"A very good finishing job" and other takeaways from the press conference of Seahawks coach Pete Carroll

A day after the season opener by the Seahawks with a 21-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, head coach Pete Carroll met the media to give his point of view on the match.

Carroll's overall assessment of the game was that he was visibly happy to be victorious and satisfied with the overall effort, but that his team had a lot of room for improvement.

"After watching the movie well, we have a lot to improve," said Carroll. "We were lucky to get the win. You always have the chance to get the victories in this league. They are so hard to find. Delighted that we took this start with so much to gain and improve in all areas, really. Really satisfied with the overall effort, our speed with which we played. We really appeared in special teams, we really flew. It's something we've tried to get out of, with effort being our priority and giving us the opportunity to be at our best when we play hard all the time. So it was a good start there. It was a very good finishing job. We finished the game and again, we came back from the back several times and we had to find the games, the calls and the necessities, and we managed to do it. We almost finished as we liked. We like to finish this last journey. We gave them the ball with 20 seconds in the game and we like to finish with that. A lot to learn, a lot from. "

Here are seven things to remember about Carroll's Monday press:

The Seahawks saw a number of members of the 2019 rookie class contribute, from DK Metcalf leading the team with 89 yards to the receiving end, to Ugo Amadi playing the corner-taker role, to Ben Burr-Kirven forcing a fumble in the punt cover, the undefeated defensive tackle. Bryan Mone being part of the rotation of the defensive line. The day was not perfect for the rookies thanks to the many penalties young people had, but on the whole, Carroll was encouraged by what he saw.

"I think we had five penalties per rookie in the game. That's, I do not mean it's classic, but it was a little bit classic," Carroll said with a smile. "I was really excited that we had the ball at DK. You can see why all the interest and attention have been there. He can really help us and we're just starting to start him, of course, but it was nice for him to deal with tough shots and guys hooked on him and all the rest. I saw Russ (Wilson) give him situations and everything. I thought the young guys in particular were playing really well in the special teams. They did all kinds of good things wise effort and waving and hitting and all that. It's a very good class. It will be a very good group for us. We will see how L.J. (Collier) will be added in the coming weeks. Maybe this week, maybe next week, whatever. It will be even better. "

In today's NFL, it's common to see a team using their nickel defense over half or two-thirds of their defensive shots. On Sunday, however, the Seahawks remained in base defense for most of the match, as evidenced by the fact that Seattle's Ugo Amadi nickel corner played only 21 times (Akeem King also played when Amadi left the match), while KJ Wright and Mychal Kendricks each played 69 times and Bobby Wagner all 77.

Part of that was tied to a match. The Seahawks wanted to be sure to stop Joe Mixon, who last year led the AFC in the race with an average of 4.9 yards per run, but it was also a decision that reflected just how much the Seahawks like this trio of linebackers. .

"It's a bit of both," Carroll said. "We like these guys on the ground. Mychal Kendricks is really a good guy in the space. He is efficient, good tackle in open field, good attacker to add with Bobby and K.J. We are comfortable with these guys who play and we can do a lot of things with them. "

Playing as much, the base defense prevented the Bengals from attempting several points, or succeeding when they did, by accumulating 34 yards in 14 runs, although, as Carroll noted, the Bengals get the ball through the air .

"It worked in the sense that they were not running at all with their extra receivers in the game," said Carroll. "We played really well at run, which we hoped to do. They were happy to launch it and they did a good job in that regard. We have to play a little better on the back with some explosives and we would have had a pretty solid match. They did a very good job though. They had some great design things and they performed well and executed well. "