For two weeks in a row now, the Seahawks have got their offense moving the ball better than any team in the NFL. They’ve scored 50 points in each of their Week 14 and 15 wins and they haven’t let up late in the game. On Sunday, they wouldn’t even take their foot off the pedal on special teams.
Seattle attempted a fake punt with 12:11 remaining in the game while they were up 47-17 and facing a 4th-and-4. The snap went to punt protector Chris Maragos, who then handed off to Michael Robinson, who ran the ball 29 yards for a first down. For two weeks in a row now, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll has faced scrutiny for running up the score — a notion some believe is ridiculous in professional sports.
Carroll stopped short of apologizing for the trick play, but did say he felt bad that he didn’t take it out of their game plan.
“I feel bad about this,” Carroll said, according to the USA Today. “It was part of our game plan. It was something I could have called off and didn’t.”
The play wasn’t called by Carroll or any of the Seahawks’ coaches, according to the Seattle Times. When Maragos sees a certain punt return formation, it’s an automatic to audible into the fake punt.
“We looked for it every time we were going to punt, and it was just there,” Carroll said. “I should have stopped it in the sense that it looked bad.”
Seattle eventually got a field goal on the drive to make the score 50-17. Bills head coach Chan Gailey issued a “no comment” after the game about the play.
