Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is not done complaining about the officiating following Sunday night’s loss in Green Bay.
Carroll, who said after the game that the officials wrongly awarded the ball to the Packers after a fumble that the Seahawks recovered, also says that a crucial pass interference penalty against the Seahawks never should have happened. According to Carroll, the officials should have blown the play dead as soon as Seahawks defensive lineman Michael Bennett jumped offside, and not kept the play going to give Aaron Rodgers a free play, which he used to draw a 52-yard pass interference penalty on Richard Sherman.
“Remember when they got us to jump offsides and then they get the 53-yard pass interference penalty?” Carroll said on ESPN 710 Seattle. “That’s a total mistake on the officials’ part. We jump offsides, their offensive line, the right guard and tackle stand up, the play’s dead. That play never happened. It never should have happened. It would have been a 5-yard penalty. It would have been second-and-12 backed up with 30 seconds left. That was a huge deal to us. It never should have gotten to that point. . . . That was the biggest play of the game for them, really.”
Carroll also says the officials shouldn’t have ejected Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright for a skirmish that Carroll claims was more the fault of Packers tight end Richard Rodgers.
“K.J. didn’t swing back or nothing, so I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know what to tell you on that one. I can see if they could have called it both ways, but for him to get thrown out when the other guy threw the punch, I don’t know.”
It was a rough Sunday night for the Seahawks, and Carroll doesn’t sound like he’s over it yet.