Following the Seattle Seahawks’ loss to the Dallas Cowboys, coach Pete Carroll rips officiating.
Although yellow isn’t a part of the color schemes of the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks, fans saw a lot of it during Thursday night’s game.
Both teams drew an absurd number of penalties during the course of the match. Dallas had nine flags for 127 yards, compared to 10 for 130 yards for Seattle. Undoubtedly, a portion of those penalties were justified, but were they sufficient to elevate this game to the top of the season’s penalty list? Most likely not.
Pete Carroll, the coach of the Seahawks, expressed his dissatisfaction with the excessive amount of penalties committed by both teams after the game.
Carroll stated, “It’s unfortunate that it feels like there was a whole ‘nother factor in this game,” as ESPN reported. “I’m not sure, you guys witnessed it to a much higher degree than I did, but this game had way too many penalties on both sides. We must stop playing that style of football.”
Carroll was particularly bothered by one sequence in particular, despite all the penalties. Jason Myers’ field goal attempt was backed up to a 42-yard try by a delay of game penalty late in the first quarter, but the play clock was not correctly reset following the flag. As he and Carroll were demanding a restart, lo and behold, Myers ended up missing the kick.
Referee Clete Blakeman subsequently related his account of that sequence.
Carroll, however, feels that the officials made a grave error, as evidenced by his statement following the game, “The way I saw it, that’s an error on their part, and that was too bad.” Carroll feels that his explanation does not address this.
Carroll concluded his criticism of his officiating style by restating his belief that the league is harmed by the excessive frequency of penalties and that he will do everything in his power to reduce it.
“They know the game, they know how to make these calls, but they can’t call everything that when there’s a little this and a little that, and particularly when it doesn’t affect the play,” Carroll stated. “I’ll spend some time on this in the offseason for sure.”
