It’s rather odd to hear an NFL coach describe himself as hormonal. It’s even stranger to have it happen twice.
But wouldn’t you know it, Carroll was blaming his hormones for a questionable coaching decision for the second time in a year. During Sunday’s loss in Detroit, Carroll decided to challenge a 9-yard Titus Young catch that had given the Lions a first down on third-and-8. Problem was, the Lions had declined holding call on Brandon Browner, so even if Young hadn’t made the catch, Detroit would have picked up the first down. And, by the way, Young did catch the ball, which made the decision to challenge look even worse.
“Just a total blunder,” Carroll admitted Monday. “It was a blunder, I screwed it up.”
Carroll explained that he got so caught up in the moment when his coaches in the box told him it wasn’t a catch that he forgot the situation.
“They were starting to come to the line of scrimmage, and I hear our guys upstairs, they see the replay, and they’re like, ‘He dropped it, he dropped it, he dropped it,’ and I looked and there’s a few seconds left before they’re going to snap, and the only thing I thought was I’ve got to get this flag out right now,” Carroll said. “I couldn’t get it out of my pocket, but I was yelling, ‘Red flag, red flag.” And then as soon as I got it out, I went, ‘Oh my goodness, what happened?’ It was just a flash of hormonal upsurge or something. A competitive moment that I really regret.”
Ah yes, the old “hormonal upsurge” excuse. It turned out that decision didn’t hurt the Seahawks any, because they didn’t need that time out (unless you want to argue they would have used it to give the defense a break late in the game). And what’s funny is that Carroll, almost exactly a year ago, used a similar explanation after last year’s loss to Cincinnati. In that game, Carroll elected to go for it on fourth down late in the first half rather than kick a field goal, and while Marshawn Lynch got the first down, time expired without Seattle getting off a field-goal attempt.
Following that game, Carroll explained, “We learned about what happens when a coach gets hormonal and tries to jam it down their frickin’ throat for the touchdown.”
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