Pete Carroll’s long view of Seahawks’ 0-2 start: “Fine tuning”; his short view: The need to “finish” and get Jimmy Graham involved

Pete Carroll is taking a long view on his Seahawks’ start to 2015.

Sure beats Seattle’s shorter, current view: 0-2, two games back of Arizona in the NFC West entering this weekend’s home opener against Chicago (0-2) at CenturyLink Field.

“Sometimes it has to be very hard before it gets good,” Seattle’s coach said Monday afternoon back at team headquarters here in Renton following a pre-dawn arrival from Sunday night’s 27-17 loss at Green Bay.

“It really goes back to the core of what we are all about, and the style of play that we expect and the mentality of working so hard and trusting the process and all of that. It’s all of those things. And sometimes it’s just elusive, you know.

“Let me say this: To play at the level we’ve played at the last three years we’ve done a lot of things really well. And to play at that level you have to, because you are challenged at every turn. So there’s a lot of fine tuning to get that done. There’s a lot of team that almost get on top. It’s very challenging. So we’re in the fine tuning of it.

“And not getting started well doesn’t mean we aren’t going to finish well. ... We know better. It’s staying true to the core of the beliefs that we have, until they show up, they take over. That’s exactly what happened last year.”

Yes, Seattle began 3-3 and 6-4, written off as also-rans and yet another in a decade full of failed defending Super Bowl champions. They they won eight straights games the division again, the conference again and ended up in another Super Bowl.

That’s the knowledge upon which Seahawks veterans rested late Sunday night in the visitor’s locker room at Lambeau Field.

“We’ve been here before,” middle linebacker Bobby Wagner said. “It definitely helps.”

Wagner is the captain of the defense that is a chief culprit in the details as to why the Seahawks are 0-2. Sunday night was the fourth consecutive game dating to January’s NFC championship Seattle failed to hold a lead in the fourth quarter.

Asked what he sees going on with the defense, Carroll simply said: “Not finishing. Not finishing when we had the chance to win the game.”

Seattle had Green Bay three plays of 15 yards of more over the Packers’ first 46 plays while entering the fourth quarter with a 17-16 lead. Then Seahawks cornerback Cary Williams allowed Aaron Rodgers to throw for 18 yards to Randall Cobb and Wagner was late getting to Cobb on a 19-yard catch and run in the span of three plays. That set up Rodgers’ dart throw to Richard Rodgers for the 5-yard touchdown and Green Bay’s 24-17 lead with 9:28 left.

On offense, Carroll said when asked if star tight end Jimmy Graham is frustrated with getting just one catch Sunday night: “I think he is.”

Graham had two official targets Sunday night, plus a third one negated as a no play because of a penalty. No. 2 tight end Luke Willson had twice as many official targets in Green Bay, including for a remarkable catch while falling down the igniting Seattle’s touchdown drive to begin the third quarter that pulled the Seahawks within 13-10 of the Packers.

The coach said there were many more plays designed to go to Graham in Green Bay, but that occurances such as the Packers leaving another Seahawks receiver uncovered initially in formation led Russell Wilson to throw to him instead of as planned to Graham.

“We were trying to go to him four of the first five passes in the game,” Carroll said of a span in which the tight end saw the ball come his way once, over his head down the right sideline on a route in which Graham seemed to pull up from running through the end.

Another time, Graham appeared to be Wilson’s first look and primary receiver down the middle toward the goal post from within the red zone, but the Packers bracketed him with two safeties so Wilson threw a checkdown pass for 1 yard to Marshawn Lynch instead.

This was one week after Graham had one catch in the first half of the opener at St. Louis before finishing with six catches for a relatively low (for him) 51 yards. Through two games the most prolific pass-catching tight end in the NFL since 2011 has seven catches on 10 targets for 62 yards and one touchdown.

Through two games, 12 tight ends and 13 running backs in the league have more catches than Graham. He changed in a side room of the locker room Sunday night out of view from the media.

“I’m disappointed,” Carroll said. “We’ve really had intent -- just like you would think, I mean, exactly like you would think and everybody thinks -- we want him to be a big part of the offense. ... It’s just the way it’s worked out. I’m not panicked by that at all. It sounds like some other people are worried about it, but we are working at it. It’s going to get worked out. We just want him to be a factor, just like he wants to -- desperately.”

▪ Carroll said the reason Lynch was on the sideline for one drive in the third quarter watching undrafted rookie Thomas Rawls play instead was that Lynch’s neck was bothering him. Lynch talked some with a team doctor then returned for the next drive and the rest of the game, and Carroll said Lynch is fine now. He finished with 41 yards on 15 carries at Green Bay and has 114 yards on 33 runs this season. That average of 3.45 yards per carry through two games is more than 0.7 yards per rush lower than Lynch’s lowest for an entire season in his four full ones with Seattle.

▪ Carroll backed off his incredulity from immediately after the game about Seahawks tackle Justin Britt emerging from the bottom of a scrum following Green Bay’s decisive interception of Wilson by Jayrone Elliott on a screen pass intended for Marshawn Lynch with 6:50 left and Seattle down 24-17. Carroll originally complained the officials never signaled possession in the Packers’ direction, but Carroll saw upon watching the television feed of the game referee Gene Steratore signaled Green Bay ball at the end of Elliott’s return. Mason Crosby kicked the clinching field goal a few plays later with 1:56 left.

▪ Carroll said the only injury was special-teams player Steven Terrell having a hip flexor. A roster move could be coming about that this week.

▪ Bears coach John Fox said starting quarterback Jay Cutler has a hamstring strain, and a source told the Chicago Sun-Times backup Jimmy Clausen will start Sunday for Chicago at Seattle.

This story was originally published September 21, 2015 at 5:38 PM with the headline "Pete Carroll’s long view of Seahawks’ 0-2 start: “Fine tuning”; his short view: The need to “finish” and get Jimmy Graham involved."