Less than 24 hours after his team lost Super Bowl XLIX in heartbreaking fashion, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll met with reporters at the team’s Phoenix hotel before heading to the airport to return home.
And a day later, he still stood by the late-game play call that has been criticized by many — including some of his players — and resulted in an interception at the 1-yard line.
“It didn’t work, didn’t work out,” he said. “The sequence … I was really so confident that we were going to get it done that to go ahead and make the call that we made was just part of the sequence. We had a very clear thought about what was going on. It’s really easy. If we run the ball, we might run it in and score. If we throw the ball, we might catch a touchdown pass and score right there as well. It’s really easy to look at it that way from the outside but we were very confident in the sequence and we were going to use every play. The idea is to always have all your plays available and not run the clock out and there’s another down left, and so we had that organized to do that.”
One point Carroll wanted to make is that, while those on the outside might think, “Don’t throw because it could lead to an interception,” that isn’t his way of thinking.
“Let me say this, too, we don’t ever call a play, I don’t ever coach these guys at one time to thinking that they’re going to throw an interception, thinking that we’re going to fumble the ball or thinking that they’re going to do something, catch the ball and take it back for a touchdown,” Carroll said. “I don’t ever think that. And so, when we make our decisions, just like we made the decision with six seconds left in the (first) half, we’re counting on our guys and trusting the process. We go with what we know and what we’ve learned and how we can believe in our guys and that’s why we do what we do. And that’s why sometimes, you know, we get scrutinized for stuff. ‘Why would you do this? Why would you do that?’ It’s because we believe that it’s going to work. We believe that things are going to happen. Why do you call the fake field goal? Because we believed that it was going to go and that it was going to work. So, that’s maybe difficult on the outside to understand that, but that’s how we go. So there was a not a thought in my mind that we would make a mistake on that play. And really, the mistake was a tremendous play by the guy on the other side. He made just an unbelievable decision and choice to make a play that changed a game and that won them their championship. That’s what it feels like. That’s the kind of thoughts that we have.”
Carroll also backed offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell a day after Bevell was the subject of considerable criticism, both for the play call and for being critical of receiver Ricardo Lockette for his effort on the play.
“First off, Darrell is an incredible play caller,” Carroll said. “He has done a fantastic job, look what he did again, put us right down there to get it done. We’re so lucky to have him, he’s been absolutely instrumental in everything that we have done. There is no reservation in that thought and don’t make it out like there is because he is an awesome guy on our staff and he is crucially important to our future as well. We had the thought of the personnel that was going in the game after the first play. We sent the personnel. We saw we came up short. We weren’t quite sure how close it was. We were going with the next personnel, which was three wide receivers in the game and we had thought about throwing the ball there. That was part of the reason we sent that group in. We easily could have gone otherwise, but when they sent their goal-line guys in, I know that we have the advantage on the matchups in the passing game so let’s throw it. It’s OK. One of those downs we were likely to throw the ball, maybe two of those downs we would have thrown the ball depending on how we had to save the clock. We had to get all of our plays. It wasn’t about ‘just run the ball.’ That wasn’t what the thought was. There was not a thought about with the run and I changed it. That did not happen.”
Carroll said he still hadn’t seen a replay of the play, but he did not think Lockette was at fault, but rather that Patriots defensive back Malcolm Butler just made a great play.
“I don’t know that,” Carroll said when asked if Lockette could have done more. “I don’t think so. I think the way that he jumped the route, it looked like he was open. Russell saw him open, and the way the play works is often that DB gets brushed and doesn’t get to be in position to make that play, but he did. I do know that (Brandon) Browner jammed Jermaine (Kearse), and he’s the front guy in that right and probably kept him from getting off as cleanly as you would normally hope.”
Asked if Lockette was the primary read, Carroll said, “He’s got both sides of the field he can go to. He can go either side. I don’t know the other side, but I would expect that the other side probably had something there too because it’s a real good concept for us on the other side. He had the look that we needed on that side. He didn’t miss that at all. It was just the way the guy played the play.”
Other notes
Carroll acknowledged that the Seahawks need a defensive coordinator with Dan Quinn heading to Atlanta to become head coach, but didn’t say who will replace him, noting, “It’s a process, and we’ll work it out. I have nothing to say about it right now.”
Carroll said the team is hurting right now, but that he isn’t worried about how the players will bounce back: “No. Just telling you from how everybody has responded. It really hurt. It really hurt. It hurt everybody. And we all got hurt by it by the fact that we had to face that. And I have said for a lot of years with these guys that when we are right, it takes extraordinary things to beat us. Somebody is going to make a big play that you couldn’t explain. I always go back to the Vince Young night, because that’s when I first realized it, that if we are on our game and we play like we play, and this has been a long time, then things like happened last night have to happen. Otherwise we are going to find a way. And that’s the way we believe and that’s the way we operate. And I don’t think that maybe that’s understood. And I don’t think that’s cocky. I think it’s based on what happened. And that’s why our belief is so strong and we really have to do some wacky things to give up things or somebody has to make a great play. And Butler made a great play. He made a great play. That’s how it goes.”
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