Pete Carroll on late fake punt up 21 points: 'You’re either competing or you’re not'
Pete Carroll’s “Always Compete” mantra apparently applies when you’re up 24-3 with about five minutes left and have a perfect fake punt call in your back pocket.
The Seattle Seahawks’ fake punt Thursday night was unusual for two reasons. One, the Seahawks were destroying the Los Angeles Rams and there was only a little more than five minutes remaining. Jared Goff and the Rams could have played until next Wednesday and not scored 21 more points on that defense. But also, it ended with punter Jon Ryan suffering a concussion when he bobbled the ball and was hit going to the turf.
Carroll might regret that Ryan got hurt, but he didn’t regret the call.
“You’re either competing or you’re not,” Carroll said on his radio show on 710 ESPN, via the Seattle Times.
That is absolutely true and gets lost in the strange sensitivity about “running up the score.” There’s no such thing as running up the score in a professional game. These are all grown men who are being paid and sign up for 60 minutes of football. If you don’t like the Seahawks calling a fake punt when they’re up 24-3? Don’t fall behind 24-3. Problem solved.
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As Carroll explained in his press conference, the Seahawks saw on film that a run by Ryan up the middle would be available, and he didn’t care what the score was when he called it. And it worked. Ryan gained 26 yards and a first down.
“We had a tremendous preparation for an opportunity to take that we knew could be like a turnover in the game,” Carroll said, according to Seattle’s transcripts.” If we could get the opportunity we would go for it. It didn’t matter when it happened, we were looking for it the whole night. The opportunity that we took, it gave us a chance to hold onto the football and not give them even the chance to get the ball back. What more could I do to help my team?
“How it gets perceived and all, that’s what you guys get to talk about when you want to and I think it’s a waste of energy but I understand it. I don’t expect that you can see it from our perspective. I thought it was an excellent demonstration of planning and prep and execution. It worked perfectly, except for the end of it was terrible. But that allowed us to keep the football and it didn’t have anything to do with something with the score or anything, just trying to finish the game as well as we could, in command of it as we were.”
Still, the Seahawks are now wondering if Ryan will play next week. Carroll said players like receiver Jermaine Kearse and quarterback Russell Wilson have volunteered to punt.
But other than the injury outcome, Carroll sounds like he would do it all over again. Always compete.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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