Seahawks -19, Rams-16
PETE CARROLL: Well, we did everything we could to make the season last as long as possible (laughing). We squeezed every drop out of it.
It was a really good finish to the season for our guys, to get some wins and get something going here and feel good about it and doing things we had to do to give us -- with what we were faced with. This win is an important win for everybody on our team.
We put everything we had into it. We treated this game as the biggest game we could ever play, and if we get a chance, we'll do that one with the next week too. The guys rose to that thought and really everybody battled.
The NFL is so hard. How can a team that's struggling have that kind of a close game against this? Because that's just the league. That's how it goes. Teams are really good, and coaches are really good. You've got to give them a lot of credit. They've continued through a lot of hard times this year to play their butt off all the way until the end of that thing.
I think Sean does a great job. I mean, I don't think it. I know it. He does a great job. A lot of credit for them hanging. It was a hard year for them.
Man, there was a lot of cool things that happened today. Geno hits a number, you know, all-time leading passer in yardage in the history of the franchise. Awesome. What an awesome number. Whatever his percentage of completion has to be as high as anybody has ever had too, I would think.
Tyler gets his 1,000 and catches one of the prettiest touchdown passes. Just remember this one forever. That's how he does it. He did it again when we needed it most. It was just a gorgeous throw designed, everything, and then he did it, falls apart at the back line of the end zone for the touchdown. Just teared me up just because he did it again.
Then Kenny Walker getting 1,000 yards rushing, those are all markers. What do they mean? Well, they mean a lot. They do mean a lot, when you can get the win and you can talk about it now. Those are markers. Who are they markers for? Offensive linemen. Those guys are so proud that they were able to get that done and take great pride in it.
The amount of progress that our guys have made with the two young guys up front and the new center all year long and all of that. We rushed for 197 again or whatever the heck. We got the running game going again like we need to, and you can see how we play. That's how we do it. That's the way we fight to play like that and then be great in the kicking game and to keep those scores down. The explosive plays didn't happen on defense. They did a great job today to keep it down three points in the second half and multiple stops in critical situations and sudden changes and all of that.
So there was just so many good things that happened. We rushed the passer well enough today to keep their passing game at a minimum. Love that a bunch of guys got sacks. Just because it's the last game of the season, and Bruce talked to the defense last night. He gets the sack and a half today. Couldn't have made me more proud. I love that guy so much, and it's been an amazing career for him to get to this point and to finish like that. That's just awesome.
But all the guys. You know, Darrell got it. Uchenna was involved. Mafe I think got one today too. That's great stuff that we can spread it around like that.
What I would think is best kicker in the NFL, for him to set it up like that so we could have that kind of dramatic finish, what guts he has got, you know? He doinked it so we could go and win in OT. He is a great kicker. He is a great player. He is a great competitor. And when we needed it most, he got it done. So Jason Myers came through for us in a big way.
I thought Mikey really punted the ball well today, really effectively. An array that of punts that he gave up too, which was great.
I mean, I can go on and on because I'm so fired up about these guys and getting this game. Really there's a little party coming up here as soon as you guys let us go, and we're going to go cheer for Detroit. Whoever thought we would be doing that, but we'll be cheering for those Lions up in Green Bay and see if they can get a great win.
The odds are really in their favor if you look at it my way. I know they haven't won there in a long time, but think of it. It's got to happen sometime, right? This may be that time.
Q. The play Quandre made in overtime, it looks like he is wide open, and then --
PETE CARROLL: And the ball hung forever. He timed it up perfectly to get it on the sidelines over there. He is sump a great ball hawk that of course he is going to make that play if you give him a chance.
But for him to make it, he is a hero around here. These guys love him. He is a great leader, and they've got nicknames for him and all kinds of stuff, and he is tough as nails. When he speaks, everybody shuts up, and then to come through and make a play like that, it's just beautiful and fitting and really happy for him.
Q. What's this feeling like? When you get this dramatic win, and now you are powerless.
PETE CARROLL: I'm going for it. I'm going with it. The last thing we want to do is go, oh, what's going to happen now? We're not going to do that. Parties are going to start, and we're going to get going, and the party may end with a great win. Until it isn't, that's kind of how we're going about it.
Q. Are you staying together as a team? Everybody is going on their own?
PETE CARROLL: No, everyone is going on their own, and then we're going to communicate.
Q. Playoffs are not nine wins out of this team.
PETE CARROLL: 9-8. That ain't the way I'm looking at it. I'm glad that we have a winning record and that we gave ourselves a chance here, but that's not where my expectations are. They never are. I'm nowhere near that.
I'm frustrated by this season. Where you all thought that we did a lot of cool things and all that, I don't feel like that. I feel like we missed our chance. We had five, six games there could have won easily one way or the other, and we wouldn't be sitting here talking about what's going on in Detroit right now.
So, you know, that's my torment. I have to live with that. You don't have to live with that.
Q. Assess Geno's day. Obviously he had a couple of --
PETE CARROLL: You know, I thought he got the game in order enough to win a football game for us today. He threw some great passes. The second pick he was getting hammered, and I think he kind of chucked it.
The first one was a great play by their guy. Jalen Ramsey made a great play. That's a timing route that guys don't make that interception, you know? He is a great player, and he made a great play.
I'm not sure the ball -- if the ball was exactly right. It might have been a little behind him, but still, it was a fantastic play. So forget those two right now, okay?
We are going to evaluate him. He ran really well. He did it again. He got all over the field and did stuff when we needed him. Crunch time, took us down the feel again a couple of times, and we just failed in the red zone today. That was really the story of this game.
It could have been a three-touchdown game easily, and we just didn't knock them in.
Q. 1,000 yards for Ken. That was his third straight 100-yard game. To be able to have him step up after (inaudible) goes down, how big has he been?
PETE CARROLL: He is good, man. I'm impressed with him. The plays that he makes and the bursts that he has and the creativity and how tough he is. There's not a tougher run than the one he ran to convert I think it was fourth down. You can't run any harder than that.
We have a tough guy. We have a guy that loves to play. He doesn't even flinch. He doesn't even flinch. He is going back out again. He isn't worried about nothing.
I love to compete with him, and he is really talented. Play he made on the a catch on the perimeter, beautiful play too.
Q. What's Geno Smith's play this season make you feel about quarterback for next season?
PETE CARROLL: Say that again, Greg.
Q. What has Geno Smith's play for this season make you feel towards your quarterback position?
PETE CARROLL: Well, we have work to do, but our system is really good. The system is really good. What we're asking these guys to do, for him to come in as a first-year starter and five years or whatever it is to execute like he has done all year long. I think 69.8 completion percentage for the season and all the touchdowns and all the plays he has made and the -- I think our quarterback position is great, but we have to -- he is going to be a free agent, so we have work to do.
We never got a chance to see Drew, but I've seen a lot of him, and I like what he does too. I think our quarterback situation, if we can get him signed, is a great situation going forward. We know what we got.
Q. Have you talked to Bobby Wagner at all?
PETE CARROLL: In pregame. I didn't get to see him after. I tried to find him. I couldn't find him out there.
I'm saw him in pregame, and we had some fun kind of punching at each other. I thought he played really good again. He had some terrific plays today. You know, bring out the best in him.
Q. Crowd chanting his name.
PETE CARROLL: I did hear that. I love that. Like I said, they'll express what they feel, and it will be the right thing, and they did that.
I think once they did that, then some people booed. Okay, that's enough, and then let's get back after him. He is on the other team. But I think it was really fitting and apropos and all that.
Q. How do you build on the successes of this year for next season overall?
PETE CARROLL: We're going to take the culture that we have created on this team with us. I mean, I've been around a bunch of teams, and this is exactly the mentality that we need moving forward to do some great stuff. This is a championship team, and so we'll get opportunities to add to it and all of that, but the heart, togetherness, the willingness to work. We make our own attitude. We create our own attitude. Attitude is everything. Well, we got that.
So we just need to get a little more experienced and help ourselves grow, as naturally will happen, and be a better executing team in all situations. You know, we're in a pretty good place right now.
Q. They seem to find traction with their run game and their bootleg action in the second early third quarter.
PETE CARROLL: Yeah, boots got going a little bit. We covered them really well early, and then some extended plays really came open. We weren't concerned about him running. We didn't worry about that. We wanted to cover him up. When we lost our coverage down field a little bit late, they became effective.
You know, they had the one bounce out at short yardage, and they had the two little counter with receiver that were good plays. Other than that, you know, they threw for 140. We would like to hold those big plays out of it, and they would rush for 100, you know.
I like the way we played the line of scrimmage. I thought we played really well. There's a few plays that got us, the two perimeter plays, again, and the bounce-out.
We've made a lot of improvement, and our guys, they're tuned into what it takes, and we're just going to keep getting better.
Q. The drive after the running game into Dixon, you guys get down inside the 10 there. Can you walk us through the play-calling and what you were looking for, what they were doing and being held out there?
PETE CARROLL: I can't walk you through it other than to say we were going for it. We were going for it.
We had some thoughts, and we thought we could run it a little bit. We thought we could hammer it in there. I thought there was a good attitude about that. We didn't quite function as well as we needed to.
And I mean, the game could have been an easy game had we walked down there and got that one a couple of times earlier. But I'll just tell you that we weren't -- we did not want to settle to tie the game up. Then we lost yards on the third down play. Then, okay, if it was fourth and inches or one or whatever, we were going. No doubt, we were going. That had been decided. That was the thinking all the way through that.
Q. What happened to Tariq Woolen when he went out for a few plays?
PETE CARROLL: He turned his ankle a little bit.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports