Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll took plenty of the blame for the team blowing a double-digit lead against the Chicago Bears but was also critical of Russell Wilson during his postgame press conference. The Seahawks quarterback took a sack on third down prior to Jason Myers missing a 39-yard field goal, which could have put Seattle up by ten points with 7:18 remaining in the game.
“That’s a situation right there that did give them a chance to shift it and the momentum of it,” Carroll told reporters. “In that situation, that third down in field goal range to go up by 10, we gotta get rid of the football. We can’t take [a] sack there, and we gotta look at what happened on that play again.
“But that’s what I’m talking about, and I got to get that done. I got to get him [Wilson] to execute that way. I got to get Russ to pull that off. I got to get the coaches to make sure we reminded him well enough so that that didn’t happen. That’s [when] you sail it out of the endzone right there, kick the field goal. I don’t know what yard line we’re on but yeah. I mean, so as short as you can get on a field goal so that’s as makable as it can be.
“Now, we got to hit the field goal too, but that’s part of the thinking and the mentality that we practiced that stuff all the time and we just didn’t do it. And that was a clear situation where we gave them an opportunity to get some momentum from us.”
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Wilson Believed It Was Worth the Risk to Try to Throw a TD
Wilson was sacked on third and five as the Seahawks quarterback spun back in what resulted in a 12-yard loss on the play. Prior to the sack, Myers would have been attempting a 27-yard field goal.
Wilson’s comments about the play revealed that the quarterback saw the strategy in that situation differently than Carroll. The Seahawks quarterback emphasized that even by risking a sack he knew the team was firmly in field goal range.
“In that situation, the ball was down [in] the red zone, ball’s on the eight-yard line or so,” Wilson noted during his postgame media session. “I’ve been moving well for the most part for most of the day, so once it wasn’t there, you know, we’ve had so many scramble opportunities. I was looking for Tyler [Lockett], trying to see if he could move around and just try to get away and knowing that, ‘Okay, we’ll still be, no matter what, we’re going to be near field goal range. Obviously, we’re inside of it now.’
“And so, I think that the risk-reward, trying to score [a] touchdown, we’ve done it so many times. We’ve hit Tyler and other guys and unfortunately we weren’t able to make that play. And then obviously the situation happens where we don’t end up making it. But I was trying to play ball like I know how to do and always do and try to move around and just try to see if we can find a touchdown there, especially down in the redzone that close. It’s one of those things that if I can run it in there. If I can slide into the left, slide to the right, boom some guy [is] open [its a] touchdown. So, that was that situation.”
Carroll: ‘I Have to Do More’
Carroll also took a good portion of the blame for the Seahawks’ collapse but his criticism of Wilson amid a short field goal miss is noteworthy. The Seattle Times’ Bob Condotta described Carroll’s comments on Wilson as “blunt.”
“Pete Carroll blunt on the sack Wilson took before Myers missed field goal says ‘we’ve got to get rid of the ball there,'” Condotta tweeted. “Still, as he noted, it was just a 39-yard kick and should have been made. Says has no update explanation for Myers’ issues this season.”
Carroll was also critical of himself admitting he “has to do more” to help the team avoid this type of a collapse. The Seahawks coach started his postgame session pointing the finger at himself before later critiquing Wilson along with some of the other players.
“I feel like I have to do more, I have to,” Carroll said. “I feel in a time like this, I feel like I got to find ways to help our guys more so that we don’t get in the situation where we can give them a chance. And that’s what I’m doing, I’m going to try to figure out how I can help and get us cleaner right down the stretch and win the football game and not give something up and the penalty that we get and all that kind of stuff. [We] got things that we can do better. We gotta do better and I’m asking them to do the same thing.”
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Pete Carroll Calls out Russell Wilson After Seahawks’ Collapse