Salk: Seahawks have work to do to clean up messy start to season

I spent much of Tuesday trying to figure out if I felt better about the Seahawks’ 24-17 loss to the Bears after we talked to Pete Carroll on Brock and Salk. I almost always do. He has a way of explaining the game that makes everything seem reasonable. I am not feeling as much of that right now.

Brock & Salk: Carroll honest, accountable after Seahawks’ loss

Some of it makes sense.

It sounds like they ran into a few plays where the defense was just perfect for what they had called, like when you try to run a play in Tecmo and your opponent has called the same play. OK, that happens – although I would think that is something the best play-callers don’t allow and the best quarterbacks anticipate and change out of before the snap.

Some of it does not.

I don’t fully understand how Chris Carson disappeared. I get that Pete is taking responsibility for that and I commend him. That is what great coaches do. But something had to happen on the sidelines or in the game. Something serious enough for Pete to bench him but not serious enough to let the public know. Whatever it is, I hope they can get past it because he is their best runner.

I also don’t fully understand what happened in the third quarter. Pete said he got in offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer’s ear and saw a few pass plays that he thought would work. OK, I can buy that a little. But six straight plays? I can understand one or maybe two, but it’s hard for me to imagine Pete dictating that many and even harder for me to imagine it was Pete demanding six straight pass plays.

Right now these are just isolated incidents, and they may very well be part of the getting-to-know-you process between Pete, Schottenheimer and Russell Wilson. They may be forgotten about if Seattle wins against Dallas and Arizona over the next two weeks. But they make the sideline and locker room seem a little messier than we are accustomed to seeing. Pete’s challenge is to make sure messy becomes clean and doesn’t devolve into chaos.

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