Seattle Seahawks 41, New Orleans Saints 36.

Like anyone else who didn’t see the game live (or doesn’t live in Seattle), there was a shock factor when I saw that score.

But once the jolt of “what the …?” subsided, my next thought was one word:

“Pete!”

I had the good fortune to see a lot of USC football when Pete Carroll was coach there. I saw probably75 percent of their games from 2002 through 2007, the heyday of the program, when the Trojans won two national titles and came within a Vince Young drive of a third.

I know he leaves behind a legacy that might charitably be described as “spotty.” The Trojans certainly won, a lot, when he was there, but that two-year probation that the NCAA slapped on the Trojans just after Pete left town for Seattle … well, it has wounded the program and left many people thinking thoughts along the lines of “sloppy, rule-breaker, outta control, left when things got tough.”

But I never doubted his ability to lead and motivate a college football team, and to collect players he knew would go to the wall for him. College players tend to like their coaches; Pete’s players nearly all loved him. I saw it for six, seven seasons.

What I wasn’t so sure about was his ability to get through to NFL guys. They see multiple coaches in their career, and they’re professionals, so it’s about the money and what is, ultimately, a healthier if more cynical view of the game. “I am a commodity. I will be exploited for as long as I have value. Then I will be cast aside.” College players don’t generally think that way.

And I had some trouble projecting Pete Carroll back into the NFL, where his unquestionable ability to reach college guys would, presumably, not work.

Ultimately, it won’t. Ultimately, he is going to have to be better than the other 31 NFL coaches (or most of them) in identifying talent and constructing game plans.

But for now, this month, he seems to be interacting with the Seahawks as if they were just like another college team. He brought in 31 new players from the Seahawks of 2009, and while they were never particularly impressive, they went 7-9 and won the 2010 NFC West, the saddest division in NFL history.

And even without the benefit of hindsight, you could see how the Seahawks might give the Saints trouble, in Seattle. One of the loudest stadiums in the NFL. Outdoors (and the Saints prefer indoors). Saints defense has been a little shaky all season, and the offense was missing several weapons. And how seriously could the Saints, last year’s Super Bowl champions, take a Seahawks team that Las Vegas had deemed 10-plus points their inferior?

I was in Abu Dhabi, not in Seattle, when it all went down, but in my mind’s eye I can see that second-quarter turning point, when the Seahawks suddenly turned into a scoring machine, and the tidal wave of momentum they generated at that point. A group of 53 guys who had decided they really liked each other, united in common cause. Not even playing for the money, at that moment, but for professional reputation and even joy, and because that 59-year-old “kid” who is their coach actually did instill in them a belief they could win.

Thus, Pete ended up in some dogpile with the players at midfield,  and for one more day he wasn’t living the NFL experience as much as replicating the college experience.

Can this last another week? Unlikely, but not impossible. It’s not as if the Chicago Bears are some juggernaut. As much as any team in the NFL, they have “fluke” written all over them. Some close victories (four by four points or fewer), some lucky victories, a suspiciously competent Jay Cutler. Not a whole lot of offense. The advantage of bad weather, but how much worse will it be than Seattle? Not wetter, that’s for sure.

Plus, there’s this: One of Seattle’s seven regular-season victories this season was at Chicago. Yes. The Seahawks won 23-20, at Soldier Field, on October 17. (One of the reasons, I suppose, that so many people were never quite sold on these Bears.) Pete doesn’t even have to talk his team around into believing they actually can beat the Bears; they already have.

If this were the AFC playoffs, the Seahawks would be vaporized in this next round. By whomever. Actually, I wouldn’t like their chances, at all, against Green Bay and only marginally better against Atlanta. But at Chicago, with Pete jackin’ the guys up emotionally … maybe it happens. It’s not the way to bet, but I wouldn’t be surprised to open up my computer next weekend, see the score and say, “Pete!” again.