The Pete Carroll Show: Preseason Week 2

Pete Carroll breaks down the Seahawks' Preseason Week 2 win.

-- Christine Michael's two fumbles in the first two games are almost identical. Said they haven't been able to practice at full tempo the hits that he's had. They practice ball security all the time, but in the two cases, Christine has tried to "unload" on the guy and go after them, but in doing that, he lunges forward and the tackler gets underneath him. Carroll told C-Mike that the "likelihood of that happening again is not good, but we've still have to get get right there. We've got to get your pads lower than the tackler."

-- Had a great week of practice on the offensive line. Great aggressiveness. "Never seen a guy have a more physical game than (J.R.) Sweezy." Having James Carpenter back is great -- he "moves people."

-- Carroll goes really in-depth about the new defensive holding, pass interference, and illegal contact emphasis. Carroll rails on how ticky-tack they league's officials have been calling it, and said in their study the instance of the calls are up seven-times (see below for cooraborating evidence). Carroll noted that the NFL told him that the illegal contact/pass interference call on Tharold Simon, which negated a pick-six, should not have been called. Which is great to hear, honestly. Also great to hear is that the illegal contact penalty on Phillip Adams two plays earlier, which gave the Chargers a first-and-goal, should not have been called either (I thought that one was even more ticky-tack)

After 2 full preseason weeks last year, there were 20 defensive holds called. This year, with 3 games to go, there have been 100.

— Michael Tanier (@MikeTanier) August 17, 2014

After 2 full preseason weeks last year, there were just 5 illegal contact flags called. With 3 games to go, there have been 49.

— Michael Tanier (@MikeTanier) August 17, 2014

- Carroll talked about quarterbacks and running. The Hawks ran the ball 13 times for 99 yards and four touchdowns, and were only tackled one time. He mentioned that if Russell Wilson is getting tackled, he's done something wrong. He should either be handing the ball off or getting down into a slide.

The Seahawks strive to be the best scrambling team in football and that shows in how coordinated the efforts at it are. Scramble rules for receivers, the offensive linemen seem more keyed in to sticking with their blocks and keeping at it if the pocket breaks down, and the quarterbacks are very aware of when to slide. Carroll mentioned that he hates playing against teams with good scramblers.

BONUS:

Pete Carroll Preseason Press Conference
Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll talks about Friday's win against the Chargers, today's practice, and linebackers Malcolm Smith and Korey Toomer coming back from injuries.