Carroll ‘had a blast’ watching Seahawks’ offense come alive last week

SEATTLE – Believe it or not, the Seattle Seahawks have the most yards of offense in the NFL over the last two weeks.

The 433 yards they put up against the Tennessee Titans still put them on the wrong end of a 33-27 loss, but 477 yards against the Indianapolis Colts gave them 46-18 win and put coach Pete Carroll in the best mood he’s been in this season.

“It was a great joy,” Carroll said during his weekly exclusive interview with the home of the Seahawks, Q13 FOX as he prepared for Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers. “To see our guys know what it feels to play like that in front of CenturyLink fans – for the guys that haven’t been there and haven’t really sensed it. It was a blast. We were having fun in all phases, everybody was cookin’.

“It was a really great opportunity for us to feel what it feels like, and the crowd was awesome.”

Here’s the rest of Carroll’s talk with Q13 Sport Director Aaron Levine:

You had more yards of offense in the last two weeks than any other team in the NFL. When Russell Wilson sacrifices himself at the goal-line like he did last week, what effect does that have on the rest of the NFL?

Well, it does have an effect. Russell is so cool so often, and there’s rare times that he really does let it out. That one really fired ‘em up. I know Doug Baldwin, (Richard Sherman), a bunch of guys came running down the sidelines – they could feel his energy and it really did give everybody a lift. I think things really jacked us up and turned it around from there.

Cliff Avril is out this week, but guys like Frank Clark and Marcus Smith have really shown up. What attributes do you like about both of them?

Both of those guys are really athletic. They’re both fast, and they come out of their stance in a hurry. They both play with a good motor – nobody plays harder than Frank, Frank’s got unbelievable intensity when he plays – but Marcus really chases the football too, you saw the play he made last week. So, we’re very fortunate to have guys coming up when we lose a guy that’s that stature. We’re going to really miss Cliff – you’d always miss him, you can’t replace him – but these guys will do a great job filling in.

You’re returning to the L.A. Coliseum for the second time – results aside last year, what was it like being the opposing coach?

It was quite unusual. I was looking forward to it, and I look forward to going again. The thing I kept thinking: We haven’t lost a lot of games there, so we’ve gotta get back on track this time around. But it is fun to go back, and you see a lot of familiar faces and stuff.

The Seahawks are 22-6 heading into a bye week, and more importantly, you guys have won the last six games leading into a bye week. Is it just that the guys are extra motivated getting a week off heading into the game?

Well, I like that stat, first of all, and we’ll try to max that out and get it again this week. I don’t know, I think it might have to do with the fact our guys are mentally in a good place when we get to that time. We know that that bye is important, but we also know that we want to play really good football going into it. It sends you off with a really good message and feeling. They seem to have responded over the years; we’ll see if we can do it one more time.