Heaps: One play shows disconnect between Seahawks’ Russell Wilson, Pete Carroll

The Seahawks suffered their worst loss of a tough 2021 season by blowing a 10-point fourth quarter lead to the lowly Chicago Bears on Sunday, and after the 25-24 defeat, it was clear that head coach Pete Carroll and quarterback Russell Wilson weren’t on the same page in one of the game’s key moments.

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Former NFL quarterback Jake Heaps described the clear “disconnect” between the two sides during Monday’s edition of Jake and Stacy on 710 ESPN Seattle.

“The disconnect to me is the conversation at the end of the game in terms of the third-and-four (play and) Russell Wilson taking a sack,” Heaps said. “And there are two different minds here.”

Before looking at what those two minds are, let’s first look at the play itself.

With the Seahawks leading 24-17 with just over 8 minutes left in the ballgame, Seattle had the ball at the Bears’ 8-yard line facing third-and-4. A field goal would have made it a two-score game while a touchdown likely would have sealed the victory for Seattle.

Wilson faced pressure on what Carroll described Monday morning as a quick passing play and a three-step drop, and he tried to keep the play alive by spinning to his left. Chicago’s Robert Quinn was there, though, to record his 17th sack of the year by dropping Wilson for a loss of 13.

Robert Quinn with his 17th sack of the season! #DaBears

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That pushed kicker Jason Myers’ field goal attempt in snowy conditions back from 26 yards to 39 yards, and he pulled the kick, giving Chicago the ball. The Seahawks wouldn’t score again while the Bears scored a last-minute touchdown and converted a successful 2-point conversion attempt to get a comeback victory.

After the game, Wilson and Carroll had differing views on how the play went.

“Pete Carroll says, ‘Hey, Russell Wilson should have thrown it away there,'” Heaps said. “Russell Wilson comes to the podium and says, ‘Look, in those situations, I have years of where I’ve been able to extend plays in that situation and have been able to come up with big plays. It’s the way that I have played and I took a calculated risk knowing that we’re on the 8-yard line and if I take a sack, then we’re still in field goal range, firmly in field goal range.'” So with those two minds, I think it shows the disconnect between the two styles of play.”

Heaps said both sides were at fault for how the play unfolded and the ultimate end result.

“If Pete Carroll doesn’t want to be in that situation, knowing that that’s how his quarterback plays and thinks, then there’s got to be communication there,” he said. “And I think that’s the part to me where I’m not taking onus off of Russell Wilson. If that’s the style in which you’re going to play and you’re going to try to extend the play, you’ve got to make it work. It’s an ‘attaboy’ moment, and you have to make it work. And when it doesn’t work, it does fall on you.”

Listen to the full discussion between Heaps and his co-host Stacy Rost in the podcast from the second hour of Monday’s Jake and Stacy at this link or in the player below.

Rost: Seahawks find uncertainty after decade of success

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