Seahawks 23, Jets 6
PETE CARROLL: First off, Happy New Year to everybody. New Year's day. That's amazing we're playing on New Year's Day. Don't they usually play the Rose Bowl on this day?
On a real serious note, before you guys ask, I heard about Dori Munson passed away. You guys all knew that, right, heard that? For years he and I worked on the show together and got to know him well in that mode. Miss the guy. He had a lot of talent. Special guy. Unfortunate. I don't know anything about the circumstances of course, but we'll miss him.
On this New Year's Day we had a good football day. We had a really good football day. Across the board everybody played like we were hoping. We were able to play like the complementary football where we made the turnovers, had field position. We could have done better in the red zone, but did a lot of the positive things all day long.
Offense did not turn the football over. Plus three for the day. Huge, huge day for us in that regard. A lot of cool things happened. Ran the ball really well today. Ken had a great day running it and DeeJay has a really good day, too, in his complementary stuff that he did.
We didn't get it the ball to DK or Tyler much at all, but we had enough stuff going and the tight ends did a really good job; saw a lot of Colby today.
It fit together really well. Terrific for the defense to get through a day and no touchdowns. That's hard to do that in this league. Great to see those guys do that. Looks like we're making a little move. Played definitely better in some areas last week and came back and did it again this week. We got a big finish coming up.
It was a real good day.
Q. Getting Darrell Taylor and the pass rush going, what did that mean?
PETE CARROLL: It was great, man. He's really finding himself. He's still learning. He's still young at this position. He has such a great burst and runs the edge so well. That's what he needs to always feature in his approach, and that first, you better hang with him.
Then there is a lot of counter stuff that happens from there, but he's well getting on the edge well and doing a great job. And really Q-Jeff, too. Had a sack and a half today and was close on a couple others. Ten hits today, which is big time for us, so it worked out well.
Q. How is Jordyn Brooks?
PETE CARROLL: I don't know yet. He's going to get imaging now. He hurt his knee. I don't know -- we don't know specifics right now.
Q. And Tyler?
PETE CARROLL: Tyler got banged on his right lower leg in the game and it just bothered him. He tried to get warm, loose, and stayed in to do that, and then came back and got out there and got on the field again.
At the very end we held him out knowing next week is coming up and all that. Have to wait and see.
Q. Did he make it through okay finger-wise?
PETE CARROLL: No issue. No issue. Just an amazing statement in itself. I tried to not talk about it going into the game. But his attitude has just been unbelievable -- his attitude has been believable, been Tyler-like.
Fantastic approach. I'm playing and nothing is going to stop me. I mean, you guys see what he has in his hand, you would be really impressed at how he did that.
Q. You mentioned Tyler and DK today, how important was the production you got with the tight ends?
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, it was really important. We needed them today. Just kind of happened that it was one of those days. It was not by intention at all. Just the way the game went.
So, you know, I feel bad for those guys because they want to contribute, but they'll come roaring back and that's no -- it's not a significant issue really at all.
Q. After last couple weeks, kind of slow starts from the offense, how good was it get right out of the gate?
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, great. We got the big turnover right off the bat, too. We really could have had a huge day today. We did not convert the way I wanted to around the 20 yard line and need to be better there and more efficient to get those touchdowns.
But it was great to get out ahead, play with a lead. It was fun to be in that position and the guys held on great.
Q. (Regarding turnovers.)
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, like I said, three turnovers today and a great pick, a great return, shameful return by Quandre coming up the sidelines. But he was having fun.
But fitting together. No turnovers on offense and the big three for the defense. That was great. I thought kicking game was solid today. I'm thinking we went down thinking that Xavier got a block on that punt, which was great.
Mike kicked the ball, punted the ball beautifully today.
Q. What does it mean going into the last week of the season, you got the playoffs on the line.
PETE CARROLL: We're trying to be here. This was playoff weekend this week and we got another one next week. Let's go. We're ready to go on, and we got to see if we can make that happen.
Q. Talking about committing to the run and how that's changed the last week and a half, since the second half of the Kansas City game; I'm assuming that was the emphasis, but is it fair to say it's a lot easier to do that when you have the lead as quickly is you did today?
PETE CARROLL: There is no doubt. Yeah, there is no doubt. Yes, yeah. And also leads to the turnovers and all of that. Everything fits together. That was a great model of how we would like it to go, and we'll recreate it again.
Q. You have had Tyler Mabry for a while, but how cool was it for him to get out there?
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, the coolest thing about that was the way the guys reacted. He's been here for a long time and been waiting for an opportunity like that, to get in the end zone. The guys were crazy about it, on the field, one, and in the locker room, two. Just fired up for him. They were fired up for Cade Johnson. Got his first chance to get some playtime going into the game, you know, coming off the practice squad.
So whenever those guys get a chance. What was remarkable about it was how much they loved Tyler. You could tell the way they responded. It was really cool.
Q. What happened with Haynes?
PETE CARROLL: Sprained his ankle.
Q. How is he doing?
PETE CARROLL: I don't know that, but it's legitimately a sprained ankle, so we will have to wait and see.
Q. What you did you think of Geno's day?
PETE CARROLL: I thought he was solid. I thought he did a good, solid job of taking care of business. We didn't do well enough on third down. Need to take a look and see why that happened. That is really two weeks in a row that we are not the way we needed to be on third done.
I thought he was resourceful and creative and made some terrific plays, and just an eyelash from a couple other ones. One up the sidelines and in the end zones and all that.
I got a pretty good description about the explanation about the DPIs that everybody is hooting about. Of course I wasn't hooting that much about it.
Why did I say that? Yes I was.
Anyway, but the league is a calling pass interference differently and the numbers are way down. They're acknowledging the combative part of it. If they're both battling for it they're not going to likely call a penalty unless there something egregious that happens in the midst of that.
And so when you see their DB and we're going up for the ball and there is contact and the guy is not looking back for the football, but they're both kind of hand fighting, they let that go now.
The DPIs are way do you think. That's part of it. Nothing wrong with that. Just the way they're calling it.
Q. What change changed with the run defense? The first couple series they got some runs.
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, we had to fix a couple things and we were in adjustment mode throughout the first half, and came right out the second half and banged it the same place and knocked it down and they stopped running them.
So there is a couple really technical things that we didn't do right. Really basically fundamental stuff. We got adjusted.
Q. DeeJay Dallas and the passing game, I think you had 55 receiving yards, something like that. What did you think?
PETE CARROLL: I thought he played a great game. He was all over both aspects of it: The pass game, run game, pass pro too. He had a couple good blocks.
I thought he had one of his better games and ran hard, ran tough. Really nice one-two punch the way that was hitting. Felt good.
Q. The Jets with Mike White at quarterback have been a lot more consistent. What changed today to really shut them down?
PETE CARROLL: Mike White?
Q. Yeah.
PETE CARROLL: Yeah. He got hit a lot today. It was -- the pass rush was good. We got ten hits on him and four sacks. It was a tough day in that regard. He's a tough kid. Kept coming back. He's been playing with a big time injury and he's shown how tough he is. He's a stud of a kid I guess. I don't know him at all. That's what I would take from that.
But we also had our hands on some balls today. We could have had four or five today. We were close. So I thought we made it hard on them and guys did a good job.
Q. How do you feel Cody and Tanner played?
PETE CARROLL: I thought they played pretty well. Passing game and running game. I thought they did well. It was great to see Tanner have that much play time. Hate the reason why, but Cody went right to Mike and took it over, and Tanner jumped up and away we went. It was a really nice answer.
Let's also say that Stone Forsythe did a nice job today. That's two good games in a row for us and really pleased about that.
Q. Do you think Gabe can come back next week?
PETE CARROLL: I don't know. Good chance because we just had to rest him. Just didn't respond well enough. He will have to respond, so we'll see.
Q. What about Ryan Neal?
PETE CARROLL: I don't know that. Don't know until we start the week.
Q. How big a boost did you get from Al Woods today?
PETE CARROLL: You know, I don't know how much Al got to really make plays. He had a couple really good ones. Just to have him out there is great. He's a leader and they love him and he's a stud of a guy out there. He had a great -- you know, just stops a play, you know, picks the guy up and throws him on the ground just to show who's the biggest, baddest guy out there. We really love having him out there. We missed him when he wasn't out.
Q. With all the help you guys needed from other teams playoff-wise, were you keeping your eye on the scoreboard today?
PETE CARROLL: No. Not too much. Before the game, but I don't know what happened. I don't know the scores now.
Focus.
Q. Do you know if you're playing Saturday or Sunday?
PETE CARROLL: We don't know yet. Supposed to find out later today.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports