It's easy to second-guess after it happens... if they had run the ball and it were fumbled, it would be a different story. But a fumble isn't that much less likely that an interception on a pass like the one we saw last night- Wilson would not have thrown the ball unless it looked really certain to connect.
The slam-in interception we saw was a rare convergence of angles and positions to allow for an open receiver while someone drives in from behind with better leverage to knock them out of the way while intercepting the ball. On the replays, you should notice that the receiver was running upright, while the interceptor was driving in from a crouch - as if to tackle the receiver. If he had been a fraction of a second later, it would have just been a tackle. If he had been a fraction of a second earlier, it would have been pass interference. (It would not be an interception - if the receiver wasn't there, the ball wouldn't have been thrown!) As it was, he was in the perfect moment to knock aside the receiver as he intercepted the ball.
And if Wilson had not found an open receiver, he might yet have run the ball. Wilson could very easily run for a yard when the field opens up.
And they'd still have multiple down to try to run it in.
This was not a "horrible decision" by Carroll - but it went against him, and the Monday-morning quarterbacks are legion, and loud.
