The Seattle Seahawks (7-2) take on the San Francisco 49ers (8-0) on Monday night, the first time the two teams will square off this year.
The rivalry between these two franchises has been reignited this season as they battle for the division title for the first time since 2013. This upcoming matchup could be the most intense Seahawks-49ers game in years and has been highly anticipated by both parties.
Pete Carroll was asked on Thursday whether or not he missed former 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh – now with Michigan – leading the charge in San Francisco.
“Yeah. I like Jim. I like Jim a lot,” Carroll said. “I think he’s a great ball coach. He won’t like me saying this, but I love beating him. He’s doing great. I think he’s an incredible coach. I think he’s unique, he’s tough, he’s smart. Creative. He’s a great ball coach.”
Carroll and Harbaugh had been rivals since their college coaching days at USC and Stanford, respectively. That rivalry reached new heights when they found themselves coaching in the same division at the professional level. Carroll said he enjoyed playing Harbaugh and his teams throughout the 2010s and never really embraced the notion of a rivalry between the two.
In fact, Carroll isn’t treating Monday’s game as a rivalry matchup either.
“Every game to us is a championship regardless of who we’re playing, where we’re playing, what the situation is, what the schedule says, what the matchups are, and what’s happened before,” Carroll explained. “In that case, there is no one game that’s different than another. We don’t want it to be. We want to play every game like it’s the only game we’ve got. That’s how we approach it.”
With the ascendance of San Francisco under Kyle Shanahan, Jimmy Garoppolo and a stout defense, the Seahawks will face their toughest challenge from the red and gold since Harbaugh was the coach. It will take their best performance of the season to prevail.
