As the Seahawks' charter touched down around midnight Sunday following the longest road trip they've ever taken, coach Pete Carroll was left hoping the team could get right back to work.
Instead, the Seahawks will now have their bye, as is granted to all teams who ask following an international game.
"I wasn't the only one," Carroll said during his weekly day-after-game news conference. "There was a bunch of players who wish we could go right back at it, too, with the same thought of taking care of business and getting on track."
And to Carroll, that attitude was evident that despite a 21-16 loss to Tampa Bay in Munich on Sunday, the Seahawks "are in a great place" as they take their bye at what is close to a halfway point of the year — 10 games down, seven left to go.
Despite the loss, Seattle remains in first place in the NFC West at 6-4. But the 49ers gained a game over the weekend, improving to 5-4.
And that means each team now controls its own destiny when it comes to the NFC West.
Thanks to the 49ers' Week Two win over Seattle, they can earn a tiebreaker on the Seahawks if they win at Lumen Field on Dec. 15. Conversely, if Seattle wins out, that would include a win over the 49ers and guarantee being a game ahead.
Speculating on winning out might seem like fanciful talk at this point. But to Carroll, winning the division is the first goal of every season and one he says the team's play so far has proved is realistic.
"I did make the comment, I think in the locker room and even as we were getting off the plane that, 'OK, we positioned ourselves here and we all know that we are here, but we are not nearly as good as we can be,'" Carroll said. "'Let's recommit as we come back to really go for it because we have enough firepower, we have enough health, and we're growing as a team coming together that can really take advantage of our first-half positioning. We will see where we end up with the 49ers after this week, but everything is ahead of us, and we are in control of everything.' That's all that we could ever ask for."
And Carroll insisted that nothing that happened Sunday, which snapped a four-game winning streak, dims any of his optimism.
A Tampa Bay team that entered the game with the worst rushing attack in the NFL crossed up the Seahawks by running 44 times for 161 yards — more than twice their season average of 60.7 coming in — while throwing it just 30 times.
But Carroll noted the Seahawks didn't necessarily allow a lot of long runs against Tampa Bay, which averaged 3.7 yards per carry, but instead that the Bucs "were committed and they stuck to it."
To Carroll, that indicated that it wasn't so much that Seattle got run over, but that the Bucs were simply in a position to be able to run it a lot, in part because they had the lead all along.
Offensively, Seattle had just 39 rushing yards on 14 attempts, with running back Kenneth Walker III gaining just 17 on 10. But Walker seemed to struggle as much as any player in the game with the conditions of the turf, several times slipping as he started to make a cut.
Down 14-0 at half and with the running game ineffective, the Seahawks mostly gave up the run and let Geno Smith throw at will — Smith completed 17 of 23 passes for 206 yards and two touchdowns in the second half. And had he not fumbled at the Tampa Bay 9 on a quarterback draw late in the third quarter, Carroll felt Seattle might have come back to win.
Carroll said he hopes it serves as a lesson to Smith to give himself up earlier when it's obvious the play isn't going anywhere. Smith fumbled while trying to escape the grasp of Tampa Bay linebacker Devin White.
"Just don't want him to get hit, whatever that takes," Carroll said. "If that means he has to run less, or he has to duck a little bit sooner, or get out of bounds a little bit earlier, I want him to grow in his awareness of that regard."
But Carroll thinks it's all fixable, and also felt that the Seahawks may benefit from the experience of Germany, where the team was together for essentially five days.
"These guys are in a great place," Carroll said. "But (we need to) take advantage of this (bye). We are going to need to come back healthier, stronger, and fresher legs, and try to take care of the next game against the Raiders (on Nov. 27)."
The Las Vegas game is the first of five of seven at home after Seattle began with six of 10 on the road, another reason for optimism.
"Winning the division is a huge goal for us and it is the only goal that we deal with, to try to win the West," he said. "We'll go about that by coming back with a really firm commitment and everybody feeling good and being excited about it. This is a good mentality that we have right now, even though we had to give up a game right there. We come out of it OK."
Notes
— Carroll reiterated the Seahawks came out of the game with no significant injuries saying receiver Dee Eskridge has "a bruised hand" but "he should be fine."
— The Seahawks on Tuesday officially added cornerback Tre Brown to the 53-man roster off the physically unable to perform list. Seattle had an open spot on its 53-man roster after placing Cullen Gillaspia on injured reserve over the weekend.
— Carroll confirmed defensive tackle Bryan Mone was a healthy scratch, with Seattle going with Myles Adams for game-plan reasons and that the Bucs hadn't been running it well. "We anticipated them throwing the ball a lot," Carroll said. "We wanted to make sure that we were ready with backups that could give us a little boost there, but the game didn't turn out that way."
— On his radio show on Seattle Sports 710, Carroll elaborated on the condition of the turf at Allianz Arena, home of soccer powerhouse FC Bayern Munich, saying it was "a nightmare" because players "didn't know when your footing was going to give way." Carroll said after the game that he wished the field "was firmer." In his meeting with media Tuesday, Carroll was asked if the NFL will need to take a closer look at the conditions of fields in international games. Said Carroll: "I don't know soccer to know why they would like the field like that. I think the topic is kind of on right now on fields in general, and we just like to keep getting better at it, and understanding how we can make the game safer, and the game better in all ways. That's not to say it has to be natural turf versus artificial or whatever. We just need to keep working at it, but it's really nice when it is uniformed. I know they pay attention. They talked about it when we were in London also (in 2018). It was the same discussion."
