Pete Carroll reflects on Seahawks’ mistakes in loss to Chargers

Less than 24 hours after the Seahawks’ 25-17 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, 710 ESPN Seattle’s Brock Huard and Mike Salk caught up with head coach Pete Carroll at the team’s headquarters in Renton.

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What were the mistakes made by the Seahawks Sunday? What did Carroll make of Russell Wilson’s performance? How serious are the injuries to safety Bradley McDougald and running back Chris Carson?

Huard and Salk asked those questions and more in Monday morning’s interview. You can listen to the full interview in the audio clip embedded above or on the Brock and Salk podcast page here.

Here are a few excerpts:

What kind of shortcomings did you see when you reviewed the tape? “We made mistakes on plays and they were on it, they took advantage of it. In the running game they hit four runs that were really substantial. We made errors on fitting them up, and that hasn’t been happening. (Chargers running back Melvin Gordon) was really on it. You could see he had the fresh legs and he took advantage of his (opportunities) and made some big plays out of them… And sometimes you try a little bit too hard to make a play that isn’t there, and we mis-fit some stuff. That was part of it. I think on the other side of the ball (there were) a couple big penalties that were not necessary. Hitting piles, you know. Our guys were giving great effort and they were trying to be tough. That’s the old days, they don’t let you do that anymore. And we know that, but we were going for it and we made some mistakes there. And then we took a couple sacks we didn’t need to take. (Russell Wilson) needed to get the ball out and he was trying to get something done and we just need to get rid of the football. They wound up being really difficult situations for us.”

Despite those mistakes, you guys were in it in the final minute with a chance to tie. You have to imagine that last pass (to David Moore) is going to be caught: “Yeah, and David would’ve caught the ball. That ball got tipped just two yards in front of him and moves two inches and it makes a total difference on the catch. He has such great hands, I totally believe he would’ve caught the ball if it was through clean. It was good sight by Russ to get the ball to him and all that, (and) a great play by their guy to get a finger on it, and that’s all he got on it. Let’s go back: to come back in this team by the defense playing really well in the second half (and allowing) no points, and to get back down the field twice at the end of it, this team is a fighting team. They’re a great competitive team and we had every chance to be right there to go into (overtime).”

How do we asses the game that Wilson played? “Well, he played a perfect game the week before and this was not that. And there’s always opportunities and plays that the QB can make. I think our expectations for him to play perfect is always too much, but yeah he can. But if you talk to him he’s going to say the same thing (about his performance). Not finding (Jaron Brown) on the deep cross — he saw him, he had time, he stepped up and just misjudged the throw. That’s a big play in that game, and there’s a couple other ones. That’s the life of the quarterback. He’s in the middle of that whole issue, but he’s as good as you can get at being in the middle of it and he’ll come right back out of it.”

Can he be a volume passer? “Of course he can. You’ve been watching him for seven years, of course he can. This game, it just didn’t show up just where we needed it. There’s a couple plays in there. Remember that he took us right down the field and gave us a chance to win a football game.”

How much did the game change without Chris Carson? “You could feel a little bit different. I think Mike (Davis) did a really nice job. I think Mike played real well and did good stuff. But we’re growing accustomed to Chris’ style and the way he hits it and the way he pulls out of tackles and stuff. And he looked really good early, but we just weren’t able to play him a lot and it caught up with us at halftime. But he’s been a factor, I don’t want to take anything away. He’s a factor and he’s a little bit of a difference-maker and we miss not having him.”

Is Rashaad Penny feeling hesitant as a rookie or is he battling through something? “I think he’s a little tentative. I think he’s just still feeling his way and hasn’t played enough football yet with us (and) hasn’t got enough reps to really get in the flow of it. He’s been spot-played, you know, and it’s not something he’s been used to. I just think he needs more turns and he’s going to be OK. Because we’ve seen all of the good stuff he has and we’re looking forward to it coming to life.”

What injury updates can you give us? “We don’t know the reports on Chris (Carson) yet. He had a (hip injury) we’d been working with all week long. After halftime it just couldn’t get stretched out and couldn’t get loose again, which is kind of typical for what happens sometimes. And that kind of happened to Bradley McDougald as well with his knee once he got going, and shut down at halftime, had to come back and couldn’t get loose again.”

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