Harvin’s impact not lost on Carroll, Seahawks’ upcoming opponents

With three touchdowns – yes, three of them – nullified by penalties, Seattle’s Percy Harvin finished with a seemingly unimpressive 34 yards on six touches against Washington.

But as is often the case with Harvin, he impacted Seattle’s win much more than the box score would suggest, a reality that coach Pete Carroll noted when he joined “Brock and Salk” on 710 ESPN Seattle on Tuesday.

“Man, what a great game he played. He played a fantastic football game,” Carroll said. “He just didn’t get the numbers to show it, but everybody saw. You could see what an enormous impact he had on the game, and most obvious was in the kicking game.”

Perhaps especially wary given their special-teams issues this season, the Redskins didn’t kick to Harvin and instead opted for shorter kickoffs that a few times gave Seattle good field position.

According to Carroll, the fear factor that comes with defending Harvin also created opportunities for Russell Wilson, who often found himself with wide-open running lanes while rushing for a career-high 122 yards on 11 carries.

“The reason that the quarterback is having those available shots is because of Marshawn (Lynch) and because of Percy,” Carroll said.

Harvin saw two touchdowns wiped out by penalties on consecutive plays in the second quarter, the first of which was a 16-yard run that was called back for holding on left guard James Carpenter and then a 26-yard screen pass on which officials flagged Harvin for a false start. His 41-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter was nullified by an unnecessary-roughness penalty on Carpenter.

Carroll called it a “freaky” occurrence for one player to have three touchdowns negated by penalties.

“I can’t believe that that happened,” Carroll said. It’s just unfortunate for him.”

The good news? While Harvin’s touchdowns didn’t count, Carroll believes they will continue to make opponents “scared to death of what we can do with him, which is good, we need all that threat.”