For the second year in a row, Pete Carroll gets to spend the first day of his offseason defending an eyebrow-raising call.
With the Seattle Seahawks facing 4th and 5 at the Carolina 18 trailing 31-0 with 2:22 left in the first half, Carroll elected not to kick a field goal, choosing instead to go for it. The Seahawks elected to go for it and were unsuccessful, and some second-guessed the move, arguing that Seattle should have taken the points.
It ended up being a factor later in the game, when Seattle rallied. They had to kick a field goal with the score 31-21 and then try to recover an onside kick, where the extra three points could have allowed them to go for a game-tying touchdown instead.
Carroll said his only regret is that they didn’t convert the fourth down.
“We talked all about it,” Carroll said, via Danny O’Neil of 710 ESPN in Seattle. “I didn’t want to give up the three points, but I thought we had a chance to make the fourth-and-5. I felt like we had a little momentum.
“I’ll be kicking myself because we didn’t convert on the fourth down in the first half. Fourth-and-5. To make that a good decision you’ve got to win it.”
Unlike the playcall that defined Carroll last offseason, this one is more defensible. It was 31-0 at the time, and picking up that first down and turning it into a touchdown could have significantly changed the game more than the field goal would have. Plus, you cannot assume that the second half plays out exactly the same as it actually did if Carroll kicks the field goal and takes the team into the half down 31-3.
