Pete Carroll: "The Sky Is The Limit For Boye Mafe"

Pete Carroll (0:01)

Well, we had good meetings today coming off this ballgame here yesterday. There's a lot of good things that happened. There's a lot of stuff to fix and correct and all that, as always. We feel like we're on it, and pleased that we made it out pretty healthy. And I'm looking forward to getting going again this week. So you guys asked the questions and all, but there was a lot of stuff that I really liked in that game. I like that we were, generally I'll say that we got back to point 60 minutes of football and it was very similar and familiar to the other games that we've been playing that have been in the same fashion. And to me, that's a big deal. We've got a way that we want to play football and that will take us all the way through the finish. And I really like that because it's a chance to win in every game.

Yeah, he just played a really good football game. He did a very nice job. It was obviously his best play for us. And that's why we left him in. We had planned to split the time. We liked the way he was going. So we just kind of left him out there and we're pleased to have him out there at the end, down the stretch. There was some concern, how would his endurance be, staying out because he hadn't played a lot the last couple of weeks. And so this week was a chance to see him go and he came through in big fashion.

Abe's gonna be practicing this week.

Has he been down so long that it's unrealistic to play? You're gonna see what he does and what he looks like and all that and how he feels about it and how he responds to the workload, the actual football stuff. But the trainer, he has a chance, he could, and so we'll see what happens.

No, I don't know, I couldn't have been there. George Blanda was a kicker and a quarterback. I mean, I don't know, there's nobody. I mean, I don't know how many guys have ever played in the 40s. Like Chris Matthews, maybe?

Well, he's a Matthews, and that's a whole different deal, that family, you know.

SPEAKER_2 (2:14)

What does it take to last this long?

Pete Carroll (2:18)

Well, as far as I'm concerned, there's one of them. So what does it take? Whatever he's got, the obvious trait that he shows is he's got great feet and quickness, you know. And you would think that as you get older, you'd lose that, but he has the ability to move and change direction and redirect and stuff that, you know, guys just don't have. Guys that are playing that are young don't have. So pretty special, you know, player.

What was the first thing you said about the yards?

Yeah, well, we're looking to run the ball well. You know, that's important to us. And we were effective running the football. We could have, we ran it 26 times, I think it was, you know. I think when you're getting in the 30s, you know, it's a good mix. Whatever happens with the throwing game from there, you're in good shape.

Yeah, that was alarming, you know, to me. You know, we were ahead at halftime and we go in and we don't play well in the third quarter or fourth quarter, you know, and okay, so after all of that time, this is what we are, you know, I was really disappointed by the first game.

And so that's probably why I may have reacted, you know, heavily in the other direction when I saw us start to put some games together, you know. And leave that one behind us. So we didn't win the Cincinnati game, but we finished the Cincinnati game going for it. You know, we were on it on both sides of the ball and had a chance. We just didn't convert, you know, to win the game. So that one to me was in fashion that the other games had been so.

SPEAKER_3 (4:04)

What did you see in their two fourth quarter drives?

Pete Carroll (4:06)

That they were, was there anything? They shifted modes a little bit. They went after the running game, you know, and right off the bat and surprised us a little bit. You know, that wasn't what had happened earlier in the game. And so they put, you know, three or four runs back to back that were pretty effective. And that just moved the football. So then we come back the next time, we're not sure if they're gonna try and do it again. So we had to, you know, play our way into that next sequence. And so they hit a couple of good plays, you know, the pass for the touchdown was a remarkable throwing catch. You know, we had coverage guys right on point, right where they're supposed to be. And the ball was, as Mark Sanchez called it, layered, was layered over the top.