The Seahawks asked for three challenges during the first half of Thursday night's game against the Rams, with coach Pete Carroll showing off his arm during one of the times he tossed the challenge flag.
The Seahawks were out of challenges by the time the game was less than 17 minutes old. But Carroll said he had no choice but to challenge what he felt were some pretty dubious spots of the ball.
Seattle won two of three challenges, including an overturning of a fourth down attempt by the Rams at the 7-yard-line that proved critical early.
“It was lousy,’’ Carroll said of using all his challenges as quickly as he did. “I was so upset that I had to do it because the first two of them we knew we were right on those and we just had to (use) them to get it done. You could see that the ball wasn’t spotted exactly right.”
Carroll first challenged the spot of the ball after a pass from Russell Wilson to Lockett on a third-and-six play on Seattle’s first drive. After the spot was initially short, replay showed Lockett had picked up the first down. The drive stalled after that.
The Seahawks challenged another spot with 4:08 left in the first quarter after the Rams went for it on fourth-and-one at the 7. Rams tailback Todd Gurley, who took a pitchout to the left, initially was judged to have gotten the first down at the 6.
After thinking about it for a few seconds, Carroll made a vehement throw of the red challenge flag, which landed at about the 5-yard-line.
“I put a little juice on that a couple times,” Carroll said of his throws.
The play was then overruled and the Seahawks took over at their own 7.
The final challenge came later in that drive as Carroll asked for a review of a spot on a pass to Doug Baldwin at the Rams’ 7. Seattle lost that challenge, which was the last it could use in the game.
Carroll said “everybody was in concert’’ on challenging the first two. He said he wasn’t surprised to lose the third challenge.
“We were a little split on the one we didn’t get,’’ he said. “I was just going by what I saw originally an then what the information that supported it. … That would have been cool to get three straight. It was worth a try. I thought ‘let’s go for the hat trick.’’’
After losing the third challenge the Seahawks decided to go for it and a holding penalty on linebacker Alec Ogletree covering Luke Willson gave the Seahawks a first down.
The Seahawks had been 1 of 4 on challenges before Thursday night.
The other challenge Seattle won came in Tampa Bay when the Seahawks asked to see if a lineman was held in the end zone. After review holding was called and Seattle got a safety.
According to Pro Football Reference, Carroll has now challenged 65 times in his career, winning 29.