Pete Carroll: Seahawks CB Shaquill Griffin’s DPI play was ‘perfectly executed,’ but loss still on us

The Seahawks fell to 8-6 on the season with their 26-23 loss to the San Francisco 49ers Sunday. The story of the game for most fans were the flags: Seattle was penalized 14 times for a franchise-high 148 yards. But for head coach Pete Carroll, this loss falls on the shoulders of the Seahawks, not the refs.

O’Neil: Seahawks did enough to beat themselves, but officials lent a hand

“The opportunity was sitting there for us to go get it, and unfortunately and kind of uncharacteristically… we got bit by the penalty thing and it kind of kicked our butt, man,” Carroll said during a Monday morning interview with Brock Huard and Mike Salk on 710 ESPN Seattle.

“It kind of went across the board, too. It happened in a number of areas. There’s no reason griping about the officials or anything like that, you could see stuff on most of the calls. There’s a couple that you always question. But that was the issue. The big plays that we had, getting behind the sticks because of the penalties, not being able to overcome it. I don’t think it was that different a game than it was the last time we played them, really. The kickoff (touchdown) made a difference. The defense kind of held them to one touchdown and a few field goals, and it should’ve been enough to win the football game but it wasn’t in this case.”

There was at least one penalty Carroll took issue with, however.

In one of the game’s more consequential calls, Seahawks cornerback Shaquill Griffin was penalized for defensive pass interference, which moved the 49ers to just outside field goal range in overtime. Carroll said he saw nothing wrong with Griffin’s play.

“I did look at the TV copy to just try to see if there was something there,” Carroll said. “The key there is that the official understands what it is when a guy controls a guy. (Griffin’s) right hand was kind of placed along the guy’s right hip and as he goes to play the ball his hand comes totally off behind and he makes a fantastic play at knocking the ball down. You have to look to see: was the receiver moved by that hand? You can touch a guy, you just can’t control the guy. I didn’t see it at all. I thought it was a fantastic play. Perfectly executed and all that. The one thing that does happen sometimes that you miss is if you see a jersey pinch at all, they can call a penalty. Which, I don’t get that. I don’t like that because I think it doesn’t affect the game. It’s easy for the official to see, though. And so that’s kind of where that came about. Maybe that’s in there early and then, but that should’ve been holding… that’s a different penalty.”

You can listen to Carroll’s full interview with Huard and Salk in the audio clip embedded above. Here are a few highlights:

On the penalties: “What I usually go to is we feel like we tried too much. We tried too hard. We tried to do something more than we need to do, and that’s because guys want to win. We played really hard and played really tough and did all the things we’re supposed to do in that regard. But when you reach a little bit too much and you grab a little bit more than you should, or you get fired up enough where you take a shot at somebody and you give up a 15-yarder for that. Those kinds of things, that’s maybe when when we’re too hyped and we’re maybe over-jacked for the game a bit, and it showed up in some areas we didn’t need to.”

What did you see from Jarran Reed Sunday? “He had a fantastic game. He’s tough as nails, man. His pass rush, he really took advantage of a great game on one of the sacks, and then he had a great one-on-one pass rush on the other sack. But he’s just been a force. He’s been really good.”

Where is that coming from? He initially seemed like a great run-stuffer, but he seems to have exploded into a total package this year: “There’s a couple factors. I think his offseason was the best he’s ever had. He really kind of re-shaped his body, the work that he did really carried over… I don’t think he thought of himself as a pass-rusher. He would not say that, probably, but I don’t think he thought of himself in the way he approached the game. He was a tough, run-defending technique guy and always showed great instincts. I think what’s happened is his great instincts for the game have come out in his pass rush as well. Pass rush is so much that — it’s counterpunching. You go at a guy and then he does something, and then you have to react to it and respond. So it’s punch, counterpunch. And he has become much more effective and efficient at the movements that he’s got, and he’s just tough as nails.”

On the injuries to safety Bradley McDougald and right guard Jordan Simmons: “(Bradley McDougald) has a sore knee that’s been bothering him for a long time, and sometimes it acts up in colder weather and on a slippery turf. He didn’t even get hit, it just flared up when he planted it on the ground. It’s a patellar tendon thing. Those just bother you. So I can’t tell you what the prognosis is there. We don’t know enough yet (about Jordan Simmons). He had a first-degree sprain. We’ll see what happens. It all depends on how he bounces back.”

Could you get starting right guard D.J. Fluker back this week? “Possibly, yeah. Possibly. We would like to see that happen of course. We’ll see where we are.”

How about linebacker K.J. Wright, does he have a chance to return? “He’s gonna practice this week, so we’ll see how he does. He looked fine last week in the amount of work that we gave him. He has in mind that he thinks he has a chance to play this week, so we’ll give him a shot and see where he goes. That would be a much-needed return.”

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