Pete Carroll says he thought about letting 49ers score, doesn’t think it’s in his teams’ mentality
By Josh Hill
The San Francisco’s were able to get a big win against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, narrowly escaping with a 19-17 win. Seahawks fans are trying to shrug off the loss but upon review it looks like the Seahawks’ pride may have been their downfall and Pete Carroll addressed this today when asked about the 49ers game winning drive.
On the drive, the Niners ran six plays, forced the Seahawks to burn their final timeouts and tore a huge chunk of time off the clock in the process. The Seahawks were trying to stop the 49ers from scoring but these efforts resulted in the Niners kicking the go-ahead field goal that eventually became the game winner.
Carroll was asked if he considered just allowing the 49ers to score, leaving a large amount of time on the clock and preserving the Seahawks timeouts as a result. Carroll’s response couldn’t have epitomized the mantra or swagger of the Seahawks anymore as the head coach brushed off the comments by replying that his team doesn’t allow people to score — ever.
“There’s a lot of gut in that decision,” Carroll said on 710 ESPN. “We had the talk, and it’s just not in our mentality to let anybody have anything.”
He did admit that the staff considered allowing San Francisco to score, but this Seattle team prides itself on it’s defense and frankly it would have felt weird if they had just let the Niners stroll into the end zone, even if it made some sense in that situation. The Seahawks didn’t need the win, as they clinched the division regardless and are close to locking up a first round bye, so it’s not like the season was on the line. They also got to hang onto their pride, even if it ended up costing them only their second loss of the season.