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www.seattletimes.com]
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll defends fake punt call, says team will have to wait to see if Jon Ryan can return next week
By Bob Condotta
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is hopeful punter Jon Ryan won't miss any time after suffering a concussion Thursday, but Carroll didn't rule out that the Seahawks may have to explore options.
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Seattle’s decision to call a fake punt with 5:22 remaining in a game in which it held a 24-3 lead not only has led to some second-guessing of the call but also could mean the Seahawks will have to find a fill-in punter.
Jon Ryan gained 26 yards on the play before taking a hard hit and suffering a concussion. He was examined at the hospital afterward and while coach Pete Carroll said Friday he thinks that Ryan will be okay he didn’t rule out that the team might need to find an additional punter for its game Dec. 24 against Arizona.
“We’ll see,’’ Carroll said. “Of course we’ll just wait it out with Jon but if he can’t play we’ll have to do something and we’ll figure it out. There’s a lot of guys who dropped notes in my suggestion box that they can punt. Guys like (Jermaine) Kearse and Russ (Russell Wilson), they all think they can punt if we need it. We’ll have some guys. We’ll have a punt pass and kick contest this week if we need to.”
Ryan’s wife, comedian Sarah Colonna, Tweeted Friday morning that Ryan had “a bit of a headache” but that “he’s good!”
Carroll expressed no second-day remorse about the play call, which some questioned due to the fact that the Seahawks had the game well in hand. On his radio show on 710 ESPN Seattle Carroll said “you’re either competing or you’re not.’’
During his press conference later in the day, Carroll defended it saying “you have to do what you have to do.’’
He then elaborated further saying: “We had a tremendous preparation for an opportunity to take that we knew could be like a turnover in the game. If we could get the opportunity we would go for it. It didn’t matter when it happened, we were looking for it the whole night. The opportunity that we took, it gave us a chance to hold onto the football and not give them even the chance to get the ball back.
What more could I do to help my team? How it gets perceived and all, that’s what you guys get to talk about when you want to and I think it’s a waste of energy but I understand it. I don’t expect that you can see it from our perspective. I thought it was an excellent demonstration of planning and prep and execution.
It worked perfectly, except for the end of it was terrible. But that allowed us to keep the football and it didn’t have anything to do with something with the score or anything, just trying to finish the game as well as we could, in command of it as we were.”
Special teams have been an especially big factor in the Rams-Seahawks series in recent years, and Los Angeles had tried and failed on a fake punt earlier in the game that handed Seattle a field goal. If Carroll was trying to maybe send a message to the Rams, though, will probably be left to history to figure out.
