By Mazvita Maraire Posted on

Pete Carroll, ” It’s a run to the finish”

With an extra day of rest and to ponder what went wrong in their latest loss, a 28-16 mana handling by the 49ers the Seahawks returned to practice Thursday afternoon. The extra day came courtesy of Monday’s upcoming game with the Philadelphia Eagles. The loss to the 49ers made it four in a row. According to head coach Pete Carroll, with four games left in the regular season, the Seahawks are in a race to the finish.

“We had an extra day here because of Monday night that we’re taking full advantage of. It feels like a lot longer of a break than just one day, because we get out of routine, but it’s good for us and we’re trying to take advantage of that. We’ll have a lot of guys practicing today and we’re in pretty good shape that way. This is a great matchup for us.” Said Carroll during his weekly press conference.”

 It’s about as fun as it’s going to get. There is so much at stake from this point forward. There is so much, with five other teams that are vying for this spot. It’s a run to the finish, we’ll see who wins the race. It’s exciting and we have to make the most of it and be attuned into it. Everybody is well aware, we haven’t missed that point from the other night, so everybody knows what’s going on. We have to put together a great week to prepare and make sure that we get this done. It’s going to be a great challenge, this is a fine football team with a winning mentality and all of that, but that’s the kind of challenges we have to take on to get there.”

LACK OF EXECUTION

If the Seahawks will get there, that being the playoffs they have to be consistent in their execution.  In their 41-35 loss to the Cowboys, the offense and defense played good football in spurts. Lacking was consistency by both units . The same story against the 49ers. The offense and defense both played a good first half.  A lack of execution and consistency saw the 49ers  have their way with the Seahawks in the second half.

THIRD DOWN WOES


One area that continues to be a  concern for the offense is consistent third-down execution. For Carroll the  execution numbers on third down have to drastically improve with time running out  

“A week ago we did it. It’s going to be the factor in our success on offense. It’s going to be a factor for sure. We’ve got to get around 50% of those things. It could mean two more plays a game, two more conversions a game, three more.  That’s what you’re talking about. Two or three plays a game that make the difference in those numbers. It just seems like when you’re hitting around 50 (percent), the ball is really going, and we’re moving, and things are happening. That’s what we’re shooting for.”

The lack of execution on third down has stymied the run game because of the fewer run plays available. Less running plays puts more pressure on the passing game .

It goes back again, the third down things limit our chances. You limit your drives; you limit your play on the field. We moved the ball pretty well this past week, but we just needed a few more shots. By converting, we can get nine more runs. Converting two or three more plays, you’re going to get six or eight more runs anyway. All of that ties together unfortunately.

You could just stand there and keep running it to get your numbers up and you’re not playing winning football. You’re just doing it for the wrong reason. We just have to play good complementary ball and see if we can get that done and get the good movement going.”

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