The Seahawks aren’t accustomed to losing very often, so it’s not that surprising that Pete Carroll described the mood on Monday as being, “quiet and serious.”
“We don’t take these easily,” Carroll said. “There are very high expectations we live with here and everybody knows that. The main thing is everybody took to heart the changes and adjustments and things we can fix. I think we came out of here together on what we felt happened and all of that. That’s what ‘tell the truth Monday’ is all about.”
After having reviewed the film of the loss to the Chargers, Carroll said, “We played a really tough football game, a tough team that was ready, and were up against a team that played really, really good ball. We needed to make some plays when the opportunities were there for us, and we didn’t get that done. It really came down to the third-down situations. San Diego was able to control the football, and they really controlled the game by doing that, and they got a great win.”
Asked how much heat was a factor, Carroll conceded that it was, though as he noted, it can’t be an excuse when both teams are dealing with it.
“There’s nothing you can do about it, so you won’t find me talking about it, what am I going to do?” Carroll said. “It’s hot on their side as well, so there’s nothing you can do but hydrate really well during the week, which we did. We were well ahead of that, we had a lot of guys who were given fluids beforehand and at halftime to deal with it, but when you lose your juice, you lose it, so you have to replace it. I’m sure they had to do the same thing. There’s not much you can do, so you go play the game. It does have an effect somewhat if you’re really fighting to hold onto your juice and your energy, you can make some mistakes, and there was some of that. There were some things that were a little uncharacteristic, but that’s just the way the game is, you’ve just got to go play it.”
On the offense only running 40 plays, Carroll said, “We scored kind of fast when we did. You can’t see the game plan; we weren’t able to execute the plan that we went in with, because we just didn’t have enough chances. With four opportunities in the first half, and before you know it we’re in the 2-minutes situation, we scored so fast on Percy’s run, so we just didn’t have enough chance to develop the plan… We were away from the game plan, although we did OK in that situation. The ball went back to them and they held onto the football again. We were challenged to adjust in this game, and we did but it wasn’t enough.”
And asked if that explained why Marshawn Lynch only carried six times, Carroll replied, “Absolutely. That had nothing to do with the game plan. That was just the way this game turned out. That’s the last thing we want to have happen. The way it worked, that’s just what occurred. We didn’t get Percy (Harvin) the ball like we’d like to, we didn’t spread it the way we wanted to because we just didn’t have the chance. We tried to make the most of our opportunities as it was, and the thing that was well done is that our 2-minute stuff was good and we were very effective there.”
You may have noticed on the TV broadcast that Lynch walked off the field with a minute or so left on the clock while the Chargers were taking a knee.
Asked if that early exit bothered him, Carroll said, “No, he went off with the doctor. His back was tightened or something like that. I wasn’t worried about that.”
While there were no signs of problems for Lynch during the game, it is worth noting he has been on the injury report off and on over the past couple seasons with back issues, and missed one game as a last-minute scratch because of spasms (the loss at Cleveland in 2011).
“It’s an ongoing issue for him, it has been for years,” Carroll said. “It’s always something we’re monitoring.”
A lot has been made of the Chargers throwing Richard Sherman’s direction, then talking about it afterward. When Carroll was asked what he thought of Sherman’s play, he said: “I thought it was a normal football game, just like we’ve come to expect. They stayed away from him some. I think the ball went there three times where he had a chance to make a play on it, or maybe more than that. Maybe they made three plays, he covered a couple of things doesn’t he field. That’s it. I thought he played hard, and he got worn down like everybody did.”
Carroll on the play of Chargers QB Philip Rivers: “I thought he played near-perfect football, and to go along with it was his ability to scramble too. he’s not noted for that at all, but he did it at exactly the right times and maximized his yardage when he got out and hurt us a couple of times.”
Assistant offensive line coach Pat Ruel stayed in a San Diego hospital over night with what the team called an irregular heartbeat, but he checked out fine this morning and was scheduled to fly back in the afternoon.
“He’s on his way back,” Carroll said. “Everything went well this morning, so he’s in good shape.”
On his team missing some tackles, Carroll said, “I didn’t think it was as sharp. Too many guys falling forward and leaking yards on some of the perimeter stuff and the check-downs. We felt like we were leaking yardage and weren’t as sharp. It’s one of the areas where we need to be on it. We can definitely improve there, we’ve definitely tackled better than that.”
On the play of nickel cornerback Marcus Burley, who has only been with the team for two weeks, Carroll said, “He did all right. He’s a good football player. He plays hard, he’s tough. We’re still in the process of getting across all the information about how we cover and what we’re doing technique-wise. It’s only been a couple of weeks, but he’s holding his own, he’s battling… He’ll do better, but he did admirably well.”
Finally, the news was good on the injury front, with Carroll saying there were no new injuries, “Just some bumps and bruises. We’re OK it looks like.”
Running back Christine Michael and rookie linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis, who have missed the first two games with hamstring injuries, should return to practice Wednesday, Carroll said, and be full-go by Thursday. TE Cooper Helfet (knee) will also be a full-go this week, Carroll said.
CB Tharold Simon, who is recovering from knee surgery is still “out a while,” Carroll said.
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