Dear Pete: I love you, but . . .

Your ego and excitability in games are a problem that hurts this team.

There might be no one better at crafting a team that scrapes and claws until the final whistle. There might be no no one better at getting buy in from well-paid athletes. There might be no one better at assembling a staff that supports the two above facets of your team . . .

But your clock management, your awful decisions with challenges are a liability to this team.

As president of football operations, you need to hire someone to help you. To make you take the points. To do the quality control work to assure you stop wasting timeouts on long third downs in the third quarter when you're down three-plus scores.

It's stark to anyone with any critical thinking ability. Swallow your pride and remove some in-game authority from yourself.

Please.

C'mon man. I get what you're saying and the clock management was an issue. But some of the clock management stuff was on Wilson who seemed to just lose track of the play clock.

Taking the points? I don't know. Obviously in hindsight you wish you did. But keep in mind...we might have taken the 4th down shot in the 4th quarter if we had taken the points, but its still a 4th down shot. Pete just happened to take the 4th down shot at the end of the second quarter and, unfortunately, we missed.

If he gets it and we score the TD in the 2nd quarter, then maybe we're kicking the FG for the tie at the end there.

Hindsight makes all of us smarter.

No. Not in hindsight. It was the wrong decision. You take the points and get on the board. It was 31 to bloody zero. It's about a 90%+ field goal, and, what, a 35% chance at a first down?

Bad decision. A bad decision that isn't on an island.

I mean, Pete isn't Art Shell-bad, but he isn't good. He's gotten away with a lot of bad, aggressive decisions. But the repercussions add up. And if you really believe in doing whatever you can to make this team better, I believe you should support getting the guy some better advice on the sideline.

I didn't hear anyone complaining about the fake punt td in last years NFCCG. I didn't hear anyone complaining about the decision to go for it at the end of the fist half of last years SB that resulted in 7 instead of 3. And I didn't hear anyone complain about the fake punt today. I'm only hearing complaining on the risky play that didn't work. Yes, this is hindsight.

lol this post is terrible.

He panicked on the 4th and 5 yes, but also won his challenge today and we converted the fake punt. If Russell Wilson doesn't take an awful sack right after.. we might score on the drive.

Can't blame that on Pete's "ego" or "excitability" .. we're as successful as we are because of that same attitude. Sword goes both ways

nanomoz":22yu0jgx said:

No. Not in hindsight. It was the wrong decision. You take the points and get on the board. It was 31 to bloody zero. It's about a 90%+ field goal, and, what, a 35% chance at a first down?

Bad decision. A bad decision that isn't on an island.

I mean, Pete isn't Art Shell-bad, but he isn't good. He's gotten away with a lot of bad, aggressive decisions. But the repercussions add up. And if you really believe in doing whatever you can to make this team better, I believe you should support getting the guy some better advice on the sideline.

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Hindsight is easy when you're not making the call. At the time 31-0 you have to go for it (I believe)

Who cares about his flaws, without him we're no better than the Rams or Lions. Just another perennial 8-8 or 7-9 team.

To be honest, the "only" mistake today was not to kick that FG on 4th and 5 in the 2nd quarter.

Simple math does it. 31-0 is five scores down. 31-3 is four scores down. At that moment we needed the points.

Bob Condotta ‏@bcondotta 35s35 seconds ago
Carroll said he'll kick himself for decision at end of half. Says any decision they doesn't work is a bad one.

Hawk-Lock":m800prxk said:

I didn't hear anyone complaining about the fake punt td in last years NFCCG. I didn't hear anyone complaining about the decision to go for it at the end of the fist half of last years SB that resulted in 7 instead of 3. And I didn't hear anyone complain about the fake punt today. I'm only hearing complaining on the risky play that didn't work. Yes, this is hindsight.

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Part of the reason the fake punt wasn't a bad decision is because of not taking the field goal.

I repeat: the decisions I'm criticizing aren't on an island. Some aggressive decisions are good. Some are clearly not.

soje":tevumfg1 said:

To be honest, the "only" mistake today was not to kick that FG on 4th and 5 in the 2nd quarter.

Simple math does it. 31-0 is five scores down. 31-3 is four scores down. At that moment we needed the points.

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You don't take issue with burning a timeout near their own goal line in the third quarter on third and a mile?

I think it's okay to ask for better. You're supposed to be always trying to get better. I'm calling attention to these deficiencies, though futilely, with that hope.

Pete's ego does drive me nuts, but I can't trash him much after the 2010 WC excitement, and the 2013 Championship. Yes, his screwjobs in the 2012, 2014-15 playoffs are frustrating.

The last drive before halftime had a couple of extremely bad playcalls, and the decision to go for 4th down near the end of the first half instead of taking 3 points felt like it was too early to be desperate (and it ultimately cost Seattle a realistic shot at tying the game in the final minutes).

But other than that, I thought Pete did a great job. His fake punt was masterful, and the playcalling overall in the 2nd half was pitch perfect. It's too bad that delay of game continues to be such a big problem for this team, and I was stunned when Russell took that timeout on 3rd and 24. But I don't blame Pete for that stuff.

Carroll was also better on his challenges today than Rivera was.

And I know this is super douchey considering that Carolina was up 31-0 in the 2nd quarter, but I'm pretty sure the momentum created by the cleats issue and 10am start probably spotted Carolina at least a couple early TDs. Once the game started normalizing, Seattle looked like the better team.

BTW, the 10am start thing is still very much real, especially when playing one of the best offenses in the NFL.

kearly":2jqkwe8t said:

The last drive before halftime had a couple of extremely bad playcalls, and the decision to go for 4th down near the end of the first half instead of taking 3 points felt like it was too early to be desperate (and it ultimately cost Seattle a realistic shot at tying the game in the final minutes).

But other than that, I thought Pete did a great job. His fake punt was masterful, and the playcalling overall in the 2nd half was pitch perfect. It's too bad that delay of game continues to be such a big problem for this team, and I was stunned when Russell took that timeout on 3rd and 24. But I don't blame Pete for that stuff.

Carroll was also better on his challenges today than Rivera was.

And I know this is super douchey considering that Carolina was up 31-0 in the 2nd quarter, but I'm pretty sure the momentum created by the cleats issue and 10am start probably spotted Carolina at least a couple early TDs. Once the game started normalizing, Seattle looked like the better team.

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Thought we took our time on our last TD drive. Maybe it was necessary though.

I totally get the OP. I also think his post is a cumulative evaluation of Pete's tenure.

There is no coach I'd rather have in the NFL, but I have seen Pete "out coached" a number of times in his tenure on game day. Hell, I remember a SD game years ago in Seattle. , that bewildered me. Most of the time we have the talent to overcome poor decisions, today wasn't one of those days unfortunately.

Nobody is without their liabilities I suppose, I love Pete, grateful for him and wouldn't trade him for anyone, but I never count on him outsmarting an opponent like you see with some other elite coaches. As far as this game goes, I believe you take the points (posted in the game day forum prior), and you don't run Marshawn up the middle at the end of the half, but who knows.

nanomoz":orcjd11a said:

Hawk-Lock":orcjd11a said:

I didn't hear anyone complaining about the fake punt td in last years NFCCG. I didn't hear anyone complaining about the decision to go for it at the end of the fist half of last years SB that resulted in 7 instead of 3. And I didn't hear anyone complain about the fake punt today. I'm only hearing complaining on the risky play that didn't work. Yes, this is hindsight.

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Part of the reason the fake punt wasn't a bad decision is because of not taking the field goal.

I repeat: the decisions I'm criticizing aren't on an island. Some aggressive decisions are good. Some are clearly not.

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But if we don't convert that fake punt we are basically giving them a FG.

And we passed up a FG at the end of the fist half of last years SB.

As a coach you live and die with the decisions you make. In the end, you will never be perfect.

Shoulda woulda coulda, none of those play matter because we still lost.

Don't dig yourself a 31 point deficit, its as simple as that.

seahawkfreak":1mgxq6r9 said:

kearly":1mgxq6r9 said:

The last drive before halftime had a couple of extremely bad playcalls, and the decision to go for 4th down near the end of the first half instead of taking 3 points felt like it was too early to be desperate (and it ultimately cost Seattle a realistic shot at tying the game in the final minutes).

But other than that, I thought Pete did a great job. His fake punt was masterful, and the playcalling overall in the 2nd half was pitch perfect. It's too bad that delay of game continues to be such a big problem for this team, and I was stunned when Russell took that timeout on 3rd and 24. But I don't blame Pete for that stuff.

Carroll was also better on his challenges today than Rivera was.

And I know this is super douchey considering that Carolina was up 31-0 in the 2nd quarter, but I'm pretty sure the momentum created by the cleats issue and 10am start probably spotted Carolina at least a couple early TDs. Once the game started normalizing, Seattle looked like the better team.

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Thought we took our time on our last TD drive. Maybe it was necessary though.

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They wasted time on both of their final 2 TD drives and that cost them. 2nd to last TD drive they got the ball with something like 9.5 minutes and needed 3 scores. They wasted probably in the neighborhood of 20-25 seconds a play on that drive and burned over a third of the time they had left. This is not excusable. They wasted a time out to avoid a delay of game for the 6th (?) time in 2 games and actually got away with another delay of game. Again, to have that happen at all in this game after the last game is not excusable.

nanomoz":mo45vzct said:

No. Not in hindsight. It was the wrong decision. You take the points and get on the board. It was 31 to bloody zero. It's about a 90%+ field goal, and, what, a 35% chance at a first down?

Bad decision. A bad decision that isn't on an island.

I mean, Pete isn't Art Shell-bad, but he isn't good. He's gotten away with a lot of bad, aggressive decisions. But the repercussions add up. And if you really believe in doing whatever you can to make this team better, I believe you should support getting the guy some better advice on the sideline.

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Listen to yourself. "31 to bloody zero" means you need to put TDs on the board, not peck away with field goals

kearly":2nqov55n said:

And I know this is super douchey considering that Carolina was up 31-0 in the 2nd quarter, but I'm pretty sure the momentum created by the cleats issue and 10am start probably spotted Carolina at least a couple early TDs. Once the game started normalizing, Seattle looked like the better team.

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The same way the 49ers looked like the better team in the second half of the last Super Bowl they played in?

At best I'll give you that the Seahawks found a way to limit the Panthers run game in the 2nd half. Which in essence made it much harder to mount drives.

But part of that is just the nature of huge leads in the NFL, not playing to the fullest potential for 60 minutes.....it's impossible. Terry Bradshaw said that and he played on teams that beat the crap of out people week in and week out.

Any idea what it takes to give a thorough ass kicking to any NFL team for a first half like that? A very good one at that?