Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll

Opening statement:: “I’m disappointed that after the terrific drive that we had, 80-something yards with the big catch in the end zone to go ahead, that we couldn’t finish it off the way we wanted to. We didn’t have the stops in us on third down today defensively and that allowed them to keep moving the football and keep the ball rolling. When they needed it, on their last drive, they had it all. They did a very good job, it’s a great win for them to get in the fashion that they did. We would like to think that we’re going to find a way to stop them with our defense and we didn’t. There was a lot that led to that and that we weren’t very good on third down in this game. And so in that sequence there, I don’t know how many they had, but they converted them all and took it right down to the last inch and fought like crazy to see if we could at least go to OT. They made a great play to win it right at the end. So as we finish the first half, I look back at this half and I see that we weren’t good enough on the road to get the wins. We’re in every game, we have a chance every time to it. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get that done. As we start up going back, the schedule tilts a little bit more for being at home. We have to do a good job with that. We have to do a good start here to start the second half and get going. Everybody, those young guys know, they know that we’re okay. They know that we can play football. They need to hang tough, be resilient, come back and get going and see if we can’t put together a second half that really makes this season feel like we’re going in the right direction and making great progress. There’s no doubt in anybody’s mind that we can, we just have to go do it. So, great win for Detroit, unfortunately we’re going to lose track of the great drive that Russell (Wilson) laid down there and great catch that Zach (Miller) made, but that’s the way it goes and they get the win.”
On what the difference was on third downs:: “They kind of were able to do what they wanted to do, you know, whether we pressured them some and when we did we had a little bit of success but not enough. They got the ball on the edge really well when we pressured and (Matthew) Stafford did a really good job of moving the ball around like he needed to. And then when it came down to those wins on coverage, you know, or the wins on the rushes, it’s always one-on-one stuff that happens on third down and we didn’t have the plays that we needed. And so they have a huge day on third down. Any one of those in there that you stop change the game. So, we have a lot of work to do. It’s unfortunate, we got the big touchdown play on third and long, you know, and we’re laying back and all that and we still got beat on a great throw and catch by them. And that never happens to us. So, that was, when you look back, that was a huge play in this game and it was just, we gave it to them on third and 16 or something, whatever it was. Third and 12, making that play, and those are the regrets that you have after a game like this.”
On being puzzled by moving forward on offense and back on defense:: “Really disappointing. And every one of those guys on defense knows, the game was ours to win. They thought they had to do what they had to do, ‘Lets go get our stop and get out of here,’ and it didn’t happen.”
On the end of the first half play:: “Yeah, we were trying to get in field goal range. We were still a long ways away with not enough time to keep taking big shots. We wanted to get in field goal range and they fortunately hit it and they hit the trap and we didn’t make the yards we wanted. Then we came back, I think, two-long flap, trying to just get five yards to get in field goal range and then with two seconds left we could chuck it one time and take a shot and see if Steven (Hauschka) can make a heck of a kick. He gave it a good go, he didn’t get it, but we were trying to get our shot to kick a field goal is what we were going for there. We had our time outs so it was okay to do that, we had a chance to do it. Another situation where you don’t have a time out you might not run the ball there. I think we did exactly what we needed to do to put ourselves in position, maybe six or eight yards to really put us where we wanted to be.”
On the lesser known Lions receivers having good games:: “Yeah, Titus (Young) made big plays, you know, the huge play when he gets behind us is just a breakdown. We just thought we had him and he threw a great bomb over the top. That’s a huge play and then of course making the touchdown play at the end which was a great throw in the dirt just underneath B.B. and they had better throw and catch than we had.”
On TE Brandon Pettigrew:: “Yeah, I don’t know what his numbers were, but we knew they were going to go to Calvin, go to Pettigrew. Those are the guts that get a bunch of balls. It was different with Burleson not playing, we weren’t sure how they would go, figuring it would go to Titus and unfortunately they got him behind us one time.”
On if it was surprising how much Young got the ball:: “No no. Not at all. They did exactly what we thought they would do in terms of throwing the football. They have great confidence in the quarterback and the receivers and their ability to protect and that’s how they play. They’re averaging over 300 yards a game passing for the whole season so far. So that’s what they’re committed to. They ran the ball a little bit. There was one play that got out that was, wasn’t even bothersome really, it was kind of like ‘Okay, they’re going to get some.’ We needed to play the passing game a little bit better and they were better than we were today.”
On any injuries:: “There’s some stuff. There’s some wrists and stuff like that. Mike Rob’s got a sprained wrist, (Obomanu) I think has a sprained wrist. Golden tweaked his ankle. Stuff like that. We’ll wait and see what happens on all that.”
On the touchdown by RB Marshawn Lynch:: “It was a play in the game plan. You know, Tom thought he had something special there and it hit perfectly. It was as well blocked of a play as you can block and Marshawn showed he can go a long ways and it was a very cool play for us to get. Unfortunately they come right back with their own bomb and kind of match it up, but that was a great play. It was perfect.”
On missing DE Jason Jones in the nickel:: “Of course in this game. Yeah, yeah – he’s one of our guys and it would have been great to have him. He would have had 30-something rushes, 35 rushes today. He’s right in the mix. That makes a big difference for us. It’s unfortunate we don’t have him.”
On WR Braylon Edwards injury:: “He woke up this morning and his knee flared up. We were surprised. He was surprised as anybody. He tried to get going, tried to run and just couldn’t get going today. He drained his knee and all that kind of stuff and just came out of nowhere.”

Seahawks Quarterback Russell Wilson

On the loss to Detroit despite a good game offensively:: “Yeah, it was definitely a tough loss. We felt like we did everything that we could possibly to, you know, give ourselves a great chance and we just unfortunately came up short. You know, it’s disappointing. I think the biggest thing is looking forward. You know, we’ve got a stretch of six out of the eight I believe at home. You know, our fans are going to be huge for us to come back home. That’s going to really help.”
On the drive to take the lead in the fourth quarter:: “Yeah, I definitely believe we can do that consistently. You know, we have the time in terms of the offensive line blocking and doing a great job of giving me enough time to make decisions. Guys are coming up with big plays and that’s what we need. When the game’s on the line, we’ve got to rise to the occasion. We definitely did that today.”
On TE Zach Miller’s touchdown catch:: “Yeah, that was a great catch. I knew he’d catch it, you know, one-on-one situation. Zach’s a tremendous tight end and has unbelievable hands. He did a great job of coming down with that.”
On RB Marshawn Lynch’s long touchdown run:: “Well, coach (Tom) Cable and coach (Darrell) Bevell did a great job of getting the offensive line ready for that play. Guys did a great job of blocking it up. The receivers did a great job of moving their feet. Marshawn hit the hole and he was gone. You know, nobody could catch him.”
On not letting two losses affect the morale of the team:: “You know, I think that’s the biggest thing, obviously, is staying positive and believing in what we do. You know, all the games we’ve lost have been, you know, on the road. And first of all, that’s the biggest thing that we go back home and play six out of the eight at home and now it’s time to focus on what we can do. Control our destiny and just play one play at a time and one game at a time. Keep working the way we are.”
On using this game as a blueprint for the offense the rest of the season:: “Well, I think we did a great job in the passing game today. There’s some things that we wish we could’ve had back and we could’ve made some more plays we feel like just as a team. That’s the way we always thing. We’re always positive about it all and we always think, you know, we can get a little bit more. So, I think that’s the biggest think as an offensive group, you know, we’re continuing to push forward and continuing to grow. You know, I think the offensive line’s doing a great job communicating and I think we’re doing a great job of communicating in terms of receivers, tight ends, running backs and we’re doing a good job of that right now.”
On settling for three points on the opening drive of the game:: “Well, you know there’s going to be ups and downs. Obviously, you know, Detroit has a great defense and they can make some plays. They did a good job of stopping us. The good thing is we got points out of it and, you know, early in the game you always want to get those points no matter what the situation. Obviously, you want touchdowns, but we did a good job in the red zone today. You know, I think that was our biggest thing coming into this game against a great defensive team that’s really good. I think they’re maybe number one or number two in the red zone probably. You know, we did a good job against them of making some plays and capitalizing.”
On how deflating it is to see the Lions execute a game-winning drive after taking the lead:: “It’s not deflating for me because I always believe that if there’s time on the clock then we still got hope. We still got a chance. You know, that’s my mindset, you know, and just if there’s a second on the clock we can still score. You know, we’ve done that this year, obviously, and so there’s been some situations where we’ve capitalized on those situations. Our defense has done a tremendous job all season of making some big time stops when we needed them and unfortunately they didn’t today. But I know they will next time and that’s the way we look at it.”
On his interception:: “The interception, you know, I thought Sidney (Rice) was saying, “I’m putting my hand up, I’m going” and he was saying, “Hey, throw it to me now.’ So it was just one of those situations. Just trying to give a chance, you know, and the good thing is we had amnesia. We thought about it. We kept playing. We kept attacking them and we made some plays when we really needed them.’
On the play of WR Golden Tate:: “Well, Golden’s character, Golden’s competitiveness is tremendous. It’s relentless and he did a great job of bouncing back all week. You know, that’s the thing we did on offense this entire week is really focus in on the attention to detail, really pushing ourselves in practice and capitalizing on things. I think it showed today, but we didn’t have enough for whatever reason. So, obviously, the goal is to win and that’s our focus, obviously, going into next week. Just continue to work at practice, continue to put ourselves in the best situations possible and hopefully we get a win.”

Seahawks TE Zach Miller

On QB Russell Wilson throwing the ball where only the receiver can catch it:: “I think that’s just trust. Russell’s developing trust with all the receivers. He’s, you know, putting it up for grabs to go make plays on and I think we’re doing a pretty good job of that.”
On what has happened since Wilson has become the quarterback:: “I think you’ve seen what Russell can do and what the coaches see in him. He’s chucking around the football a little bit more now and kind of giving him more liberty to do that and I think he’s showing how good of a passer he is.”
On what he wanted more out of the last play:: “More time. As an offense you want a little bit more time to, you know, maybe we can go down the field and make something happen and when you only have 20 seconds or 16 seconds or whatever we started with, just not a lot of time to work with.”
On the fourth down call on their go-ahead touchdown drive:: “Well I think it was fourth-and-two. We got the playmakers that can make plays and get it and so (Carroll) trusts our offense and trusts Russell to make that good decision and get the ball in there and the receiver to catch it.”

Seahawks CB Richard Sherman

On the Lions’ winning drive:: “I mean, he just kept checking it down. That’s pretty much how the drive went. He checked everything down. Shoot, they got some yards and they scored.”
On defending WR Calvin Johnson:: “I mean, you see his numbers, they speak for themselves. He was a non-factor. So, you know, that’s how that went. He was not a factor in the game. That’s all you can say about that.”
On if he thinks he got in Johnson’s head based on his dropped pass in the end zone:: “No, no. Shoot, that was a good pass; they had a good play drawn up and it just went off his fingertips. I mean, that wasn’t, I don’t know if that had much to do with me. He just, I think it was lack of concentration. Nine times out of 10 he makes that catch.”
On how disappointing the loss is:: “I mean, it’s always tough but, you know, we’ve just got to bounce back and get ready for Minnesota. Every loss is tough whether it’s close or you get blown out. You got to find a way to bounce back and get ready for the next opponent.”
On wanting to be on the field with a lead at the end of the game:: “Yeah, definitely. Definitely, definitely; we always want the game on our shoulders and this is just one of those times we didn’t pull it out. We’ve pulled it out before, we pulled it out against, you know, the Patriots and this was just one of those opportunities we let get away and that’s why we’re moving on to our next opponent. That’s all we can do.”

Seahawks DE Chris Clemons

On if this is a particularly difficult loss:: “Any loss you have is a difficult loss and definitely an NFC loss is difficult. I mean, we had chances to end the game and obviously we didn’t get that done today.”
On if he thought they had it in the bag:: “I mean, you never think that you have it in the bag. You just got to go out there and secure it. That’s the only thing that we could have went out there and done. Like I said, they made a few good plays at the end of the game to put themselves in a position to score the winning touchdown. So, they did a hell of a job doing that.”
On if QB Matthew Stafford threw anything at them they didn’t expect:: “No, I mean, we understood what he was capable of. We knew he had a very good arm. He’s a pretty good pocket quarterback. So, we just had to go out and try to frustrate him and we obviously didn’t get that done.”