Seahawks - 20, Cardinals - 10
COACH CARROLL: Really solid win for us to get this done coming back home for a second -- we haven't been here a while. We were trying to put together some consistency playing here. And where the consistency showed up was with our defense.
They did a fantastic job again today to go back out at halftime, after halftime and shut them down and not give anything up and just play really good football.
To answer the bell, we had three horrible turnovers in this game. It's so hard to win it, minus-3 in a game. So the game stays close because of that but the defensive guys did a great job going out answering the bell. I think they got three points out of the three turnovers. That's huge.
It's a big source of pride to us that we do that well. And we have been doing it well during the season already and we just did it again. I'm really fired about that.
The pass rush was alive again today. A lot of opportunities for us to go get it. And I was really fired up that we finished it. That's the way we like to finish games here at Lumen, and chasing the quarterback around, getting sacks and ending it like that.
Geno had a really nice solid game, solid game. And numbers were good. Brought the pups to life in this game. It was great to see Jaxon get his first touchdown. He had a number of contributions.
And Bobo, a frickin' circus grab to hold that ball and get it by an eyelash down there and make that touchdown. It was a great play by both Geno and Bobo.
But it's great for us, here we are, coming to the halfway point and having the pups play like that, they can play like starters. And they did. So that's a great accomplishment through the process. That's what we shoot for.
And so really fired up to be able to say that. Those guys can go out there and play and it doesn't matter what's going on or who's in the game or whatever, they'll play like starters.
Kenny had a good day. It was a hard, tough day. Got over 100 yards, I think, that's what I heard. He battled all day long and did a really nice job.
So I think that the guys up front, somebody gave me the number that this is the fifth variation of our offensive line; is that right? Okay, that's challenging. But those guys did well today. And they protected Geno and I don't know what the sack thing happened, but it was a really good job by those guys getting a 100-yard rusher and protecting the quarterback enough so we could play a good football game.
A lot of good stuff. Penalties still were a factor. But today we got better on third downs, both sides. I think we were 7 out of 13 on offense, which is a great improvement. And might have been like 5 for 15, something like that, on defense. We did it last week as well. And that's a big deal for the way we're playing. That's why things are turning a little bit.
Fired up that we're going places and we got out of there pretty healthy other than Uchenna. He has a pec strain and we don't know anything about the extent of it at this point.
Q. Seemed like Brooks was all over the place. He's only nine months from that surgery. Do you ever marvel at what he's doing?
COACH CARROLL: He's never even flinched. He really hasn't. We held him out of some practices in trying not to overload him in preparation for the games early on. But he hasn't even flinched. He's such a fantastic athlete. So strong and explosive and all that. You can't see anything in his game that's off.
This is the best he's been. And he showed that, and he's just cleaned his game up so well, where he's way more consistent than he was.
It wasn't a consistency -- he would go for stuff and maybe not at the right time. His timing now is really much advanced. And so he's just playing better football.
Q. Witherspoon had a couple of huge plays negated by penalties --
COACH CARROLL: Did we know Witherspoon was out there today? The Spoon was out there. Golly. Two great plays, another great hit, three great plays in the game. Unfortunately the penalties take those plays away. But you know he's out there. And really an exciting, young player.
Q. Did Geno's turnovers concern you at all? It's been a couple weeks.
COACH CARROLL: Yeah, and it's something we've been talking about. He got on the sprint, he's outside the pocket and it didn't happen on rhythm, so it went to a late rhythm. And he took a shot, trying to squeeze one in there.
And he knows -- we saw him do that in camp a few times, and it's something that's topical. And he's sick about it. He should have just eaten the football or run with the football right there. That's what the options are. And he tried to squeeze one in.
We went quick on the snap, and we didn't handle it right. Other than that --
Q. You challenged the (indiscernible) interception. Did you know the time, did you get word on time?
COACH CARROLL: I had Nate and Carl screaming in my ear to challenge it right down to the end of it. I saw it too. I couldn't tell. We saw it on the sidelines, saw what they showed on the board.
I was just trying to evaluate whether or not they'd give us a shot to really look at that thing. They gave it great consideration. Right now it's an eyelash between him making it and not making it.
But looked like the right call. That's why we challenged it. We went for it.
Maybe what gets lost is the throw and the catch. Gosh, it was a great throw and great catch under duress and the whole thing. It was a fantastic play.
Q. It's one thing for Lockett to do that, but Bobo at 6'4", 200-plus?
COACH CARROLL: Jake's got all that stuff in him. He's already shown -- we've already seen. He's got the great knack and the sense and awareness and spatial awareness. There's no catch that he can't make. There's nothing he can't do with catching the ball and using his body in that fashion. That's in a short time, six months of watching the guy, I totally trust him.
Q. Looks like he's helping you out as a blocker with the run game?
COACH CARROLL: He continues to, yeah. He's been doing it well. Just continues to make him more valuable for us in so many ways.
Q. You talked about Jaxon getting started. Do you like the next step he took today?
COACH CARROLL: No doubt. He feels so much better and contributing so well. The call was a great call from Shane. And it was so easy, Geno just threw it at him at him on the goal line for the touchdown. But there were other plays that were really good plays for him. Like I said, those guys played like starters.
Q. How close was DK to playing?
COACH CARROLL: He's hurting. He wouldn't -- if he could have played he would have played. Don't for a second -- don't for a second think that he's looking for a way out of this thing. That's not him at all.
He's sick he couldn't play. He tried to stay with it. He's played the last couple of weeks under tremendous duress and played well in those circumstances. This just added up too much, and he couldn't get it done. If he can get back, he'll be back.
Q. We talked about Boye Mafe's improvement. He missed a few plays in the first half, but he was frequently back there disrupting Joshua Dobbs. How much did he key this impressive performance?
COACH CARROLL: He's continuing to be a factor, no doubt. He did jump when he shouldn't have. The guy wasn't even throwing it. He still has stuff to learn.
He had a clean sack opportunity that he kind of went airborne on it. He's got more to learn. But he's a big factor. He's doing a really good.
I thought Darrell had a couple of rushes, did a nice job. The guys are contributing. You can tell. We've got something going on here. I'm really excited about it.
Q. What did you think of Geno's somersault play down on the goal line --
COACH CARROLL: I forgot about that. No kidding. That was a great play. A great play. There was a big play that happened in another game, someone was flipping like that. Geno's was better. Geno's was better. He completed the jump.
Q. Did you challenge that play to see if he was in?
COACH CARROLL: No, we thought we were going to knock it in. I was just glad he got up, to tell you the truth.
Q. (Indiscernible) landed on Walker? (Indiscernible).
COACH CARROLL: It was probably designed that way. We were just lucky. Lucky. Great effort. That shows you who he is and how willing he is to do whatever it takes.
Q. What did you think of the call on Mafe in that whole sequence where they took away the interception, all that?
COACH CARROLL: I don't know. I didn't see it. I don't have any evaluation what happened on the play.
Q. Think it's three straight opponents you've held to under 250 total yards. How much of that is predicated on your run defense and kind of playing off of that?
COACH CARROLL: We played the run really well except we let the quarterback get out on the 25 -- on the first-and-25 play. That's the touchdown we gave up on the day. And we had it -- scheme-wise we should have played the play really well and we didn't.
We're really playing the running game well. Every time we've been out from preseason throughout, that's the commitment from the coaches and the players is getting that done. That's consistency. And that's where it all starts. Remember way back when, it starts there.
This is where we build from. And it's working. Unfortunately they get a bunch of yards today from the quarterback. But the quarterback element is really the hardest factor.
We had a scheme. We just didn't execute it as well as we needed to keep him down, but we're playing well there.
Q. What does it look like as far as Abe Lucas getting back this week?
COACH CARROLL: From what I'm hearing, I can't say, hey, yeah, he's coming back. I don't know that. He's got to surprise us a little bit. It's just taking time for this process to get him right. And we don't want to rush it now that we've gone this long. I don't know until we get to the week.
Q. What about Kenny Macintosh?
COACH CARROLL: He's doing great. He's right on the verge of coming back.
Q. What about Jason Peters?
COACH CARROLL: This should be his week. He should be ready. If we've got a spot for him to play, he's ready to go. It was all but this week, but next week he'll be ready, if he makes it through the week and everything goes well.
I'm looking to see where he can fit in and contribute to us. And depends who is available next week.
Q. Did you get a sense how Olu played at center?
COACH CARROLL: I felt solid. Did mishandle a snap there. But other than that, felt like he was doing all right. He's really a bright kid. And it's just not too big for him.
He's played in a lot of big games in his college career and all that stuff. Not too big for him to do this. He really handles things well. That's a fine job by him.
Evan should have a chance to come back next week; we'll see.
Q. Two-for-two on challenges?
COACH CARROLL: Yeah, good day for challenging. Got a lot of help, though.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports