How Pete Carroll dodged a bullet he fired at himself

Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports fourth downs are the worst downsPleasantries, first.

The Seattle Seahawks are 4-1, a game and a tie-breaker ahead of the Los Angeles Rams, a rival who now occupies third place in the NFC West. Thursday Night Football’s heavyweight fight between the rivals ended in jubilation for Seattle and its fans. The result cannot be undone. It is a fixed moment in time.

But the biggest coaching blunder of the game almost swung the result another way. For everything that Pete Carroll did right on Thursday —

Crafting offensive and defensive game plans that worked more often than not

Making Greg Zuerlein miss with some form of South End voodoo and/or the dark side of the Force

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