Pete Carroll’s unique emphasis on 2-minute drills has propelled Seahawks, no matter the QB
Geno Smith just did it. Again.
Previously mothballed backup Drew Lock did it six days earlier.
No NFL quarterback did it more than Russell Wilson did for Seattle when he was the team’s quarterback from 2012 through ‘22.
“You win the game in the fourth quarter” isn’t just an often-repeated mantra for Pete Carroll, mocked by some who wish the Seahawks played better earlier in games.
It’s the way he coaches and trains his Seahawks in every practice.
And we mean EVERY practice.
From no-pads minicamps in May through summer training camp and then daily each fall into winter in the regular season, Carroll just about begins and ends each practice at the team’s Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton with hurry-up, 2-minute drills. He even drills it in walkthroughs.
It’s part of Carroll’s constant competitions that pit Seattle’s offense against defense. They also include basketball-shooting contests at team meetings, quizzes on game-plan and film study, and more.
None of the competitions from “Always Compete Pete” impact the usually close games in the NFL more than all his 2-minute scrimmages in Seahawks practices.
They are central to Carroll’s constant preaching: You can’t win the game in the first, second or third quarters — but you absolutely win them in the fourth quarter.
Sunday at Tennessee, Smith led his fourth game-winning drive this season. It was Seattle’s second to end a game in six days.
Down 17-13 with the Seahawks’ playoff contention at stake Sunday in Nashville, Smith led the offense on a 14-play march. He had four pass completions on third downs to finish the Titans. His final conversion was on third and goal, a touchdown pass to tight end Colby Parkinson in one-on-one coverage outside with 57 seconds left.
Seattle won the game 20-17. The Seahawks surged into the NFC’s seventh and final playoff spot with two games remaining in the regular season.
The next one is Sunday at Lumen Field against Pittsburgh (1:05 p.m, channel 13). The Steelers (8-7) also have to win to keep their playoff hopes alive.
Smith said that as he entered the huddle to begin the final drive at Tennessee “I’m thinking: ‘Just like last week.’
“Drew did a great job last week,” Smith said. “And we had a chance to match it this week.”
Six days earlier, with Smith out because of a groin injury, Lock led a 92-yard trek, Seattle’s longest touchdown march this season, in the final 1:52. That’s how Seattle beat Philadelphia to revive its season.
Smith’s rally at Tennessee was the Seahawks’ fifth late, game-winning drive this season. It was Smith’s seventh game-winning drive late in a game in his two seasons replacing the traded Wilson as Carroll’s Seahawks quarterback.
Seahawks’ history of this
This isn’t a new Seahawks phenomenon.
Wilson, now benched in Denver as of Wednesday, had 24 fourth-quarter comebacks with 36 game-winning drives in his 10 seasons as Seattle’s franchise QB. That was the most in league in that time.
Since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, only two franchises have had four game-winning touchdowns in the final 2 minutes of regulation or in overtime in a season: The Jacksonville Jaguars, in 2004, and...these Seahawks.
Seattle has done it twice since Carroll began running the franchise. Wilson and the Seahawks did it in 2012.
“Drew looked good, too,” Carroll said, wryly, talking about the late-game success of Seattle’s quarterbacks Tuesday on KIRO-AM radio.
In his seven comeback and game-winning drives in the fourth quarter the last two seasons, Smith has completed 32 of 44 passes for 382 yards and five touchdowns. That is a passer rating in those clutch wins of 136.74.
Smith’s career passer rating is 86.0.
Lock went 5 for 10 for all 92 yards to his winning touchdown pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba with 28 seconds left that beat the Eagles last week. That was a passer rating of 115.42 in the hurry-up, 2-minute.
Lock’s career passer rating is 79.5.
These Seahawks are just the second team in NFL history to have two different quarterbacks throw a game-winning TD pass in final minute of regulation in back-to-back games. The 1999 Miami Dolphins had it.
“It’s preparation,” Smith said Sunday evening in Nashville, minutes after his late comeback at Tennessee. “Coach prepares us for these opportunities, for these moments in the VMAC. Every single day we go over 2-minute, a bunch of different situations and scenarios.
“It helps when you get out there on the field. You’re used to it. You know what to do. Guys are calm. They know their assignments. And you saw, it doesn’t matter who the quarterback is.
“Coach prepares us to be in those situations and to make those plays, and that’s what we’re about as Seahawks.”
Carroll’s Seahawks don’t always come through late in games in 2-minute offense. Carroll said Tuesday “I’m still pissed” about the team not winning with the ball in that late-game situation at Dallas last month.
Down 41-35, Smith and Seattle got the ball back with 1:43 left 75 yards from winning that game. Smith threw for completions to Tyler Lockett and Noah Fant on the first two plays to get the Seahawks to midfield. Then three straight incomplete passes ended that loss. The final one on fourth and 2 happened when coordinator Shane Waldron’s play scheme called for Cowboys All-Pro pass rusher Micah Parsons to be unblocked. So ended Seattle’s march to an upset that would have the Seahawks in even better playoff situation right now.
“That’s the one we screwed up,” Carroll said Tuesday. “It was set up, tailor-made, to do what we do. And we didn’t get it done.”
Carroll’s unique 2-minute emphasis
Smith has been on four teams — the Jets, Giants, Chargers and Seahawks — in his 11-year NFL career.
He says Carroll’s emphasis on 2-minute drills in practice is unique in the league.
“I think we do a lot more than a lot of teams. Guys coming from other places, they mention that,” Smith said. “I think there’s a reason why we’ve been able to win games. I mean, just over the course of Coach Carroll’s career here, we’ve been able to win games late in the fourth quarter in those game-winning drives.
“So that speaks volumes to the preparation and the coaching. The players obviously got to go execute, but it feels like we’ve been in those situations a million times.”
Carroll loves hearing that.
The 72-year-old coach, yes, has heard many say the game’s passed him by — as recently as Seattle’s four-game losing streak that ended with Lock’s comeback win over the Eagles last week.
When told what Smith said about his coaching being key to all these late-game wins, Carroll said on KIRO-AM radio Tuesday: “Absolutely I feel it’s helping us.
“I don’t know what other people are doing. I don’t know that. We have a really disciplined format for how we’ve been doing that, for years. We just accumulate hundreds and hundreds of snaps in situations that it just becomes normal for our guys.”
Carroll said “for years Russell was fantastic in those situations.”
“He had the same indoctrination, you know,” the coach said.
“I’m really proud of that, because it does show that the coaching does make some sense here,” Carroll said, chuckling. “Because it carries over to the most crucial situations. And our guys, when they are talking like that, that’s bona-fide results that happens.
“I mean, I don’t mind saying it. Because Geno is validating it. I know If you ask Russ he’d tell you the same thing, that all of that time accumulated puts us in a real groove in those situations. And we still really confident there.”
This story was originally published December 27, 2023 at 10:24 AM.
