Larry Brown Sports

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.

Pete Carroll was so proud of the Seattle Seahawks at the start of their bye week that he decided to give the team a full week off. The Seahawks had just won back-to-back games against the Minnesota Vikings and New York Jets, improving their record to 6-4. Carroll thought that was worthy of a full week off before getting back to work, but he sounded like a man who regretted his decision after Sunday’s loss to the Miami Dolphins.

“We had all kinds of issues on both sides of the ball, making little mistakes on things that we normally do right,” Carroll said according to The Seattle Times. “I didn’t do this thing right on the week off. I didn’t handle it well and I screwed it up. That’s just the way it is. These guys played hard. They wanted to play right but we made too many mistakes.

“I gave them a bunch of time off. Maybe we’re too young to do that, I don’t know.”

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There are a lot of livid people in Green Bay and beyond after Monday night’s debacle of an ending in Seattle, but very few are more upset over the series of events than Packers guard Josh Sitton. Or, should we say, no one has been more willing to express their frustration than the big fella.

After leading the charge in blasting the NFL on Twitter after Green Bay’s loss, Sitton took it a step further on Tuesday during an interview with “The Jim Rome Show.” He said he would go on strike “just to end this crap” if the CBA would allow it. He also teed off on Golden Tate and Pete Carroll for refusing to admit they caught a break.

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A number of mixed opinions have surfaced since Greg Schiano ordered the Bucs to play hard until the final whistle against the Giants last Sunday. Tom Coughlin was the most upset about it and Justin Tuck didn’t seem too far behind. Jerry Jones thinks the kneel-down play should be eliminated altogether and we here at LBS don’t see what all the fuss is about. Neither does Pete Carroll.

During his press conference on Thursday, the Seahawks head coach praised Schiano for the approach.

“I’m glad it was brought up like this because I think it was a competitor competing and I don’t think there is anything wrong with that,” Carroll said according to Pro Football Talk. “That’s exactly what you should do: Try to win the game. And there was a chance to win the game on that play and I thought Greg did exactly the right thing. And I would do exactly the same thing if in the same situation. So I don’t see where there’s any reason to think other than that. It’s about competing to try to make the play to win the football game. That’s it. And protect your quarterback.”

When asked why he hasn’t done the same thing if he thinks it’s such a smart play, Carroll said he simply hadn’t thought of it. If that’s the case, I guess he’s saying we can expect to see the Seahawks do the same this season if they find themselves down one possession with their opponents in the victory formation. We’ll just see about that.

Photo Credit: Jerry Lai-US PRESSWIRE

Pete Carroll has a reputation for being a prankster. Terrell Owens has a reputation for being a diva. Now that T.O has signed a one-year deal with the Seahawks, it only makes sense that the two would combine their most notable characteristics to pull a fast one on the rest of the team.

Anyone who knows the Seahawks could have anticipated that T.O. was going to get punked in some way during his first official team meeting on Wednesday. At first, it appeared that he did. Carroll called him up to the front of the room to share a personal story and then cut him off as soon as he started. The entire team screamed “sit down!” at him and it looked like T.O had fallen victim to some standard new-guy hazing. That’s when he and Carroll joined forces.

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Arkansas is looking for a new head football coach to replace Bobby Petrino, and a report says they attempted to hire Pete Carroll. 5News Sports in Arkansas says the school reached out to Carroll but was turned down by the current Seahawks coach.

Carroll seemed to confirm the overture via Twitter, and he also promoted a colleague for the gig:

I still love the Arkansas fight song… But Mooch is the man… Go Razorbacks!

— Pete Carroll (@PeteCarroll) April 19, 2012

“Mooch” is Steve Mariucci, who hasn’t coached since being fired by the Lions in 2005. Mooch has been mentioned in connection with several jobs since then. News 5 reported that it was Mariucci’s agent who contacted the school about the vacancy. My guess is Mooch’s agent is just doing a really good job of keeping his client relevant by dropping his name in various coaching searches. Not only does that help in case Mooch ever wants to get back into coaching, but it’s also a good tactic for gaining leverage in contract discussions with his current employer, NFL Network.

As for Arkansas, it’s clear they’re aiming high. They have plenty of money, a rabid fan base, and a good foundation, so someone will want this job.

Early on in the Peyton Manning free agency tour, the Seattle Seahawks were considered to be a potential suitor. Any team in need of a quarterback was discussed when speculating where Manning would end up, but there were few who actually knew where Peyton wanted to play. Manning wanted to make his decision in a hurry, so scheduling a good amount of visits and meetings in a short span of time was unavoidable. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, however, was avoidable.

As Peter King pointed out in his recent Sports Illustrated article that details how Manning ended up in Denver, Peyton met with representatives from the Broncos, Redskins, Niners, and Cardinals while out west a couple of weeks ago. Since he had not scheduled a meeting with the Seahawks, Carroll decided he would show up unannounced and try to win the four-time MVP over.

One more surprise: Manning got a call informing him that Seahawks coach Pete Carroll had flown, unannounced, with Seattle G.M. John Schneider to the airport in Englewood. Carroll would do whatever Manning wanted—talk for a while in Denver or on the plane to Arizona, his next visit, or fly him to Seattle for a lengthier discussion.

Peyton Manning does not like surprises. He said no thanks. Carroll flew home.

Burned. Carroll gets an A+ for effort, but it’s obvious Manning must have had no intention of playing for the Seahawks. At the time he was a busy man who was listening to sales pitches from a number of teams while trying to make the biggest decision of his career. Clearly, there was nothing Carroll could have said to make him consider playing in Seattle. Luckily for Pete, that’s why they invented business expenses.

H/T The Seattle Times Seahawks Blog
Photo Credit: Jerry Lai-US PRESSWIRE