Do You Buy Pete Carroll's Claim That Overtime Onside Kick Was Unintentional? [UPDATE]

Seattle opened overtime in St. Louis with an onside kick, which the Rams recovered before kicking a field goal and holding the Seahawks on defense. After the game, Pete Carroll apparently claimed this was a “mis-hit,” as opposed to a designed play which just did not work out.

Pete Carroll said the kick was mis-hit. Was not supposed to be an onside kick. "It was supposed to be kicked way down the field."
— Danny O'Neil (@dannyoneil) September 13, 2015

Pete Carroll said that wasn't an onside kick, just miss-hit. #Seahawks
— John Boyle (@johnpboyle) September 13, 2015

Meanwhile, Mike Pereira explains why the Rams were ultimately not penalized for an improper fair catch on the recovery:

" My video explanation on the #onsidekick at the beginning of OT in the #SEAvsSTL game https://t.co/Hr2lXvtNew — Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) September 13, 2015 "

That the ball wasn’t kicked directly into the ground would seem to give some credence to Carroll’s explanation. But, watching the play a couple times, Seattle kicker Steven Hauschka really did appear to be pooch-kicking on purpose.

UPDATE: Here’s video of Carroll saying that “We just didn’t execute properly on that … we were kicking the ball way down the field”

And, via Sheil Kapadia at ESPN:

This all still feels a little bit fishy.