Seahawks
Carroll, though, has to like what he’s seeing out of his team. The Seahawks have avoided the slow starts that have plagued them the past couple of years when they started out 3-3 in 2014 and 2-4 last season.
They recovered each time and advanced to the playoffs, including an appearance in Super Bowl XLIX. This year they seem to be in even better cohesion.
Carroll went so far as to say this is the best Seattle team he’s had in his seven seasons there.
“Because we’ve got the core guys that we’ve had for a number of years,” he said. “They’re the best they’ve been. The quarterback (Russell Wilson) is as experienced as he’s been. We’ve got really good leadership on this team. We always have a chance, and I think this one in particular because of our background, what we’ve been through together and the leadership that’s setting us in the right direction.”
During a portion of last week’s nailbiting victory over the Falcons, however, the cameras caught All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman going ballistic on his coaches and teammates in an epic sideline rant.
Sherman was aggravated that Julio Jones had burned the Seahawks’ secondary for a 36-yard touchdown and then he completely lost his cool, angrily shouting at defensive coordinator Kris Richard, safety Kelcie McCray and every teammate and coach who came over in an attempt to calm him down.
Sherman has had blowups in the past, but this was about a 12 on the tension meter.
“We’re very familiar with this,” Seahawks safety Earl Thomas told reporters. “We have a lot of alpha males with our team, so there’s always little rebuttals like that. But we do a great job, we have great leadership. We’ll be all right.”
“You tell me one family that never gets into arguments,” added defensive end Cliff Avril.
Wilson, who, with Sunday’s win reached 50 career victories (in 69 games) faster than all but two quarterbacks, said Sherman’s explosion wasn’t anything that will disrupt the Seahawks’ early-season success.
“He’s just passionate about the game,” Wilson said Wednesday on a conference call. “We all want to do it just right. I didn’t really get to talk to him that much because we were ready to go back out on the field for offense, but obviously you saw the love that we have on our football team and how we’re all able to stand together and play for each other and that’s what we always want to do. And that’s what we were able to do right there in that moment.” Carroll wrote it off, too. “I thought it was a show of emotion that is not unfamiliar for us,” he said. “So, our guys handled it and dealt with it fine. Got back to the business and put together a good finish to a game.”