Pete Carroll takes credit for Seahawks’ penalty issues vs Washington

How do you know penalties are a problem?

When even Pete Carroll is exasperated.

“I’ve got to keep these guys from making penalties,” Carroll said after Sunday’s loss. “I’ve got to get it done.”

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The Seahawks were penalized 16 times on Sunday against Washington, the second-most in franchise history and most of any game in Carroll’s eight seasons as head coach. Not only that, but it comes two weeks after Seattle was penalized 15 times in last month’s game at the New York Giants.

“We’ve been on the topic,” Carroll said, “and obviously we’re not doing the right stuff to get that done.”

The Seahawks have never been confused with being the cleanest team in the league. Seattle has been among the 10 most-penalized teams in the league in each of the previous six seasons, and as bad as that’s been, the Seahawks led the league in penalties in 2013 and 2014. But that didn’t stop Seattle from making back-to-back Super Bowl appearances.

“This has never felt like it’s such a big problem,” Carroll said. “It has always been some issue. But I’m anxious to go get this thing fixed and get us turned so that we can just go play against the other team instead of ourselves.”

Of the 16 penalties called against Seattle, 10 were against the offense and four of those were pre-snap penalties against the offense. Each of Seattle’s five offensive linemen was penalized at least once in the game.

“I’m just really disappointed because we’ve been addressing it, and we haven’t cleaned it up,” Carroll said. “That really bugs me.”

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