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Whether it was his first two stops in the NFL, his time in college at Southern California or his first eight seasons in charge in Seattle, Pete Carroll has never started a season with three consecutive losses.

That’s 12 seasons in the pros and nine in college during which Carroll has been able to avoid a disastrous start to a new campaign. And it’s what the Seahawks will be trying to avoid Sunday when they host the Dallas Cowboys.

“There’s only a couple of undefeated teams in the NFC right now and let’s hang with that. Let’s hang with them,” Carroll said. “I don’t want to get behind that number right now, so we’ve got to get a win.”

What he and other Seahawks call a roster reset has struggled to get started. Seattle’s offence has looked inept at times, its quarterback confused and its defence vulnerable. The Seahawks understand the rarity of dropping to 0-3 and still being able to turn around the trajectory of the season.

“I’m not going to give you a cliche. You don’t want to be 0-3,” Seattle linebacker Bobby Wagner said.

Dallas is still trying to solve all of its issues, but at least has a victory after knocking off the New York Giants at home last week. The Cowboys’ defence was exceptional against the Giants, holding rookie Saquon Barkley and New York’s run game to 35 yards on the ground, and sacked quarterback Eli Manning six times. The Cowboys are second in the NFL with nine sacks through two weeks, and now face the offence that’s surrendered a league-high 12 sacks so far, six in each game.

“We’ve continued to try to build the talent level on our front seven and try to create competitive situations where guys are fighting for roster spots and fighting for playing time and, hopefully, when they get out there, that competition brings out the best in them,” Dallas coach Jason Garrett said. “Obviously, those can be very impactful plays.”

The Cowboys are 5-2 in September road games since 2014, one of those losses coming in the opener against Carolina. Seattle hasn’t lost a home game in September under Carroll, going 13-0 since 2010.

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