Seahawks coach Pete Carroll on Rex Ryan: ‘I wish he’d coach his own team’
SEATTLE – Richard Sherman’s attempt to block a field goal by Buffalo’s Dan Carpenter at the end of the first half of Monday’s 31-25 win over the Bills, which then set off a confusing and ultimately somewhat wrong application of some NFL rules, also led to a strong rebuke of Sherman after the game from Buffalo coach Rex Ryan.
Specifically, Ryan said Sherman was “mean-mugging like he’s doing” and was “basically taunting us. So I had some words. I think I said that, ‘You’re too good of a player to act like an ass.’ ”
To that, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said during his regular day-after-game radio show on ESPN 710 Seattle that “I just wish he’d coach his own team – that’s it. Just coach your own guys.”
Carroll also reiterated what he said after the game – that if there was no whistle blown then Sherman did the right thing by continuing on to try to block the kick even though he had been ruled offsides.
Carroll said he remains unclear if any official blew a whistle or otherwise called the play dead.
“I didn’t see anybody in what I’ve looked at signal the play dead,” Carroll said. “But I don’t know that that happened. Richard was committed and going and he was going to get by the guy. There’s a fantastic picture that we got with his hand on the football as well, But that’s not really what the call is and that’s what they clarified afterwards.
“Richard did the best he could to try to block the kick – once he’s already there he’s afraid he’s going to run by it and unfortunately the guy (Carpenter) gets hit. And that guy, he hams it up a little bit, too, which made it bad. But he was ready to play that same play, fortunately. But they should have blown it like it’s an unabated guy to the quarterback, that’s what the call should have followed. Then if a guy comes off the edge they blow he whistle and he goes and drills the quarterback they give you unnecessary roughness. That’s what the call should have been in that case.“
Asked specifically if he heard a whistle, Carroll said: “I don’t know. Was there a whistle or wasn’t there a whistle? They have to determine it. Could you hear it at that moment? I think maybe not, but who knows?”
Carroll said again that Sherman “should avoid the contact if he hears the whistle. Otherwise he plays the play out. Play the play out and try to block the kick and he did. You can see he was by, he had to reach back to block the thing, so he just kind of threw his body in there. The thing that looks bad is, ‘Oh the poor guy got hurt.’ Well that’s terrible. We don’t want the guy to get hurt, that’s’ what the rules are for to keep that from happening.”
Carroll took offense to the idea that it was a dirty play by Sherman, saying, “There was no intention or nothing it just happened, you know?”
Carroll also made reference to the final play of the game, which has drawn a lot of attention thanks to a tweet from Deadspin showing Sherman chucking Buffalo receiver Walter Powell. Sherman responded to Deadspin that the play is legal since Buffalo QB Tyrod Taylor had left the pocket.
Carroll said the play is “totally legal. When the quarterback moves outside of the pocket you are allowed to chuck the receiver.”
Asked if the Seahawks coach that, Carroll said, “Sure, sure you do. And you have to do it legally – you can’t take a cheap shot on a guy. He did it exactly right and it just happened to be a very physical shot but you have a chance to eliminate receivers, that’s what you are trying to get done in that situation, to plaster him. So everybody functioned beautifully and we covered him up really well and everyone was really clean.”