Monday, December 17, 2012

Pete Carroll feels bad for running fake punt vs. Bills

BY NICK ST. DENIS

Fake punts are typically reserved for critical do-or-die situations, but for the Seattle Seahawks, they're business as usual.

Up by 30 points over the Buffalo Bills early in the fourth quarter, the Seahawks opted to run a fake punt, which went for 29 yards. Seattle got a field goal out of the drive in closing out a 50-17 win. (photo: JC.Winkler, Flickr)

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said after the game that his team had the play installed if Buffalo gave his punt unit a specific look, which it did at that time. However, Carroll regrets not stopping it in that particular situation.

"I feel bad about this," Carroll said, via the Seattle Times.

Carroll was criticized last week for opting to enable his team's air attack in the fourth quarter against the Arizona Cardinals despite blowing them out 58-0. However, that scenario was understandable given the fact that he had backup quarterback Matt Flynn calling signals.

This time around, Carroll expressed some regret.

“We looked for it every time we were going to punt, and it was just there," he said. "I should have stopped it in the sense that it looked bad.”

As for Bills coach Chan Gailey's thoughts on the play?

"No comment," Gailey said.

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