Galloway Went Into Overdrive On Td Return

Special teams coach Dave Arnold called it “right return, 84 special.”

The “right return” means that the Seattle Seahawks’ wall of blocking on the punt return was to set up on the right side of the field.

The “84” stands for No. 84, Joey Galloway.

And the “special” implies that he’s supposed to do something extraordinary with the ball.

Which is exactly what he did in the first period of the Seahawks’ 30-28 win over the New York Giants on Sunday.

Galloway took Mike Horan’s punt at the Hawk 11 - just one yard deeper and he’d have let it bounce into the end zone - and returned it for a touchdown to put the surprising Seahawks ahead 21-3.

It was the first time Galloway has returned a punt for a touchdown, and it set a Seahawk franchise record in that category.

“We had return right called because we thought he would kick it to the right side since he was a leftfooted punter,” Galloway said. “But actually, he kicked it way to my left and we didn’t expect that.”

Teammate Corey Harris flashed back in front of Galloway to try to block the first Giant down the field, but Galloway darted past both of them and Harris wisely avoided the clip.

“When I started running to the right, people started disappearing,” Galloway said.

Galloway, the fastest player in the 1995 draft, out-ran Herschel Walker to the right sideline and then cut back inside of Horan.

“Once I cleared the punter, I knew I was gone,” Galloway said.

The play ended what had grown into a nagging frustration for Galloway, whose punt-return average had dipped to a pedestrian 6.2 yards.

“I wanted one; it’s the type of situation where if you keep working at it, you’ll do it.”

“I talked to him about being patient,” Arnold said of Galloway’s eagerness to break one long. “It’s not a knock on college football, but this is a lot different than college. Every punter in the league, all 30 of them, can really hang that ball up there.

“But I told him that if he was patient, sooner or later it would happen for him.”

Conversion aversion

Had the New York Giants simply kicked extra points after their four touchdowns, they would have won the game 31-30.

But when they found themselves down by five, 21-16 in the second quarter, they followed the custom of coaches down by five, and they went for the two-point conversion.

Back Rodney Hampton was tackled short of the end zone, though. That almost forced the Giants to go for two after their next two TDs, and both passes from Dave Brown to Arthur Marshall fell incomplete.

“I’m not going to sit here and second-guess myself,” said Giants coach Dan Reeves, who was staunchly against adding the twopoint conversion to the NFL rules. “I didn’t want it from the start.”

Erickson said the Hawks did nothing special against the conversion plays except “we blitzed them, naturally, and tried to put the pressure on them.”

Paper or plastic?

Finally, the Seahawks found a way to get pressure on an opposing quarterback.

With only 10 sacks in the previous eight games, the Hawks ranked at the bottom of the NFL.

Sunday, though, they tackled Brown for three sacks and added at least another half dozen hurries.

Part of that was the result of a defensive scheme designed to get Cortez Kennedy competing against single blocking. By putting men over both guards and the center, and blitzing linebacker Winston Moss, the Hawks force the opposing line to limit the All-Pro Kennedy to one blocker.

“We end up getting free because they have to pay so much attention to Cortez,” said Antonio Edwards, who had 1.5 sacks. “And I think we’re starting to play together better and read what the other guy is doing better.”

Hawk notes

When Chris Warren re-injured his ankle and Steve Broussard pulled his left hamstring on a kickoff return, the Hawks were left with fullback Mack Strong to man the tailback position in the fourth quarter.

Warren is expected to return for next week’s game against Jacksonville, but the extent of the damage to Broussard was not known after the game.

Seahawks owner Ken Behring made a brief appearance in the Hawks locker room and said that he is extremely eager to meet with members of the Nordstrom family today to discuss the possible construction of a football facility that would eliminate the possibility of the team moving.

Seattle’s 30 points was the highest total scored in a game this season.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo