Did Pete Carroll coach his worst game on Monday night?

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is a great coach. But even great ones fail at times. Carroll made at least two questionable moves on Monday that may have cost Seattle a win.

Pete Carroll is the best coach in Seahawks history. He has won one Super Bowl and been to another. I am thankful Carroll is residing in Seattle. Heck, I drink so much Coach Pete kool-aid that I tweeted this on Monday during the game:

12s hated me for saying it. But at the time I believed it to be true. A fake field goal? If Luke Willson had managed to break one tackle, he could have scored. He didn’t. Now when I reflect on all that has happened in life, I think Carroll made a bad decision. Three points turned out to be huge. And the field goal that was faked was easily makeable for Blair Walsh.

After the game Carroll said, “We had a chance to (score). (Or) run out of bounds and stop the clock. We knew exactly what was going on. We figured we were going to break it. It was a matter of giving ourselves another shot. If you don’t score, keep it, if not, get out of bounds. We knew exactly what was up.”

That said, there was another half to play so saying at the time that one made field goal in the first half would have changed the outcome of the game is foolish.

Possibly worse than that, though, was when Carroll threw a challenge flag on Doug Baldwin’s drop on third down early in the fourth quarter. Why worse than the fake? Several reasons. First, Carroll let the Seahawks fans influence his decision. Baldwin clearly dropped the pass; There was no doubt. CenturyLink Field has big screens where Carroll would have clearly seen Baldwin didn’t catch the ball.

Secondly, Carroll cost Seattle a needed timeout. The way the game was going, a coach would know Seattle needed to save its timeouts. If Seattle had another timeout on their last drive, the last few plays would not have been so chaotic. The Seahawks could possibly have moved closer for Walsh’s field goal attempt to tie. Or better.

According to USA Today, Carroll said, “Doug and I have been through this for years, and he’d been right a bunch of times. The ball may have touched the ground, but he knew he had secured it. That’s what he said, and I believe him. I trust him.” For once, he shouldn’t have.

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Seattle is now 6-4. They could easily be 8-2. But the reality is, the Seahawks now will be in a struggle to make the playoffs. The schedule still has the Philadelphia Eagles, Los Angeles Rams and Jacksonville Jaguars left.