Seahawks coach Pete Carroll: ‘It was tough — tough day’

Here’s what Seahawks coach Pete Carroll had to say after Sunday’s 9-3 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
(Opening remarks)
“We’re really disappointed to come down here and play in this opportunity to start the season and had a chance to get to 2-0, and when you come out and play like that and not give us a real shot to get ahead, it was tough – tough day. And those guys did a nice job – they hold onto the ball well, they played a good, solid football game and that’s all it took, today for them. If we had our own way, I don’t know how we had the pass interference penalties today on offense, but we did, and they were really disruptive in the game – it was definitely a tight game. I thought our defense played really well, again and held them down for the most part, but they didn’t make some plays, enough to get field goals and you’ve got to hand it to them. On the other side of the ball, I never could have thought that we would go the first couple of weeks and not score one touchdown. I’m just surprised at that and we’re better than that. And we’re going to go back to work. It’s early in the year and we have a lot of stuff that we can get better at and improve and we’re going to do that.”

(On if he was especially mad about WR Tyler Lockett’s offensive pass interference penalty in the fourth quarter and what he saw on the play)
“I just thought the official was in a difficult position to call what he called, but I’m going to (contest) calls all the time. That was just one of them.”

(On the special teams unit’s struggles)
“I’ve felt like that both games. Look at the starts – again, it was twenty-two, last week, I don’t know what it was, this week, but I don’t think that it was a whole lot better. We’ve not been able to shift field position in our favor, and when we’re not getting turnovers, we can’t change what is happening. So we had to overcome it and we weren’t able to do that, today.”

(On what the team needs to improve on)
“Third downs have to go up, again. We’ve got to get our third downs going on offense and keep converting them. We have to not have offensive pass interference penalties. Those were crushers, today and it was unfortunate in those drives, so we have to do better there and figure that out, but it’s really coming down to converting. I would like to see us run the ball. We ran the ball a little bit in the third quarter and got going a little bit, but not like we had thought we could, early on. The numbers look really skewed because of that crazy play we got knocked way back, but we’re much better than that and we need to show that.”

(On the Rams’ defensive line’s performance)
“There’s no question – these guys are fantastic. We’ve faced two great defensive lines and I think our guys have learned a lot. I think they protected well today, for the most part, and gave us a chance. I thought we protected better than we have in past games against these guys, so we’re going in the right direction but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

(On whether or not nostalgia from being back in Los Angeles has affected him)
“Absolutely not. That had no factor in any of this and no issue. Not for me or for anybody else around here. That has nothing to do with it.”

(On how the game was officiated)
“I thought that this was going to be hard. I thought that this was going to be a hard one, and it was. We need to overcome some stuff that happened and we’ve just got to get better than that.”

(On RB Thomas Rawls’ injury)
“He got kicked in the lower leg. He’s got a contusion, but the X-rays were fine, so he’s just going to be sore and he’s got to come back from that.”

(On the challenge to get the running game going)
“It just took us a lot to figure it out – what we needed to do and the way they were playing us, how they were attacking the line of scrimmage. They were really good. We needed to make sure that we figured that out and it just took us a while, and not soon enough. We weren’t able to stay with it long enough to really develop it in the second half.”

(On how the heat and the noise affected his team)
“It was a warm day. The noise was not a factor.”

(On how QB Russell Wilson played and whether or not his injury limited him)
“You could see he was a little bit limited, but I thought he did great under the circumstances and he was able to get out a few times and avoid some pressure, and I thought it was a really good effort by him. There were not too many throws that he was off on. He did a nice job with the deep ball, today and he kept the ball moving and got the ball out of his hands, like we had anticipated and wanted him to do, so I thought that he played solid.”

(On WR Tyler Lockett’s injury and ability to return to the game)
“He had a little bit of a sprained knee and he just came back. He was close to being hurt and he came back. He did an obviously great job to give us a chance to jump out on the last drive, it just didn’t turn out right.”

(On if he would rather have had RB Christine Michael go down instead of fight for more yards, resulting in a fumble on the Seahawks’ last offensive play)
“No. He’s competing. He’s playing ball.”

(On T J’Marcus Webb’s performance)
“I need to see the film. I can’t tell you. I thought he did alright. I don’t know. I’ve got to wait and see.”

(On management of QB Russell Wilson’s injury)
“He’s going to be involved with rehab throughout this week. I already told him about that. He knows exactly what he needs to do. He did an incredible job this week, dedicating his entire week to getting right, which he did. He was able to play. He feels okay now, so we’re way ahead of where we were last week at this time.”

(On DE Frank Clark’s performance, thus far)
“Frank’s doing great. Just like we had talked about, we hoped that we could keep moving him around and putting him in different positions, and he’s taking advantage of it. He’s doing a fine job.”

(On DE Cassius Marsh’s face mask penalty in the fourth quarter)
“I thought his hand was just on (the opposing player’s) helmet. I didn’t think he controlled anything on it. That was hard to tell. That was a huge call. I hope that (the official) had a really good look at it, because he had a better look than we did.”

(On his level of surprise that his offense has only scored fifteen points in two games)
“I’m real surprised about that. We never have anticipated that would happen starting off the season. I thought we would be ahead of that.”

(On if he knew why the Rams were able to hit a few explosive plays on offense)
“I do. I know exactly what happened. There was three of them of note. They did a nice job throwing and catching, today, and they made some nice plays. The little wheel route by the tight end was the big play that put them down there. Our defense did a fantastic job to not allow touchdowns and hold up with all of their opportunities. They’re a really tough group and they did a terrific job to keep them out of the end zone.”

(On the Rams’ home atmosphere being different in Los Angeles than in St. Louis)
“Honestly, the dome (in St. Louis) was really, really hard, and this is a different arena. It’s a different venue.”

(On if he knows why the Rams have been so successful against his team the last couple of years)
“No, they did a nice job, again. I have to give them credit. If I did, it wouldn’t have happened.”

(On his defense not getting turnovers)
“I don’t know if the play at the end of the half (was or was not) a turnover. I don’t know how that one went down, but a couple of minus turnover (differentials) in the first two games is not the way we play. It’s not our style, at all. It’s hard to overcome that, and that’s why the score is so close. We’re not in the plus-category to change that, so we have to do a better job, and that’s really that which is still left out there, defensively. We can’t be playing football better than we are.”

(On if the west coast teams in the NFC West is good for the league)
“I hope it is. I think it’s really good for our division to keep it here, and it makes sense, and I think it’s logical. So, hopefully we do a good job of it and show that this is a really tough division that we have and it’s hard for people to play here, and all that kind of stuff. We all like it.”

(On if there were any other injuries from today’s game)
“No.”

(On if QB Russell Wilson’s injury limited play calling)
“No. Not enough to even make it an issue.”

(On if he thinks that his offensive line is behind their expected development)
“No. I don’t think that it’s the offensive line. I just think we have to do better. We have to come out and just be more complete. We’ve got to convert on third down like we want to, like we did in the second half of the season, last year. We’re a little behind schedule, there. I’m surprised at that, because we worked really hard at it and we’re going to show that we’re good at that. I think that’s been the difference in both of these games, really.”