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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Hawks sack Rams


St. Louis' Leonard Little couldn't prevent this Matt Hasselbeck pass.
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

SEATTLE – Another batch of records for Shaun Alexander. Another huge fourth-quarter drive by the offense. Another impressive effort from a defense missing several key players. Another solid performance from Matt Hasselbeck.

On another rainy afternoon at Qwest Field, the Seattle Seahawks came up with another defining victory, turning away the St. Louis Rams 31-16 Sunday in front of 67,192. Seattle now owns a three-game bulge in the NFC West and a sweep of the Rams, who were 3-0 against the Seahawks last season.

Seattle (7-2) shares the top record in the NFC with Carolina. St. Louis slipped to 4-5.

“I think we’re in a good place,” said Alexander, who piled up 165 rushing yards and three more touchdowns. “Honestly this is where we expect to be.”

Alexander entered the game needing just 51 yards to reach 1,000 for the season. He had that by late in the second quarter. His first rushing touchdown, which gave Seattle a 7-3 lead, made him the first player in NFL history to have 15 rushing touchdowns in five straight seasons.

He added scoring runs in the third and fourth quarters, giving him 79 for his career. That vaulted him past Tony Dorsett (77) and ex-Seahawk Ricky Watters (78) into 15th place on the all-time NFL list.

“I’ll tell you one quick story about Shaun,” coach Mike Holmgren said. “He came over and he had a guaranteed touchdown play for me. He said, ‘Listen, I know you don’t like me to do this, but if we do this and you hand me the ball here, I know it’s going to work.’

“I don’t usually, but he was having such a great game so I called it. We lost 1 yard on the play. He came over and I said, ‘Shaun, I’ll handle the play-calling from now on.’ “

The Rams’ play-calling helped tilt this one in Seattle’s favor. Leading 3-0 and facing fourth-and-3 at Seattle’s 8, Rams quarterback Marc Bulger tried to draw Seattle offside with a hard count. It wasn’t a bad idea, considering Seattle had several backups in the game because of injuries to starters, but the Seahawks didn’t bite.

St. Louis lined up for a field goal, but tried a fake with holder Dane Looker pitching the ball to kicker Jeff Wilkins, who was buried for a 4-yard loss. Five plays later, Seattle led 7-3.

“I wanted to get points,” Rams interim head coach Joe Vitt said. “We’re facing the No. 1 offense in the NFL. We thought it would be high-scoring.”

Seattle upped its lead to 10-3 at half with a 78-yard drive that ended with Josh Brown’s 31-yard field goal.

On Seattle’s first series of the third quarter, Hasselbeck threw his second interception of the game, though neither was his fault. Tight end Ryan Hannam mishandled the pass and linebacker Dexter Coaxley pulled in the deflection. On a first-quarter interception, replays showed tight end Jerramy Stevens was knocked off his route by a defender, but no flag was thrown.

St. Louis converted the second interception into points, but just three instead of seven as Seattle’s defense held. That seemed to spark Seattle, which used three straight Alexander runs, the last a 4-yard TD burst, to go on top 17-6 with 9:20 left in the third quarter.

Seattle’s lead grew to 24-6 when D.J. Hackett broke into the clear from cornerback Travis Fisher and easily hauled in a 31-yard touchdown pass from Hasselbeck. Hackett also had a 47-yard catch to set up Alexander’s first touchdown run.

St. Louis put together another long march, but was again held to a field goal. The Rams finally cracked the end zone with seven minutes left on Torry Holt’s 14-yard reception, closing the deficit to 24-16.

It wasn’t the best of days for Holt, who couldn’t come up with a well-thrown pass in the right corner of the end zone in the third quarter and inexplicably lost track of a long pass that landed right next to him at Seattle’s 5-yard line in the second quarter.

Seattle, as it has done most of the season, put together a timely drive when it needed it most. The Hawks converted on four straight third downs, including a 14-yard connection from Hasselbeck to Bobby Engram on third-and-3. Alexander polished off the drive and the Rams with a 17-yard TD run.

“You have to keep the ball out of the hands of a team like that,” Engram said. “We put together a six-minute drive. That’s huge. Everybody did their job very well.”

Seahawks 31, Rams 16

St. Louis306716
Seattle01014731

First Quarter

StL—FG Wilkins 31, 9:50.

Second Quarter

Sea—Alexander 6 run (J.Brown kick), 8:45.

Sea—FG J.Brown 31, :15.

Third Quarter

StL—FG Wilkins 36, 12:22.

Sea—Alexander 4 run (J.Brown kick), 9:20.

Sea—Hackett 31 pass from Hasselbeck (J.Brown kick), 4:59.

StL—FG Wilkins 39, :40.

Fourth Quarter

StL—Holt 14 pass from Bulger (Wilkins kick), 7:00.

Sea—Alexander 17 run (J.Brown kick), 1:12.

A—67,192.

StLSea
First downs2221
Total Net Yards353417
Rushes-yards21-7536-174
Passing278243
Punt Returns2-161-19
Kickoff Returns6-1125-114
Interceptions Ret.2-491-4
Comp-Att-Int28-40-117-29-2
Sacked-Yards Lost3-260-0
Punts2-41.53-39.7
Fumbles-Lost2-10-0
Penalties-Yards8-493-69
Time of Possession30:4729:13

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—St. Louis, S.Jackson 17-70, Bulger 2-9, M.Faulk 1-0, Wilkins 1-(minus 4). Seattle, Alexander 33-165, Strong 2-7, Hasselbeck 1-2.

PASSING—St. Louis, Bulger 28-40-1-304. Seattle, Hasselbeck 17-29-2-243.

RECEIVING—St. Louis, Curtis 6-51, M.Faulk 5-54, S.Jackson 5-45, Holt 4-45, Manumaleuna 3-51, McDonald 2-26, Bruce 1-16, Looker 1-12, Cleeland 1-4. Seattle, Engram 6-70, Stevens 4-49, Jurevicius 3-27, Hackett 2-78, Hannam 1-10, Alexander 1-9.

MISSED FIELD GOALS—None.