Pete Carroll falls back on familiar rule of 53 to turn struggling Seahawks around

Tim Weaver
·2 min read
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While it’s easy (and fun) to make light of Russell Wilson’s rough start to the season, the Seahawks really don’t have anything to brag about. We are seeing flashes of promise from guys like Abe Lucas and Tariq Woolen every week, but overall their roster has too many holes to really compete this year.

It doesn’t help that their head coach is still stuck in 1984. When asked yesterday on ESPN how his team can turn things around and get a win next week, Pete Carroll fell back on his old, familiar rule of 53 thing – meaning his team had 53 combined runs and completions in Sunday’s loss to the Falcons. Carroll seems to think that’s some kind of milestone for how to win games in this league. Here’s his full answer, per Mike Dugar at the Athletic.

Frustrating doesn’t quite cut it, here.

NFL coaches say a lot of strange things when trying to explain why their teams aren’t winning and Carroll certainly isn’t alone with his faith in seemingly random numbers and markers to determine success.

Yes, converting on third down and having a multiple offense and winning the turnover battle all can help your team – to say nothing of not giving up 157 rushing yards per game.

All that being said, Carroll is missing the forest for the trees, here. Most games in this league are close, one-score affairs that are usually determined by a few key plays and decisions. To point to 53 combined completions and runs as some kind of we-almost-had-them thing when he also decided to punt on fourth and two speaks to an outdated philosophy.

Following his team’s Week 1 win over Russell Wilson and the Broncos, Carroll pointed to the analytics that indicated forcing Wilson to his left helped them contain him. For a coach to embrace those numbers but still leave points on the field by punting in positive situations is beyond comprehension.

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Story originally appeared on Seahawks Wire