The Pete Carroll Show: Seahawks’ offense wasn’t playing it safe late

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll joined “Brock and Salk” on Monday to review Seattle’s 27-24 overtime loss to Cincinnati. The audio of that conversation can be found here. Below are some highlights.

Thin line between wins, losses. Last week’s game against Detroit showed how thin the line can be between finishing and not finishing – in that case, about a foot – and in turn between winning and losing. Sunday’s game was another example of that as the Bengals kicked a game-tying field goal to force overtime as the clock expired in regulation. Carroll noted how many things the Seahawks could have done differently to not leave themselves in that situation: “Is there a play in there somewhere – we convert a first down, we stop them one more time, we keep them a little bit farther away, we don’t commit a penalty – whatever those things are that makes a difference. So it’s that slight of a difference in a game with two really good teams that were playing really good.”

Offense wasn’t playing it safe. Seattle’s offense gained just three first downs and never so much as crossed midfield after a defensive touchdown in the third quarter gave the Seahawks a 24-7 lead. Carroll said that contrary to what may be assumed, the Seahawks weren’t playing it safe by running the ball and trying to milk the clock even when the situation may have dictated throwing. “We were not sitting on the football. We weren’t trying to just run clock,” he said. “We were just trying to play good, smart football and we had run the ball well, so we had good confidence that we would be able to do that. And usually what we hope to do is run the ball really effectively in the fourth quarter and we were looking towards that, because we had a lead and all. But we weren’t curling up and being safe. That’s not what happened at all. We just missed converting a couple.” The Seahawks passed on all seven of the third-down situations they faced over their final six possessions but only converted one of them.

Bennett’s personal foul. Carroll said he had yet to speak with defensive lineman Michael Bennett about the unnecessary-roughness penalty he committed against Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton, which cost Seattle 51 yards of field position following a second-quarter interception return. Instead of taking over at Cincinnati’s 31-yard line with 54 seconds left, Bennett’s penalty pushed the Seahawks all the way back to their own 18. The Seahawks drove 76 yards and kicked a field goal as time expired in the first half, but Carroll noted that they would have been in position to potentially score a touchdown had it not been for Bennett’s penalty. Carroll noted that defensive players were once taught to go after quarterbacks following interceptions the way Bennett went after Dalton, calling that an “old-school principle” that has since been legislated out of the game. Carroll: “That’s the way you used to do it. That’s not the way the game is anymore so what you saw is kind of a throwback approach, which we don’t advocate at all. It was bad. He was fortunate he only got one penalty by the way it looked. Mike went after it. We have to learn from that. It was a 50-yard penalty. We’re so good in that situation we went down and we get points anyway. Might have had a chance to get a touchdown there, I don’t know. But we did score, fortunately, and didn’t have to take all of that. That’s just a poor moment. Michael’s a fired-up, ferocious, competitive player and at that time he just made some poor decisions.” Carroll said that aside from that penalty, Bennett played “a very good game” and noted how his forced fumble created a defensive touchdown.

Updates on Lynch, others. Carroll said this when asked about the status of running back Marshawn Lynch, who has missed the last two games and most of a third with a hamstring injury. “We think if everything went OK through the weekend he should be ready to get back to running and all that. He was very close last week. This should be that chance.” Carroll said the quad strain that knocked defensive tackle Jordan Hill out of Sunday’s game will sideline him “for a little bit” and that the team doesn’t know about the timeline for middle linebacker Bobby Wagner, who strained his pectoral Sunday but only missed two plays.

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