Carroll sees plenty to fix for surprising Seahawks

RENTON, Wash. (AP) - On a day of honest admissions Monday, Seattle coach Pete Carroll freely acknowledged making his own mistakes.

He was just happy to be doing it after a victory.

"I need to do a better job," Carroll said.

The Seahawks got away with plenty of mistakes in Sunday's 27-20 victory over San Diego that left them tied atop the NFC West after just three weeks.

From a time-management meltdown at the end of the first half, to defensive lapses that allowed San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers to set franchise records, Seattle had plenty of blunders to file through on Monday, under the umbrella of having won.

"Today is about telling the truth and for us, so we got to get to the essence of what happened. We just have to own up to what's going on so we can get better," Carroll said. "The thing that is important for us on this day is to come together and agree what took place so we can move forward."

Seattle's victory came despite an offense that managed just 26 yards in the second half Sunday and a defense that allowed Rivers to throw for 455 yards. But the Seahawks got two kickoff returns for touchdowns by Leon Washington in the second half and their defense twice turned away the Chargers deep in Seattle's end in the final three minutes.

And despite playing at home, the Seahawks won the two games most would have assumed before the season would be losses - wins over preseason division favorites San Francisco and San Diego. Now comes next Sunday's game at St. Louis, a team Seattle has beaten 10 straight times.

Carroll was hard on himself Monday for a time-management failure at the end of the first half when Seattle tried a quarterback sneak with Matt Hasselbeck from the San Diego 2 with 19 seconds left and no timeouts. Hasselbeck was stopped short and Seattle couldn't get the kicking team on in time for a field goal.

In that moment, Carroll said he flashed back to his time at Southern California when bold play calls like that were run successfully on a consistent basis.

"You get accustomed to it," Carroll said. "And I like that attitude. I love the way we played in that regard, but just have to make sure it's the right thing, and it's not just hoping that it's the right thing."

For the fourteenth time in team history, Seattle's defense allowed more than 500 yards of offense. Rivers picked apart the Seattle secondary for franchise records for both San Diego (most yards) and Seattle (most allowed), including 337 in the second half.

Seattle's offense didn't help in holding down Rivers' massive numbers. The Seahawks ran just 19 plays in the second half, keeping possession for just eight minutes. Seattle had only one first down the entire second half.

As Hasselbeck said, the Seahawks offense in the second half was "playing not to lose."

"That's probably not the best way to go. You have to play conservative, you have to play safe and all that stuff, but you've still got to play to win the game," Hasselbeck said.

And Seattle's defense took some injury hits against the Chargers that could alter the lineup in St. Louis: cornerback Marcus Trufant sustained an ankle injury in the second half; defensive tackle Brandon Mebane has a sore calf; and linebacker Aaron Curry has a sore hamstring.

Carroll said none of the trio are being ruled out for Sunday, but that they'll all be closely monitored during the week.

"We've got guys we need to mend during the week. I don't know how they'll turn out until the end of the week," Carroll said.

While those three will be limited most of the week, Carroll said offensive linemen Chester Pitts and rookie Russell Okung will be full go in practice. Pitts has seen limited practice time as he continues to recover from microfracture knee surgery, but this week will be his first test. Okung hasn't been on the field as a full participant since Seattle's second preseason game against Green Bay, when he went down with a high right ankle sprain.