Pete Carroll willing to take measures to stop penalties

Gaining 100 yards is a big deal in the NFL. It’s considered a big day for a wide receiver, a huge day for a running back. It’s worth six points, maybe seven.

The Seattle Seahawks gave that away for free on Sunday.

It’s essentially a choose-your-adventure from the Week 2 loss to the Tennessee Titans, if fans want to pick a penalty that cost the game, they can make an argument from about five different options.

While technically the referees might have cost Seattle the game, in almost every instance, they were simply doing their job.

Pete Carroll said in the postgame conference that he had nothing to say about the calls themselves; simply that the team needed to do better.

Early Monday morning, however, Carroll offered a closer look.

In his interview on 710AM ESPN, Carroll said that the bench can be a coach’s “ally,” and brought up the Jordyn Brooks penalty.

On what led to a touchdown drive, Brooks was flagged for unnecessary roughness on a late hit out of bounds.

It’s the correct call, and an idiot play. Both receiver and Brooks were out of bounds by five feet before Brooks finished with an extra shove.

The play before was 2nd and 12 from the SEA 43 yard line. After the penalty, it was 1st and 10 from the 14.

Carroll admitted that Brooks was benched for that play, as we saw Cody Barton in the field for a few minutes following. Carroll said that was the moment when they “couldn’t let it keep going.”

Unfortunately, it didn’t solve the rest of the team’s issues and the Seahawks continued to blow their biggest halftime home lead in franchise history.

But the takeaway is that head coach Pete Carroll noticed, and responded in-game, to an erroneous trend by his team. This is the very thing that he has been accused of not being able to do. Now, it didn’t help, at least in the outcome, but there is silver lining in all of this.

DK Metcalf had a bad game; Carroll said he’s talked with him.
Brooks got bone-headed; Carroll responded.
Russell Wilson had a personally challenging week with the death of his best friend; Carroll spent time with him this week.
Seahawks now have been nicked for the taunting penalty twice; you can believe that will be a point of emphasis moving forward.

Seattle stomped a good team for two quarters, and fortunately for them 10 penalties for 100 yards is not sustainable even for them. The coaches have some work ahead of them with a lot of moving pieces (new coordinators, rookies, guys in front of fans for the first time) but cutting down the penalties is a must - and achievable.