Seahawks 13, 49ers 21
PETE CARROLL: (In progress) ...in the division with the team that's leading, you know, and here, Thursday, and all that stuff. Everything was really there for us to have a great night.
They're a really good team and they're doing really good stuff and been really consistent. They got a bunch of wins in a row and all that. So it was going to be a fantastic win for us, and we just hung in there with an opportunity to get it done.
We had an enormous swing at the end of the half. It was 7 to 3, about at the two-minute warning, we have a chance at pick at mid-field at least, and then the fumble gets them right on -- you know, down on the five yard line.
So, they were able to take advantage of those opportunities and did a nice job. I give them credit. I've been crediting them all week, because I really think a lot of Kyle and the job that he does and that team, so that's why it would've been a really great opportunity to get them.
But it didn't happen, you know, and so I thought we did some things better on this night on defense and we hung in there. We had a couple -- they had the great double screen play, old play in the league. We haven't seen in a long time, but it worked great.
Then we busted a coverage on the other touchdown. It was a gimme for them. Really wasn't a hard play at all. We just made a big mistake.
So the way I look at it, we did a lot of things better than we've been doing so we made a big improvement, but it just didn't come out to be a good win.
I told these guys in there that I really love this team and I like what they bring and how they go about their work and the attitude, the mentality. I wanted so much for this week to be a reward, that they could really take something out of it and help us take the next step.
I had it all planned. Had it all figured out, what I was going to say to them, and it just didn't happen. So maybe next week. See what happens.
We had a couple injuries that were significant. Bryan Mone hurt his knee tonight. We can't say everything, but it's a significant knee injury.
And Tyler Lockett broke a bone in his hand. Index finger, right in here, you know. It's legit and all that. We got to figure out what's the right way to go. I can't even fathom that, playing without Tyler. Got a chance to hang with them, just to try to express what it's like to be working with a guy like this for so long and such an incredible player. He's not in tremendous pain. Just got a broken hand.
No need to feel sorry for him. But he's such a magnificent football player and a member of a team and member of a community in our area and fans. We're going to miss the heck out of him, whatever he misses. You just don't think of Tyler having to suffer through stuff. He should just be having fun and playing the game the way he loves to do it and keep thrilling us like he does.
Just add it to the night. Thanks for letting me talk about that.
Q. How do you feel about the way that Myles Adams and a few of those guys stepped in?
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, I wouldn't have known that we would be able to play that consistent up front without Al and B-Mo. Those guys are monsters in there for us, and we really felt like that was going to be an important part of it. Everybody did well. The outside backers did a nice job and they all had to make plays.
I don't know what the numbers were, but for sure Poona, you know, and Myles had to do a bunch and LJ, and so it was -- they had to play all night. That's a tough duty on a Thursday night, even more so.
Q. Did something happen to Jordyn Brooks as well?
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, he has got a sore neck. I'm not sure exactly what that is. I don't have that on the report yet. We took him out because of that.
Q. It was late in the last drive there for Lockett?
PETE CARROLL: For Lockett? Yeah, I think he was catching a slant route or something.
Q. Between Mone and Woods not able to go, what did that do to you?
PETE CARROLL: I mean, I would not have thought against this team that runs the ball so well that we could have held up. Other than the last thing that busted out when we were trying to jump on the barbed wire there and make a stop. We screwed it up, but that was a good game of playing run defense.
And then an early breakout run and couple other things. Of course they're going to get those somewhere in there, but I thought we played well. I would not have thought we could so that without those guys. Those guys are significant parts of holding up the inside and the interior of the defense.
Q. What worked without those two?
PETE CARROLL: Guys played really strict and really disciplined and really committed together. That was really connected tonight. This is a team that has a lot of scheme and concepts and things like that, and they go out and pick at you.
We were able to make the adjustments and hang with them and the players did a beautiful job, coaches did a really good job tonight to give us that opportunity.
Q. That second quarter sequence you mentioned, that's tough any week, but against a defense like the 49ers...
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, I mean, we really felt like we gave them 14 points in the game, you know. They may have earned it another way. I don't want to take anything away from their win. Nice win for them. To come up here and get us up here, that's a big deal.
But that was, yeah, an enormous opportunity. We could have had the ball at mid-field at least with two minutes to go and we start the drive there. Who is to say -- I don't know how much Diggsy could have brought the ball back too. I don't know what he would've done with it.
So we just missed that opportunity. Even more, they get the ball because we fumble on the next sequence and they're on the five yard line. That's bad football.
Q. You mentioned that there was some stuff that you guys did build on that you liked in this one despite the outcome. What are some of those things that you want to build on against Kansas City?
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, well, we want to play a lot better on defense than we've been playing the last couple weeks, and in the running game in particular. I didn't get the third down numbers. I don't know what happened, but we started pretty well. We might have had a pretty good night on defense; offensively we didn't.
So it really was the running game and third downs we were trying to get better at on the defensive side, and on offense we needed to get more balance in the running became and we kept slugging it out. We didn't get enough of them. There were some sparks in there against a tremendous front.
And then third downs there, too, as well. We did not do well on third down in the first half of the game. That's why we didn't have any points.
Q. Bryan has been on the injury report for a few weeks.
PETE CARROLL: He played through it tonight. I mean, if you watched him late in the game, he was hurting.
So I'm sorry your question would be?
Q. What has he shown you?
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, he's shown us the grit of a Seahawk. He's exactly the heart of it and how we want it to be. He represents in everything that he does what we stand for and what we believe in and how tough he is and how willing he is to go for it.
He said, I can play, I'm playing, and he couldn't run all week long. But he made it and he played a good game. Hopefully these three days will really help him.
Q. How did you feel Ken looked getting back into things?
PETE CARROLL: I thought he looked good. I need to see the film, all the particular runs, but it's great having him out there. He's just so explosive. He's a really dynamic football player and we need him out there.
Q. What's the message for the team with Kansas City looming?
PETE CARROLL: We got a lot of work to do, a lot of stuff to get done here. With where we picture the season ending up, is a place that we're going to be really proud of if we can pull it off. It ain't going to be easy. It's going to be hard.
That doesn't mean we can't do it. We should've done it tonight; we didn't get it done. Should have done it last week; had a chance.
These opportunities slip away and the season doesn't end like you hope. We got an attitude about doing something here. We are not done.
Q. What did you think of the way Geno held up?
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, it was a good rush obviously. They are a fantastic rush team, but he did hang in there. He got frustrated like we have seen him at times, but he came right back to it and went right down the field and executed like crazy.
I said -- I think I said, you got ten or twelve plays in to you kick ass and do things right and execute down the stretch? Absolutely. And then he went right back out there and he came right back to balance.
It's a beautiful message that he sent, that he can get upset, frustrated, things aren't working right, and he let's it out and then he comes right back to balance. Beautiful illustration of that.
Q. First time you've seen that frustration?
PETE CARROLL: No -- maybe that frustrated, yeah. But he's been -- I've been around him a long time now. I've seen him get upset before.
Q. He gets taken down at your sideline out of bounds; did you get an explanation?
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, he wound up on the yellow line. The end of the tackle he hits the yellow line. That is outside of the white.
Yeah, he said that the tackle started in bounds. We worked so hard to protect our quarterbacks. It's just one of those calls. No big deal.
Q. Does that set the standard though when a tackle begins in bounds?
PETE CARROLL: That's how they can explain their way out of -- when we're bantering about it. That's a good word, bantering.
Q. You mentioned talking to Tyler. How is he handling that?
PETE CARROLL: Amazingly. I mean, in amazing fashion. He's concerned and trying to get back in two weeks. He says, I think I can get back in two weeks.
Q. (Regarding DK Metcalf.)
PETE CARROLL: No, he's freaking competing like an elite performer with the highest of expectations, and every once in a while he may make a mistake in that level that he plays at.
He could do a little bit better. Yeah, he could do a little bit better. We just got finished talking about that. But I don't want him to be anything but what he is and who he is. He's a fricking warrior on the football field. He wants to walk that edge and live there in the game, I'm all for it.
He's just got to not screw it up and get penalized on it. He did and made mistakes out there and they got him. But you should see the smile on his face. But I didn't get thrown out. Made it through the rest of the game.
So if you don't like a guy that plays like that, okay, you're not on our side. I love the way he played.
Q. Does it seem realistic based on what you know that Lockett could come back at some point this season?
PETE CARROLL: I'll tell you this -- I'll just shoot from the hip a little bit here. There is a couple different ways that they can do the surgery. One of the ways gives him a chance to be back. Remember Rashaad Penny I think it was. Had an injury similar, very similar.
So they've already floated that thought and they are going to talk about all the options and we are going to love him up and take care of him.
Q. Is he going to have surgery or is that still to be determined?
PETE CARROLL: I don't know that -- he'll eventually get to that. He's not really fired up about surgery on anything. But that's -- those are the -- I mean, he's got a spiral crack in his first metatarsal. Metacarpal, right?
Q. Is Eskridge anywhere close to being ready?
PETE CARROLL: Yes, he is. From what I heard late this week, he's coming back around might have a shot to help us out.
Q. What's the early indication on Bryan's knee?
PETE CARROLL: Yes. He had a legitimate knee injury. Yeah, it's an ACL injury.
Q. What was the biggest reason you guys fell short today?
PETE CARROLL: Well, this was going to be a really close football game. Would've been right down to the nub. We gave them a touchdown, and then the other one, I give them total credit for the play design they came up with, the fake double screen delayed to the tight end. That was a beautiful play are. It is an old play. Don't see it very much in the league anymore.
But great execution. Give them that one. Then we gave them the other one. Gave them the ball on the five yard line. It was going to be a great old fashioned rock 'em, sock 'em ballgame, but the mistakes separate that. We had a couple mistakes and they were the beneficiaries and they get a great win.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports