Pete Carroll: Weather was a factor, but not the only reason Russell Wilson struggled in Seahawks’ loss

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll was as blunt as he will be in his description of the team’s most lopsided defeat in five seasons. Speaking with “Brock and Salk” Monday morning, Carroll said the Seahawks “looked like garbage out there” in losing 38-10 to Green Bay, which marked the first time since 2011 that Seattle lost by more than 10 points.

“Wow. What a mess,” Carroll said. “It’s a classic illustration of the ball and how crucial it is. You’ve got to take care of it, you’ve got to do everything you can to protect it. We haven’t seen a game like that, but it’s the classic example of it. The snowball started rolling and it just got bigger, we couldn’t stop it.”

O’Neil: Seahawks’ loss shows how much they depend on Russell Wilson

Carroll was referring to Seattle’s six turnovers, which included a career-high five interceptions from Russell Wilson and a late fumble by Alex Collins. This wasn’t an all-around clunker of an offensive performance like those Seattle had in Los Angeles in Week 2 and in Tampa Bay two weeks ago. The Seahawks rushed for 136 yards and averaged 5.2 yards per carry Sunday, they converted six of 12 third-down opportunities and actually outgained Green Bay, 354 yards to 330.

Turnovers – especially Wilson’s picks and also how Seattle didn’t take the ball away on defense – were the difference in this game.

Not all of them were Wilson’s fault, at least not entirely. He threw high but still catchable passes that bounced off the hands of Doug Baldwin and Troymaine Pope and right to Green Bay defenders. Jimmy Graham got tripped up on one of them. But Wilson was off throughout Sunday’s game.

He had two overthrows in the first quarter, missing Baldwin and then Graham when each had gotten behind Green Bay’s secondary. He underthrew two of his other two picks, another deep ball to Baldwin near the end of the first half and a throw in the end zone to Jermaine Kearse in the third quarter.

Carroll said the cold weather impacted the way Seattle handled the ball and how it traveled in the air. The official temperature was 26 degrees with a wind chill of 20.

“You could see we misplayed some catches that are really uncommon for us,” Carroll said. “So it looked like there was a little bit of a factor. It looked like we missed some throws – Russ missed some throws that he would normally hit or give us a chance at, but he felt fine. He looked great in pregame. He was ripping the ball in pregame and he came out of it feeling really confident. But when you look at the game, it looked like it factored in on us. It looked it did into factor in on them.”

Wilson finished 22 of 39 for 240 yards, a touchdown and the five interceptions. His passer rating of 43.7 was the third-lowest of his career. His second-lowest was two weeks ago in Tampa Bay at 38.8, which means he’s been uncharacteristically off in two of the last three games. It’s a rare stretch for a quarterback who is often so on point with his accuracy and decision making that one misfire is notable, let alone the handful he had Sunday in Green Bay.

“I don’t know,” Carroll said when asked where Wilson’s accuracy issues on Sunday came from. “Shoot, he doesn’t know either. He prepared great during the week and the ball wasn’t flying as true as it needs to. One of the issues we talked about during the week was how is the ball flying. I’m throwing the ball like it feels like it’s a 40-yard throw; is it getting there? Well, the ball was underthrown a few times, which it doesn’t fly as good in the cold weather and that was a bit of a factor. … However, a couple of them we overthrew, too, so I really couldn’t nail it like it was all like that. So it seemed like there was a factor in there that we were not managing as well, and it didn’t seem like it was an issue until it was. We were in the middle of it and we were having some problems.”

Wilson said after the game that the loss was on him. Carroll, though, again pointed to what he considered to be some extenuating circumstances – the weather and also what he described as a penalty that was not called on safety Morgan Burnett, who picked off the pass intended for Graham.

“He took it to heart. He knew he didn’t do well and he said that right off the bat,” Carroll said when asked how Wilson processed his performance. “It didn’t feel bad, it didn’t feel like he was off, but the result of the game came out that way, and really, there were some mishaps in that game. The Jimmy interception – if you really see it, and Jimmy will tell you – the guy grabbed his hand warmer and kind of catapulted himself by him and he stumbled. It’s a great pay by the guy and he got away with it. It turns into a huge interception in that game with great field position and all the rest.

“There’s one, and then the ball bounces off a screen (to Pope) and the ball bounces off Doug and then the ball down in the end zone (to Kearse). They’re not great throws, but those things just kind of happened and the one that we throw deep down the middle to Doug, yeah, it was underthrown. It was a hard throw going to his left all the way back across. He needed to throw it about 10 yards farther. It looked like it was going to be a touchdown to everybody and the guy makes a great play, but that was an underthrown ball, too. So the ball didn’t fly accordingly, like we thought it would. So it was a screwy deal and we’ve got to move on, get going.”