Pete Carroll: "That Was An Incredible Football Game"

Pete Carroll (0:03)

Wow, what an event for our crowd and our fans and the following and all that. What a beautiful night for a Monday Night Football game, and to make it that dramatic and all those incredible football games, when nobody will forget that game.

It was an interesting game in that early on, we didn't get going well. And we stumbled around a couple of penalties and things like that. We just lost our drives, and defense gave up an easy drive in the first one, but then we just hung in there and just kept hanging and hanging. And it really was the theme of the night that we just kept playing. And knowing that if we just keep hanging in there, something good could happen and we stuck with it. And sure enough, the plays just started happening. Some beautiful football by a bunch of guys. Well, I would love the way we ran the ball in the third quarter, it changed the game.

That drive and then we threw it, and then the drive after that, we ran the ball well again. And really kind of took the game in our control for us. So it was the game that we wanted to play against these guys. And so it worked out beautifully.

So many guys made things happen in a special way. Kenny played a great football game for us tonight. He was all over the place. Just a fantastic game running and catching.

By the time the game was over, it took all night to get it done. Drew played a fantastic football game for us and did a beautiful job.

DK came through in the last drive and in other times in the game. It's a tough play. It's really difficult plays. He made him that other guys might not make. And then the throwing catch to Jackson. I haven't seen the good looks of it yet, but I do know from what everybody's comments were, that's the guy that's going to make that play. He's going to make that catch. He's just that good. And for him to have that opportunity, for Drew to put the ball on him, for Shane to call it, guys protect all of that. There's so many gorgeous things that happened there football wise that gave us a chance to get ahead there at the end.

And then the defense finished the game. They finished the game and came through. Julian Love's game was, you know, you tag it on to what he did last week, and then this week, incredible game, incredible plays. The last catch is exquisite on the sidelines. Toes tapping, hang on to the football, end the game, win the game, a walk off interception, all but just fantastic stuff. So I'm sure there's a lot of stuff that you guys want to ask questions about, but we're thrilled to get that game. It's been a really difficult stretch. We've played great football teams that are on a high, and every game we've been in it, every game we've had a chance, and we just weren't able to get over the hump. This was a huge ballgame for us, of course, going into the final stretch here, but our guys kept hanging, and it's so obvious, and we kept practicing really hard, and working really hard, and everybody kept believing that we could do something, and so tonight is that night. So now we got to, we'll get cracking for the next game, and we got a short week, and we'll just have to come back together and get working.

SPEAKER_2 (3:00)

92 yards, less than two minutes.

Pete Carroll (3:05)

Beautiful football. Just beautiful football. I mean, the poise that we talked to you about last week, I mean, that's where he's been. He's been on it. He's been in command.

You know, there's coupling completes in that drive, came right back and hit it and converted and made the first downs and all. And then to throw the touchdown to win a football game. Yeah, it's amazing stuff.

He would be the first to tell you about the guys around him. The offensive line did a great job tonight, running the football, won and also passed prone. They did a beautiful job against these guys and gave us a chance. And I mean, we couldn't have some more for him in that game tonight.

SPEAKER_3 (3:40)

What was the process like in deciding on Drew as the starter?

Pete Carroll (3:44)

Yeah, Drew took most of the plays during the week. We really tried to save Geno as much as we could and not overexpose him because it's been such a short span of time since the strain.

And we went out tonight to see could he play if we needed him to play in the workout. And he looked really good in the workout. But that was really the one taxing workout that we put him through. So we knew we could dress him, and if we needed him, we could go to him in hopes we wouldn't have to so we can buy him another week of healing. Because it was really too soon. It was a tough decision. Geno, it was hard as can be on Geno, because we got him all the way to that point and then say, no, dress, be there if we need you, but we'll go with the other fellas, see if we can make it to the next week so you can come back and play next week. And so we would be very hopeful that that would happen, that Geno would be able to play next practice next week and get ready and prove it and really secure his opportunity to play. And he's going to do it in his brain. I mean, he's a freaking warrior.