Pete Carroll: "We Are At Our Very Best Right Now"

Pete Carroll (0:00)

All right, so.

SPEAKER_2 (0:06)

When did you get there?

Pete Carroll (0:08)

Well, when they shut down Paul Silvia's, I think was the last time. It's still making the, you know, reports from the stadium or whatever. That was when I felt like it was probably time.

SPEAKER_3 (0:18)

What did make you want to go out there? I mean, obviously, I saw something you do after every game. What made you want to go out and kind of spend an extra time on the field and reflect?

Pete Carroll (0:24)

My grandkids, yeah, my grandsons. That was what it was about.

We're heading to Tennessee and a little bit of a short week. We got to modify a little bit to get that done. We're already in that. I want to do this better than we did our last short week. And so we're determined to change a couple of little things here about it.

Want the guys to really be ready to go again, because I know that Coach Raible, he's got a style for his club that is really obvious. They're tough, they're physical, they're strong and big. They run the hick out of the football. They believe in it. They're really aggressive on defense.

And we've got to get ourselves ready to go. And so we got to have a fantastic week here to make that happen.

We'll see some things, you know, see Geno will come back to practice. He's going to practice today and go full go. And we'll see how that works. That's exciting for us. And so there's a lot of interesting stuff about this week. And we got to get cranked up to get three games to go. And this is the only one we can focus on. So I hope we do a great job of that.

SPEAKER_4 (1:31)

Momentum is an interesting thing. When you have a win like you have the other night, how much can that potentially spring this team momentum-wise going forward?

Pete Carroll (1:39)

You know, because we've had to work so hard for everybody that we've played, and it's been frustrating and we're not getting what we want, but the guys keep coming back. So the mentality and the resolve is there, but there ain't nothing like the rewards of, you know, of the victory. And so this was, you know, it was, I hope we took it right, and we're going to take the next step, not being drawn back into it, but yet it was reinforcing. And it was reinforcing because we finished so well. And that's, you know, that's what we're always, the battle cry around here is finishing, and we did that on both sides of the football and in special teams as well. So we were all really there together at the moment when we needed to be in, that's crucially valuable. And so I'm hoping we can carry that with us.

SPEAKER_5 (2:26)

What was the key to cutting down their big plays?

Pete Carroll (2:30)

Guys did a really nice job on the deep end. Yeah, our guys did a really good job on the back end and kept them underneath us. And we knew it was going to be hard to get to the QB. So elusive and they're a good pass pro group also, but we needed to keep them from striking. And that's what Julian's play was such a big play. Both of his big plays were in good shape. And Mike was on top on an opportunity too. So we did a really nice job when we had the chances. And I think we just minimized their ops by playing really well and disciplined on the back end.

SPEAKER_3 (3:00)

You said after the game, you hadn't got a good look yet at Jackson's touchdown catch. When you saw that slow down the finger.

Pete Carroll (3:05)

Yeah, yeah. Somebody put a clip together from, I think the Rose Bowl or something like that. It was almost identical play and catch.

Why I bring that up is because we've seen him make catches on the practice field and in games already that you know he can make those plays. And you really kind of count on him doing it. He's just that good at it. He's got amazing body control and all that. So even when he made the catch to me, it wasn't, I didn't think it was like the greatest catch ever. I didn't know it was close, but because he's so comfortable in those situations. And so, yeah, it was a fantastic play. The timing of it was holy Mackerel. It was really close on the sideline there.

SPEAKER_3 (3:42)

We've seen all season long when either he or Devin Witherspoon makes a play, but the other one's one of the first ones to celebrate it. What have you liked about the way those two coming in together for short picks have sort of formed?