Pete Carroll: Seahawks are a playoff-caliber team(?) It’s beyond time they show it
Pete Carroll is creative. He’s different, including for having coached football for a half century.
The Seahawks’ 72-year-old coach isn’t particularly a contrarian.
Except right now.
Opposite all evidence of the last month — his team on a three-game losing streak, not having won since a last-play field goal Nov. 12, playing at mighty San Francisco (9-3) Sunday then hosting Philadelphia (10-2) next — Carroll says 6-6 Seattle is a playoff-worthy team.
“I just believe we are of that caliber,” he said.
Losses by one point at the Los Angeles Rams, in another blowout against the 49ers and last week narrowly at Dallas leave the Seahawks outside the NFC playoff picture looking in. They are in ninth place in the conference. Seven teams make the postseason. Tiebreakers have Green Bay and the Rams, both 6-6, ahead of Seattle as the seventh and eighth seeds.
Los Angeles beating the Seahawks twice has Seattle in third place in the NFC West. The Seahawks led the division last month, when they were 6-3.
That seems like a decade ago.
With five games remaining in the regular season, the Seahawks are three games plus a tiebreaker behind San Francisco for first place in the division. For Sunday in Santa Clara, Seattle is a 10 1/2-point underdog. That’s tied with last Christmas Eve at Kansas City for the largest spread a team has been favored over Seattle in the last dozen years.
The Seahawks were 11-point underdogs for a loss at Dallas in week nine of the 2011 season, during Carroll’s overhauling of the franchise.
“It’s going to be tough week to week. We can count on that,” Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith said.
“But we’ve got the right guys. We’ve got tough guys on our side. We’ve got the right coaches. It’s not about the play calls, what Shane (Waldron, the offensive coordinator) calls. It’s about us going out and executing.
“We can build on (the Dallas game) yeah. But it’s about winning, most importantly.”
NFC playoff picture
Unless Seattle’s defense suddenly gets a pass rush, gets stronger at the line of scrimmage, gets a bushel of turnovers, unless the offense finds a running game to give Smith a better chance of not getting sacked trying to throw so much, the Seahawks are on a straight path to 6-8.
Then they would have to win at Tennessee (4-8) Christmas Eve, home against Pittsburgh (7-5) New Year’s Eve and at Arizona (3-10) to end the regular season 9-8. That’s the record Seattle had last season, when it got the seventh seed then lost 41-23 at San Francisco in the wild-card playoffs 11 months ago.
The thing is, it may take 10 wins to make the NFC playoffs this season.
The Packers have surged from sub-.500 into a playoff spot. They now have statistically the easiest remaining schedule. Green Bay plays at Minnesota (6-6) but also against Carolina (1-11), Chicago (4-8), the New York Giants (4-8) and Tampa Bay (5-7). A 10-7 record seems not only doable but likely for the Packers.
For the Seahawks to get to 10-7, they’ll have to beat either the 49ers Sunday or the Eagles in Seattle Dec. 18. And the Seahawks currently lose a tiebreaker if they finish with the same record as Green Bay.
In other words, if the Seahawks truly are playoff-caliber, they likely must beat either San Francisco or Philadelphia, or both, the next two weeks to prove it.
“We have to find our way through it and get there,” Carroll said. “I don’t know if there are enough games. Maybe there isn’t. Maybe we run out of games, I don’t know. We’re going to have to make some big noise here in the next couple of weeks and we just have to keep on going.
“We will be hardened,” Carroll said. “We will be competitively battlefield-tested, as well as you could be prepared. I think all of that will add to it if we keep growing with it. If we keep taking the proper steps forward, that’s the way I’m seeing it. It’s only one shot at a time, but a month from now, we will have been through everything that you could go through in preparation for a playoff opportunity.
“Whether we have enough wins, I don’t know. We’ll see what happens. We’ll see how it goes.”
The 49ers’ dominance
Next up: perhaps the league’s most complete team. The rival Carroll and general manager John Schneider rebuilt their defense to beat — yet lost to in four consecutive routs over the last 15 months.
The 49ers are coming off one of the more impressive wins in the league this season, 42-13 at previously one-loss, NFC-champion Philadelphia. The Niners will clinch a playoff spot if they beat Seattle and either the Vikings lose at the Raiders Sunday or the Packers lose at the Giants Monday night.
“We just have to bring it (this) week,” Seahawks rookie wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba said.
Man, do they.
San Francisco smashed Seattle 24-3 in the first half and 31-13 overall Thanksgiving night at Lumen Field. The Niners did it the way they have for years, dominating the line of scrimmage for huge running plays, big play-action passes and a pass rush that besieged Smith.
After improving with a quicker passing game that had Smith completing throws instead of getting sacked at Dallas, the Seahawks gained 406, were 9 for 14 on third downs, scored 35 points — yet still lost to the Cowboys. Ten penalties for 130 yards on Seattle, the NFL’s most-penalized team, helped doom the Seahawks.
Again.
“I think we played close to championship football (at Dallas),” Seahawks defensive tackle Leonard Williams said. “I think we could clean up a few areas, like penalties and things like that, and just build off of this.
“I feel like we’re going in the right direction.”
The 49ers sure are. They haven’t lost since having key starters injured during a three-game losing streak that ended before Halloween. Those are the only games San Francisco has lost all season.
“It’s not getting easier,” Carroll said. “We see all of that.”
This story was originally published December 6, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
