The focus of my story today is Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll finds himself in an unfamiliar position nearing the midpoint of this season. It’s the first time his team has been 2-5 since his first year at USC in 2001.

“I told the guys in the locker room that I’m not used to this,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said after his team’s latest loss on Sunday, a 34-12 humbling by Cincinnati. “I’m not used to fighting out of situations like this. I don’t remember the old days, I don’t remember them anymore. I can only think of what we can become.”

That team rallied, winning four of their last five games to finish 6-6 on the year. And Carroll believes this year’s team can do the same.

“We do have to push aside what’s gone on behind us,” he said. “We can’t do anything about that. That’s a discipline that we talk about and we deal with this topic a lot.

Seattle rookie cornerback Richard Sherman was not impressed with fellow rookie, Cincinnati receiver A.J. Green during an interview with KJR and Associated Press reporter Curtis Crabtree, which thanks to Curtis you can listen to here.

In his first career start, Sherman finished with an interception against Green, and also broke up a pass to Green later in the game that resulted in an interception for teammate Kam Chancellor.

Sherman matched up with Green a lot, and the two rookies were jawing at each other most of the game.

“I would say he’s probably one of the most overrated receivers out there,” Sherman said of Green. “He wasn’t anything special. (Andy) Dalton was a good quarterback. He makes good decisions, but A.J. Green is just a lot of noise talking and bad routes.”

If you’re not following Curtis already on twitter you should, @Curtis_Crabtree.

Clare Farnsworth of Seahawks.com writes that somewhat lost in Seattle’s loss was the play of the defense.

ESPN’s Mike Sando offers some silver linings for the Seahawks in their loss to the Bengals.

Pete Prisco of CBS Sports gives Seattle a D grade for their performance on Sunday.

Ramona Shelburne of ESPN Los Angeles writes that San Francisco head coach Jim Harbaugh was rewarded for making a couple gutsy calls against the Browns, while Carroll suffered the consequences. She’s says the two guys coach with similar swagger.

Scott Johnson of the Everett Herald continues his Game of My Life series with a profile on former Seahawks John L. Williams.

Wes Bunting of the National Football Post breaks down Andrew Luck and Matt Barkley from last weekend’s USC-Stanford game.