The Seahawks gave up both their second-most yards (438) and points (39) of the season in Sunday’s loss to the Saints.
But on Monday, coach Pete Carroll tried to look for the positives, and noted that much of the damage done by the Saints came with Taysom Hill playing quarterback out of a wildcat formation, something Seattle likely won’t see again this season. Hill rushed nine times for 112 yards. The Saints otherwise had 123 yards on 39 carries, which Carroll felt was respectable, and the Saints threw for 209 yards.
“It’s a unique style of play,” Carroll said. “We won’t see it again. We didn’t handle it as well as we needed to, but I’m not really concerned that they’re going to come out throwing the football with their running backs now. I think we are in a different setup now. The base stuff, I felt like we held (Alvin) Kamara in check in the running game a little bit (Kamara had 103 yards on 23 carries). He averaged 4 yards and a little bit per carry, but that wasn’t what killed us in this game. The thing that killed us was the wildcat stuff, so I just think that we are going to get better at it as we move forward.”
The Seahawks made one significant personnel change on defense with Ryan Neal starting at strong safety in place of Josh Jones, with Jones then playing some in three-safety sets (he had 14 snaps). Carroll said he liked how Neal played and indicated that for now the Seahawks will stick with Neal as a starter.
“I thought Ryan did a really good job,” Carroll said. “He was very active. He had a whole array of opportunities to make. He had some plays that weren’t exactly right, but he did a really nice job, tackled well, hit well, defended the pass well. I thought he was really obvious. He gave us a boost. So, I’m anxious to see him go back at it again. Josh did a nice job in the substitution stuff when he had his opportunities. I was really fired up about Ryan. I thought he did really well.”
Notes
— Veteran defensive tackle Al Woods as held to just 20 snaps after suffering a knee injury. But Carroll indicted it’s not serious. “He’s still feeling it a little bit today,” Carroll said. “We’ll go in really easy with him tomorrow. We’ll see how he does. Just go day by day with him.”