Pete Carroll on DK Metcalf penalties: "It's hurting us, and he knows it"
On Sunday against the Bengals, Seahawks receiver DK Metcalf drew an unnecessary roughness foul for putting a Bengals defensive back on the ground after the play was over. Metcalf said after the game that he didn't hear a whistle, and that he kept blocking.
Earlier this week, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll supported Metcalf's position, before offering a more pragmatic take on the situation.
“On the penalty, he was way downfield and he was still getting after the guy and didn’t hear the whistle," Carroll told reporters. "The official saw the play end and saw the hit come after that. He just figured it was way too late. We talked about it. The official was there explaining it, DK [Metcalf] was right there, we really just talked it out. I said, ‘Maybe you could help us, you could realize if somebody is behind you, blow the whistle again to help just knowing that could happen.’ That was basically what we really talked through it clearly.”
It's an important conversation to have, because Carroll knows the officials are paying closer attention to Metcalf.
“We’re well aware of that," Carroll said. "The word unnecessary in terms of a penalty, unnecessary roughness, sometimes it looks like that. We’re still adjusting to — to make sure that when the opportunity arises, he might have to take a little something off of it. He has been seen and they’ve definitely called some stuff on him. When you have an opportunity to hit a guy high and you have to go low and you have to get your shoulder in there and get your head out, you have to make those decisions that work in your favor to stay out of trouble with the officials, and he has to do the same thing. He’s playing really hard, he’s giving great effort, he’s playing tough, he cares, he’s working, he just has to make sure that he keeps it in. He can’t quite go to the level that’s going to draw that kind of attraction because it’s hurting us, and he knows it.”
That's really the key. Even if the whistle hadn't blown, it was unnecessary to knock on his ass a guy who was away from the play and making no effort to get to the ball.
Unnecessary roughness. Whistle or not, the hit was objectively unnecessary.
That's part of what the league is trying to take out of the game. Necessary contact is unavoidable. Unnecessary contact introduces an extra risk of injury that the league views as unacceptable. Whoever the player, they'll throw that flag to protect other players from getting needlessly shoved to the ground.
