The Seattle Seahawks rolled to victory for the second week in a row, blasting the Buffalo Bills 50-17 in Toronto on Sunday. They became the third team in NFL history to score at least 50 points in consecutive weeks, and they may have hurt some feelings in the process.
With less than 13 minutes left in the game and his team up by 30, coach Pete Carroll let his team run a fake punt. Michael Robinson took a handoff after the snap and gained 29 yards to take his team down to the Buffalo 14. The Seahawks ended up kicking a field goal on the drive to make it 50-17, which was the final score.
After the game, Carroll was apologetic for what many felt was an unsportsmanlike act.
“I feel bad about this,” Carroll told the media after the game. “I hear from the guys about the fake punt. That was part of our game plan. It was something I could have called off and I didn’t. It was an automatic for us, and I didn’t do it. It just happened. We’re trying to make first downs, so I let it go. It’s unfortunate that it comes across that we’re doing something wrong there. That’s my fault totally for not stopping it from happening.
“It was a very well executed play, we were looking forward to doing it, and when it popped up, it was just late in the game,” he said.
Carroll has no reason to feel badly in our eyes. Back in the day, I would have called this act unsportsmanlike, but I’ve seen way too many improbable comebacks in the NFL to complain about teams going hard despite having a big lead. There are professionals on both sides of the ball who are paid to go hard for 60 minutes, so nobody should apologize for that. I will, however, call Carroll stupid for letting his team run the fake punt.
Carroll could be seen smiling on the sidelines after the play was successful, and he even told his assistants “good job.” He knew exactly what he was doing, and it’s actions like that that can come back to burn them in the future. Buffalo will remember this, and they’ll be ticked the next time the teams meet (as long as that’s not in 3 or 4 years). Don’t lie, Pete, you knew what your team was doing and you were happy about it. Just give a Bill Belichick answer next time and say you don’t apologize for always going hard.
