The Pete Carroll Show: Best is yet to come for Seahawks’ Russell Wilson

Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson put a finishing touch on the best season of his career Sunday against Arizona, throwing three more touchdown passes and no interceptions in Seattle’s 36-6 win.

That added to his list of milestones and records. To name a few:

• Wilson finished the season with 34 touchdown passes (with only eight interceptions) and 4,024 passing yards, which established new career highs and also broke the previous franchise marks.

• Wilson also set career highs with a 68.1 percent completion rate and a league-best 110.1 passer rating.

• He became the first quarterback in NFL history to finish a season with at least 4,000 passing yards, 30 touchdown passes and 500 rushing yards.

As well as Wilson has played, coach Pete Carroll believes the best is yet to come.

“Russell had a great season, and he’ll play better. I think he’ll continue to get better,” Carroll told “Brock and Salk” on Monday. “I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t. There’s too many areas, and he knows and he’s going to keep pushing to figure it out. This is just a stage of his career.”

Carroll actually needed to be reminded that this is only Wilson’s fourth NFL season, not his fifth.

“OK, he’s only 4 years old. He ain’t even in kindergarten yet,” Carroll said. “So we’re just getting going. It’s a marvelous thing to watch.”

Here are some additional highlights from “The Pete Carroll Show” on 710 ESPN Seattle:

Defensive performance wasn’t a surprise. The Seahawks had their way with one of the league’s best offenses, holding Arizona to six points and 232 total yards while also intercepting three passes. Asked if he had any sense that Seattle’s defense could be that good Sunday, Carroll said the team noticed on film some obvious – and presumably easily correctable – mistakes from the earlier meeting between the two teams. The Cardinals passed for 334 yards and burned Seattle with several big passing plays, including touchdowns of 27 and 35 yards, in their 39-32 win back in November. Carroll: “In the process of getting ready for these guys this time, we saw a lot of stuff that we could have done better, that were fundamental principles that for one reason or another that you don’t quite execute. So we saw the opportunity to do those things right, and then let’s see what happens.”

Scoring mark a team effort. The Seahawks became the first team since the Browns in the 1950s to allow the fewest points in the NFL for a fourth straight season. Seattle’s 277 points against (17.3 average) just edged out Cincinnati’s total of 279. Carroll: “That’s a really impressive stat because it isn’t only defense; it’s the whole group. Not turning the football over, the way the offense plays, running the ball, the way Jon Ryan punts the football and kicks them inside the 20-yard line so consistently – all of that stuff. It takes all of that to turn around a factor like that. What’s really cool about it is that’s a long time. That’s a lot of players and a lot of coaches, a lot of stuff going on in all phases of our game to show that kind of consistency. So it’s something we take a lot of pride in.”

Couldn’t watch Vikings-Packers game. The Seahawks were planning on watching NBC’s Sunday night broadcast of the Minnesota-Green Bay game during their flight back from Arizona, knowing the outcome would determine Seattle’s first postseason opponent. For whatever reason, though, it wasn’t available on their Delta charter. “The channel did not come. None of us saw any of it. Isn’t that terrible?” Carroll said. “Only whatever it was, NBC or something, didn’t come through on the flight, so we didn’t get it. We just had to have a good time.”

Looking ahead to Minnesota. Asked about facing Minnesota for the second time this season, Carroll noted how the Vikings didn’t run the ball much as expected during Seattle’s 38-7 win on Dec. 6. Minnesota, one of the league’s top rushing teams, finished with only 16 attempts. NFL rushing leader Adrian Peterson carried eight times. “It all starts there, as far as this game goes,” Carroll said of stopping Peterson and Minnesota’s running game in the rematch. “And then we’ve got to find our ways to move it. They’ll be healthier, I’m sure, than they were then, so they’ll be all loaded up. So we’re just going to go play football. We’re going to do what we do and see if we can play the way we’re capable of playing and not worry about what they’re going to do.”