RENTON -- Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll lamented the team's struggles on the offensive line and mistakes on a couple explosive plays allow by the defense, but overall he was happy to come out of Sunday's game with a win over the Cincinnati Bengals.
"There's a lot of stuff for us to get better at," Carroll said. "We're fortunate to get the win, you're always fortunate to get the wins in this league. They're so hard to come by. Thrilled that we got off to that start with so much to gain and improve in all areas really."
Seattle's offense produced only 233 total yards and just 72 rushing yards with quarterback Russell Wilson being sacked four times. Carroll said the Bengals did a nice job of scheming against their game plan but also said the offensive line didn't perform as they had been hoping in their first time out.
"Not as good as expected," Carroll said. "We thought we would come out more efficient than that in the running game and protection-wise. And really playing off the run game would have helped us quite a bit in the pass actions and stuff like that. They did a nice job. They were totally planned on us and did a really good job with their coaching and I thought they had a good thought in how they tried to work with us. It wasn't as good as we had hoped and we'll do quite a bit better.
"We got knocked off on our play-passes a little bit. We got knocked in the backfield a little bit more than we're counting on and the penetration messed up the timing of the protection. It was a couple different guys. It wasn't any one guy, the same, it was different guys that had issues with some pretty intricate finesse things that we do and we didn't execute as well because we got knocked back. It was good penetration by them, good attack by them and they were able to get an edge on us."
Safety Tedric Thompson allowed a 55-yard touchdown to John Ross right before the half by misplaying an underthrown ball by Andy Dalton. The Seahawks had taken the lead on a 10-yard reception from Chris Carson only for the Bengals to immediate drive for a score before the break. Additionally, Thompson missed some tackles during the game as well.
"I thought he over-tried," Carroll said. "He was trying so hard. He was flying around and overran a few things. He just mistimed his jump on the big play. He'll play better. It wasn't because he wasn't working hard or trying hard or knowing his assignments, he was really just going for it. We kind of have a tendency to talk guys into that a little bit, you know. But he'll do better.
"He overran a couple shots just selling out on the hits trying to make big hits when maybe it wasn't the right opportunity, just trying to go for it which we appreciate but he's got to clean that up because we need to be more precise."
Carroll didn't entertain any notion that the team was looking to make a change at the position.
"We're playing ball. We're not talking about that, seriously," Carroll said.
Bobby Wagner played every defensive snap of the game while K.J. Wright and Mychal Kendricks each played 69 of 77 defensive snaps, which amounts to 90 percent of all defensive plays. Ugo Amadi (21 snaps) and Akeem King (1 snap) combined to play on just 22 defensive plays as Seattle spent most of the game with their base defense on the field.
"We like these guys on the field, you know," Carroll said. "Mychal Kendricks is such a good guy in space, coming off the edge he's effective, good tackler in the open field and all that and good coverage guy to add in with Bobby and K.J. so we feel comfortable with those guys playing and we can do a lot of stuff with them."
The Bengals ended up dropping back to pass 56 times in the game compared to just 14 rushing attempts.
"It worked out in that they didn't run the football at all," Carroll said. "We really played the run really well, which we were hoping to do. They were satisfied with throwing it and they did a nice job of that. We needed to play a little bit better on the back end on a couple explosives and we would have had a pretty solid game. They did a nice job though. They had a couple really nice design things and they came through and executed them well."
Carroll was really happy with the debut of wide receiver DK Metcalf. Carroll has been consistent in speaking highly of Metcalf all throughout the offseason and in their belief he is going to be a big part of their plans moving forward. Metcalf caught four passes for 89 yards on Sunday, which broke Steve Largent's record for most receiving yards by a rookie wide receiver in the first game of his career.
"I was really, really fired up that we got the ball to DK and you could see why all of the interest and the focus had been there. He can really help us and we're just getting him started of course but it was nice for him to come through and make some tough catches, guys hanging all over him and all of that. You saw Russ go to him in some situations and all," Carroll said.
Interest in Antonio Brown?:
Pete Carroll said the team did look into wide receiver Antonio Brown when he was released from the Oakland Raiders on Saturday. Brown quickly found a new home with the New England Patriots later that evening, but the Seahawks did at least reach out to inquire about the talented, but tortured, pass catcher.
"We're involved with everything," Carroll said. "We've been telling you that for a long time. We seriously mean we're trying to know what's going on with every opportunity to get better. And if we miss one of those, we messed up. We didn't know what was going in that one."
Brown's short tenure in Oakland came to an end after being traded to the team from Pittsburgh over the offseason. While one of the most productive wide receivers in history, Brown had numerous issues pop up during his time with the Raiders.
So what did the Seahawks find out about Brown?
"He's going to New England," Carroll replied.
Why would the Seahawks want to sign a player like Brown with such a documented set of issues in Oakland?
"Who said we did?" he said. "We were in on the situation and knew exactly what was going on. That's what we needed to know. Why wouldn't you? He's a great player. See what was going on. Not everything is always as it seems and you've got to check into stuff and figure out what's going on. I have confidence in John and our guys and ourselves as coaches that we can figure those things out and see what's best. I don't mind getting really close to the edge of it and figuring it out. He was heading to New England. He was going (there)."
Report: Jamar Taylor returning to Seattle:
The Seahawks are bringing back nickel cornerback Jamar Taylor, per Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network.
Taylor spent the offseason with Seattle before being released during final cuts. As a veteran, his salary for the year would have been fully guaranteed should he have been on the roster for the first game of the year. With Ugo Amadi a little banged up coming out of the Bengals game, Neiko Thorpe dealing with a hamstring injury and Parry Nickerson still not up to speed with the defense just yet, the Seahawks appeared to need some additional help at cornerback and Taylor was still available.
Carroll said he "did not know yet" if Taylor was returning to the team in his press conference on Monday.
Injury Updates:
DT Poona Ford -- "Poona's got a little calf thing with some concern, we'll have to see how that one goes."
TE Will Dissly -- "Dissly got banged on the knee. We'll see how he's doing. Getting around pretty good today."
C Justin Britt -- "Britt got kind of knocked too. He got hit and we got to see how he does."
CB Ugo Amadi -- "He got smacked pretty good. He hurt his shoulder so we've got to see how that goes."
CB Neiko Thorpe -- "Neiko's got a hamstring that's got some concern to it and there's something there."
DE Ziggy Ansah -- "He wasn't quite ready. That's all. He wasn't quite ready to go. It took us every day all the way through after the Wednesday and Thursday practice and all the way to Friday to get a good assessment. He was capable of practicing and he got through it but he was having to hold back and it was just the right thing to do."
G Mike Iupati and DE L.J. Collier -- "Mike and L.J. both will practice in the normal fashion coming back this week and we'll just see what happens. L.J. had not taken any team reps yet in the practices last week. Mike had a little bit and so Mike is a little ahead of him. They're not comparable at all. They're own unique situations but both guys have a chance to play this time around so we'll see how it goes."
Photo Credit: SEATTLE, WA - SEPTEMBER 08: Chris Carson #32 of the Seattle Seahawks scores a 10 yard touchdown in the second quarter against the Cincinnati Bengals at CenturyLink Field on September 8, 2019 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Lindsey Wasson/Getty Images)