Carroll: How Geno, Waldron had Seahawks’ offense ‘ripping’ vs Lions

While there wasn’t a whole lot to write home about the Seahawks’ defense in their 48-45 Week 4 win over the Detroit Lions, the offense was a whole other story.

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Seattle didn’t punt a single time on Sunday and scored 41 points on offense, more than that unit had scored total in Weeks 1-3.

“We started fast on offense. We were ripping, scored the first four times and just really were executing well,” head coach Pete Carroll said during Monday’s Pete Carroll Show on Seattle Sports 710 AM. ” … All in all, it was a really good ballgame and we saw terrific play by the offense.”

An area where the Seahawks especially thrived was on third down, converting 9 of 12 opportunities. That’s notable as Seattle has been near the bottom in third-down conversion rate the last two seasons.

“You hear me talking about third downs now. We were at 75%. That’s big time,” Carroll said. “That puts us way up on top of the league, and it’s a place we always hoped to be. But our execution is working out and the protection is working out and the receivers are really coming through in great fashion.”

The man of the hour was quarterback Geno Smith, who had 371 total yards and three touchdowns in his best game of the year, which came after he played well in a Week 3 loss.

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“Geno’s doing a great job,” Carroll said. “He’s doing a great job of utilizing the plays that are in the plan, whether they’re the short-yardage runs or the short-yardage passes or just hitting them. And also we stayed out of the third-and-longs for the most part. He’s the one that’s got to make it happen. He’s got to make the call, the protections, he’s got to get the reads right, he’s got to deliver the football and of course everybody has to come through.”

Carroll said his quarterback has developed great chemistry with star receivers DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, but his work with Seattle’s top three tight ends also stands out.

“I really love these guys,” Carroll said.

Will Dissly, Noah Fant and Colby Parkinson all were involved in the passing game Sunday, with Dissly and Fant each catching a touchdown. Smith has thrown just two incompletions when targeting tight ends in 2022.

“They have the ability to do a lot of different things running the routes and getting free and off their blocks and off the play-actions and stuff. It’s just a really nice part of our game now,” Carroll said. “It’s maybe a little frustrating to those guys because nobody can get the ball all the time, but they’re sharing the wealth and they’re doing a great job and Noah’s doing his part in a big way and he’s going to have some huge plays. Colby we continue to see and Diss just keeps pounding away at it. So it’s a really good position grouping for us and we’re gonna continue to make that work.”

Carroll thinks offensive coordinator Shane Waldron deserves a lot of credit, as well. After Week 2, Carroll said they needed to stop restricting Smith and being so conservative. He thinks Waldron has thrived since then.

“That’s given him the opportunity to really dig into all of the cool stuff that we can do. We don’t have any hesitation. We’re not reluctant to call any play, any pass, any action and he’s really freewheeling now,” Carroll said. “And they’ve got guys to go to. We have a whole array of guys we can use … And that just makes us really multiple. Shane’s got a great creative mind and this is now to the point where we can be the most open we’ve been in the time I can remember.”

Listen to this week’s Pete Carroll Show at this link or in the player below.

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