have just taken off and gone with it. It's the guys that are doing the job. It's all of those guys. It's the edge guys that are rushing. Chenna has been magnificent, and it doesn't matter who the guys are on the other side. He's continuing to find ways to get heat. We're not blitzing them to do it. They're doing it. They're doing it with their rushes and their effort and their connection, the continuity of the rushes and all.
The players deserve all of the credit. Of course Clint has got to call them and all that, but he saw how to cut these guys loose. They took to it, and it hasn't been the same since.
Q. Seemed like Bruce was really hacked up in the backfield --
PETE CARROLL: Shoot, he looked great today. He was all over the place. Just missed his darned sack right off the bat. But he's helping us. It's really good to have him here. He connects us with the history somewhat, and I don't want to make too much of that because these guys don't even know, but he does, and he knows the mentality and kind of just the hardness of how we approach stuff, and he is that. He always has been.
I was talking to Cam and Ben and Cliff before the game, and they know, they can see it, too, that he kind of gives that connection -- look how we're playing. We look like the team -- we look like used to look, and the stadium is rocking like it used to rock, and we're playing the kind of football that gives us a chance to win every time we go out. I think he's going to help us all the way down the whole stretch. I think it's going to be a really important part of it.
Q. (No microphone.)
PETE CARROLL: Man, we tackled really well. We played great scheme defense. We kept them in -- I don't know how -- you say he's going to average 2.7 a rush in a game? I would never have thought you could do that to the guy because I have such high regard. But everybody had to contribute to do that.
Scheme, approach, overall, the players are embracing the idea how we were going to do it and what we're trying to get done. The guys on the edge did a great job. The outside backers did a fantastic job today keeping that from popping and getting out. Quarterback, too, the quarterback did not get his space that he usually gets, and it really goes to the outside linebackers to maintain that. They were really key in this game plan.
Q. Is it any cooler a feeling knowing what the outside expectations were of your team heading into this?
PETE CARROLL: You know, I mean, we're human. We know how that was all passed about. But that kind of motivation isn't the kind of motivation that makes the difference. You've got to be way deeper than that. It's got to be way more intrinsic than that. But it's fun. We have fun with it, yeah. Tyler said something today, he reminded the guys that nobody thought we'd be here. But yeah, we've got a long ways to go. It's really normal and natural. I understand why you asked that question, though, because it's kind of that big a deal.
Q. Bud Grant, do you have more of a thought on what that means to you?
PETE CARROLL: I don't have a good thought on what it means. I did get him on the phone and talk to him here just to kick it around because I just had to try to make it real. I can't tell you how much I love the guy and how much I've respected him throughout my career and the opportunity that he gave me to get me back in the league. I've been in the league one year, I got fired, got thrown out of it and he gave him a chance to come back. I don't know why he saw it but he did, and from that point forward, just the relationship that we had has just been meaningful to me in everything that I've done.
It doesn't even make sense to me. I said, could this possibly be? He said, yeah, it is, it is. Same thing, it ain't that big a deal. Neither one of us thinks it's that big a deal, but to me it is because it's Bud. Anyway -- one of the things that it does state, though, that I'm really proud of is being in this organization for so many years and to have the consistency that we've had, to give us a chance to keep coming back -- a lot of coaches don't get as many chances as I've had.
To be able to stay in this organization, it's because of the ownership. It goes right back to Paul and Jody and what they've done and how they've structured this thing to give us for the consistency and the expectations of the excellence and the standards that we operate by.
Jody is doing a magnificent job. I always say this, you don't know well enough what she's like and what she's all about, but she is so, so clear and so powerfully grounded in what it takes to be great for our fans, and that's what she cares about. She wants us to win for the people in the northwest.
She's tough. She's firm. She's having a blast. She's everything.
But without that kind of security and support, they'd have thrown me out of here a long time ago. So I feel very indebted to the family and their confidence in Johnny and us having this chance to do this. Everything we did here was with John. Pete, John, right next to each other on this whole thing. Anyway...
Q. How did Ryan Neal come out of the game?
PETE CARROLL: He's cramping. Both hamstrings, that bugger, he goes back in the game. He had both hamstrings cramping and he tried to stiff his way back on the field and play.
His time out wasn't any worse than the one I called because I got the penalty, so we both screwed it up.
Q. How is Darrell Taylor doing?
PETE CARROLL: He just couldn't hang. He tried. Gallant effort to get out there and go. He's got a hip thing, kind of a groin-hip thing that's bothering him that isn't a real serious injury, but yet he's not through it yet. He thought he could make it, he went and started and tried and then he couldn't, so we had to pull him out. So I don't know what that means for this week. I have no idea.
Q. The impact of Travis, when we asked you on Friday, Blair wasn't going to play and you said Travis is ready to play. Just his impact on special teams and on offense.
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, he was great. If you guys remember, T-Homer, he was looking great all the way through the preseason. He looked like he was shot out of a cannon carrying the football and he's always just a magnificent factor in special teams. So we really missed him when he wasn't there for these four weeks.
To get him back on the field, look how obvious it was. Look how good he is, how much of a factor he is. To fill in when we didn't have Nick, to get that kind of production on our special teams, it was like an ode to Nick. They gave it to him. Those guys were freaking flying and smacking him and they did get the ball knocked around like they did. The fact that Homer was part of that and part of some of the offense, as well, it's a big plus to get back out there when we need him.
Q. What did you think of Chenna's coverage down the sideline?
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, look what he did. He's in the backfield rushing the passer for a couple. He had a couple hits in the backfield. He had a great play where he penetrates and gets about a five or six yard loss, and next thing you know -- was it Saquon? Come on. He won't forget that one. That was a great play.
Q. You guys made a big investment in Chenna; what do you feel like you've gotten out of him?
PETE CARROLL: He's leading us. He's leading us. In every aspect he's leading us.
I don't know how well you guys know him, but he's just so true blue. He's the real deal. He loves the game. He loves to play. He loves his teammates. He gives you everything he's got. He practices every day, studies every day. He throws his body every which way. He's played more plays than probably anybody on defense but the corners and the safety, but he's played so much football for us. He's done everything.
He had a great game today. Two sacks and a tackle in the backfield and running down with the best player in the NFL trying to catch a touchdown pass. Pretty cool.
Q. Did Jordan parks get a little nicked up there?
PETE CARROLL: I don't think so. Didn't he have a great tackle on Saquon? What a play.
Q. What happened with Austin?
PETE CARROLL: He got a little knee sprain. He could have gone back in, and we said, let's wait, and we held him off to be only in an emergency. Kyle did a great job to get in there and step in.
Q. Gabe Jackson?
PETE CARROLL: We just rotated those guys. We didn't want to overplay them.
Q. To see Geno come through with those drives in the fourth quarter, what does that say about his play?
PETE CARROLL: He's the real deal. This is the real -- we're seeing, there's no mystery he's going to run out of gas or something. It's not like that. He knows exactly what he's doing and he shows you week in and week out, throw after throw after throw.
There's nothing for us to hold him but in the highest of expectations really. What a thrilling story for the kid. He just hung in there so tough and outlasted it, and now he's enjoying all the fun of it. He did great.
Q. You've coached in National Championships, Rose Bowl, Super Bowl. Have you had more fun coaching than this team?
PETE CARROLL: I've had fun over the years. This is really special. This is a very special opportunity right now. It's been because of all of the hype and the circumstances and all that and the challenge of it and the doubting and all that kind of stuff.
Yeah, I like this challenge. I like this whole thing. I've liked it from the start.
We wouldn't be here. But the fact the guys are coming through, it's because of the way they've worked and how they're bringing themselves to work every day and how much they care about it. It just makes it like it's a coach's thrill. It really is. That's all we can hope for. I hate that we were crappy early in the year and we weren't doing stuff right, but we held on to it and we knew -- we felt like we knew where we could go, and we're getting going.
You know, all the people that doubt, like you're losing -- we run the ball too much, you don't understand football and he can't stay up with the new game and all that kind of stuff, that's a bunch of crap, I'm telling you. Look, we're doing fine. We're all right. We're improving day in and day out.
Q. Walker, they bottled him up early but then he comes back --
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, what the heck did he do on the run? He's going, he's getting -- he's falling down and then he's not and he's in the end zone. I don't know how that happened. That was just a shocking play to me. He's had a -- similar to the -- he's had a couple. He maybe had one on the sidelines in front of our bench the other day, a couple weeks ago, but that play right there, I was shocked. I don't know if the crowd could feel it. He was going down. He was on his way to the ground and then all of a sudden he got his feet underneath him and he breaks the next tackle and he's in the end zone. I don't know, it was an amazing play. I can't wait to study that.
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