Pete Carroll admits to letting emotions affect decision on critical Week 13 play

Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll is mostly a very positive person and coach who does not let his emotions boil over on the sideline. In Week 13's Seahawks and Dallas Cowboys game, though, the officiating was so horrible that several times Carroll was vehemently communicating with the officials and seemingly arguing flags that were thrown. 19 penalties were accepted in the game and several times flags were picked up. It was a mess.

But during the first quarter and with Dallas leading 10-7 and the Seahawks trying to score on their second straight drive to begin the game, Seattle quarterback Geno Smith threw an incompletion on third down with Seattle still deep enough in Cowboys territory to attempt a relatively short field goal. Kicker Jason Myers came onto the field thinking he was about to try a 37-yard field goal. In his five seasons in Seattle, Myers has made 52 of 56 field goal attempts between 30 and 39 yards.

As the offense was exiting the field and Myers was running onto the field the officials made a late change of where the ball was placed on the field. The play-clock should have been reset as Seattle would have had no choice but to snap the ball as the officials were too busy moving where the snap would have happened. However, the play clock was not reset and by the time the Seahawks had a chance to get set and snap the ball, the play clock was getting very close to zero and Seattle took a delay of game penalty moving the ball back five yards and causing the kick to be a 42-yard attempt.

Pete Carroll takes his eye off the ball in Week 13

The Seahawks could have - and should have - called a time-out instead of getting the penalty. But as it turns out, Pete Carroll was too busy arguing with the official and not paying enough attention to calling a time-out. In his post-game press conference, Carroll admitted to his mistake saying, "I screwed it up. I should have called time out."

A few seconds later, though, Carroll said he had been calling time out, so which is it? Was he calling time out or was he not? Either way, no time-out was allowed by the officials.

Of course, Jason Myers is an NFL kicker and a 42-yard field goal should not be much of an issue. Myers has also been extremely streaky this year, however. Overall, he has missed seven field goal attempts which is his most since 2016 when he was with the Jacksonville Jaguars. With one more missed field goal in 2023, which seems likely, Myers will set a career-high for misses.

The issue is that those 3 points that Seattle did not get very likely affected how the game was played in the fourth quarter. The game would have been tied until there was just a bit over a minute left in the fourth quarter. Instead of needing a touchdown on the Seahawks' last futile drive, Seattle could have attempted a field goal to send the game to overtime. Instead, Pete Carroll appears to have let his emotions get the best of him, causing a more difficult, but still makeable, field goal for Myers and that missed field goal shaded what happened late in the game.

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