What would make Pete Carroll happy today? More offense, more turnovers

RENTON, Wash. - Pete Carroll isn't panicking. The Seattle Seahawks are 1-1, after all, and that loss was on the road to a very good Green Bay Packers team.

But Carroll does see lots of room for improvement - particularly the offense's lack of explosive plays, and the defense's lack of forced turnovers. Seattle will have a chance to execute when it plays the Tennessee Titans at 1:05 p.m. Sunday (with the Gameday pregame show set for 12:30 p.m.).

During his exclusive weekly interview with the home of the Seahawks, Q13 FOX, Carroll talked about where he sees room for improvement, what's impressed him on defense so far, and the challenge of facing mobile quarterback Marcus Mariota.

What are you most excited to see about your team this season?

I want to see us getting better. We need to keep improving. We made a good jump from Week 1 to Week 2. We took care of the ball beautifully. We need to do that again. We just need to keep improving. We’ve got a lot of young guys, and we’re hoping that they’ll continue to grow with us and we can put this thing together.

What have you seen in practices that hasn’t translated to games yet?

We have a chance to be a really explosive team, and that hasn’t shown up the way we’d like to see it. We’ve historically been explosive, we’ve had a lot of explosive plays over the years that have kept us in the top of the league. We need to see those show up. That’s getting the ball to Doug (Baldwin), getting the ball to Jimmy (Graham) a little bit more than we have. We’re trying, and it’ll happen.

Week 3 last year, you guys put up 37 points. What needs to happen this year to have a similar result?

It’s the same stuff. I’d like to see us do a really good job of taking the ball away from these guys. I’d like to see us get two or three turnovers and get the feeling of what that’s like. We’ve done a good job of taking care of the ball, but we need to get the football. That’s a big deal. It has to do with the score, and if we get up on this guys it’ll make it a lot easier.

What’s impressed you about the defense so far?

We’ve come out of the chute playing really consistent, hard, tough football. That gives us a chance to be really good. The explosive plays on the defensive side, particularly in the passing game – we didn’t give one up last weekend, which is really rare. If we continue to do that, and make sure we don’t give up anything in the running game, we’re gonna be really good.

Tell me about Marcus Mariota, and the challenge of facing him this week.

He’s loaded. He can do everything. He’s fast and big and strong. He’s got a terrific release, a good arm, throws the ball really well on the move. He’s good about taking care of the ball, particularly in the red area. That’s the makings of a really good player, and he’s a really good competitor too, you see him battling in different situations. So, we’ve got our hands full.

Do you give pregame speeches?

The night before. We talk about the really serious stuff the night before, and the players do the talking on gameday.

If the mantra here is “every week is a championship opportunity,” does that makes giving those speeches any more difficult?

No, it fits right in hand with the way we talk and the way we communicate. We’re trying to give everything we have, every single time we go, forever. So, what game isn’t a championship game? Which game isn’t calling for that? We’re always going for it, take it to the max, and then we’ll do it again next week.