Pete Carroll tinkers in mock game with manufactured noise, the Seahawks’ new COVID-19 norm
Bobby Wagner needed to talk in only a conversational voice to communicate with his defense.
Russell Wilson’s quarterback signals sounded like he was yelling in a library. No wonder he and backup Geno Smith each completed touchdown passes on their first drives (Wilson to DK Metcalf on third down, Smith a longer one to Jacob Hollister). Wilson and Smith completed 16 of 21 passes combined in just two drives each.
The one thing the Seahawks never have had to deal with during home games was the most noticeable aspect of Saturday’s mock-game at empty CenturyLink FIeld.
No noise.
The never is going to be the norm for games inside the stadium in SoDo this 2020 NFL season. That’s because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Coach Pete Carroll had his staff tinkering with replicating some crowd noise during Saturday’s abbreviated scrimmage. It ended prematurely after defensive end Branden Jackson was knocked out by a helmet-to-helmet hit and taken by ambulance off the field to a hospital.
Carroll is using Saturday’s scrimmage plus a second mock game inside CenturyLink Field on Wednesday to find the right level of piped-in noise through his stadium’s public-address system for regular-season home games this fall.
Saturday’s artificial noise was at a noticeably lower level than it could have been. It almost sounded like the white noise from passing cars off of nearby Interstate 5 more more than it did an NFL game.
Heck, it was quieter than Seahawks practices. The coach has rap, R&B, rock and pop music continuously blaring from sideline speakers through practices as the team’s facility in Renton.
Saturday’s faux noise was absolutely more muted than the Seahawks’ usual scene: 69,000 screaming maniacs sending noise off the stadium’s cantilever roofs back onto opponents, who often jump into false starts and mistakes because of the ear-splitting din.
There won’t be any of that in Seattle this unprecented season, starting with the home opener like no other Sept. 20 against New England.
The team announced this week there will be no fans attending that game and at least the Seahawks’ first three home games into October. That’s because of ongoing restrictions in King County because of the COVID-19 virus. That leaves five games which it remains technically possible 10,000 or 20,000 fans could attend. But no virus trends in the state or county are suggesting that will happen, at all.
“I couldn’t imagine...not having the excitement of the fans there,” Wilson said Saturday. “That would definitely be different.
“I know ever since my first preseason game (in 2012), which was against the Tennessee Titans at home, I think it was a packed house, I believe. It was just a lot of fun. So you miss that part of it.”
So the Seahawks will be left to manufacture as much noise as the NFL will allow during games.
“We messed with it in pregame, trying to get a feel for it,” Carroll said of Saturday’s mock game that included the team’s usual warm-up routine before a game. “Both offenses handled it fine. I talked already to Geno and Russell about it. They both felt comfortable with what the sound was set at.
“If we want to crank it up a bit, we can. But I think the situation is—I don’t know all the rules here pertaining—but once you decide on the decibel level you have to keep it that way through the game.
“So if that is the case, then we have to make that declaration.”
In the offseason, when it became apparent early in the pandemic there wouldn’t be fans at games if games were even played, Carroll said he wanted to crank up whatever noise the league may allow.
But now he, Wagner, Wilson and the coaching staff are trying to determine whether they want the max level to make opposing quarterbacks’ lives miserable—as close to usual in Seattle as possible—at the price of also affecting the Seahawks’ offense more than usual. Or do the Seahawks want Wagner—and then, by rule, also the opposing quarterbck—to have the unusual ability to call signals and arrange teammates just before plays inside CenturyLink Field?
The All-Pro linebacker often talks about how hard it is for him to communicate and change calls immediately before snaps with the Seahawks’ fans bringing the noise like Northwest rain down onto the opposing offense.
“So, we’ll learn,” Carroll said. “We did some stuff in practice, and pre-practice, as well. We’ll alter, because we can go somewhere else and they can have it cranked up to the maximum.
“We did not have it at maximum sound today.”
This story was originally published August 22, 2020 at 4:31 PM.
