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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Thanks Seahawks for giving us our Sundays back

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (3) is hit by Arizona Cardinals cornerback Justin Bethel just after getting a pass off. (Stephen Brashear / Fr159797 Ap)
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (3) is hit by Arizona Cardinals cornerback Justin Bethel just after getting a pass off. (Stephen Brashear / Fr159797 Ap)

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Well, at least our Sunday afternoons can now be free. Read on.

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• If the gift of time is the most wonderful present you can give someone, the Seahawks did us a solid last night. The 39-32 loss to Arizona not only effectively eliminated the Hawks from the 2015 NFC West title hunt, it also allows us to quit worrying about our local NFL team. Thank you Russell Wilson, Kam Chancellor, Darrell Bevell, et al. No more spending Wednesday evenings trying to figure out how the Hawks were going to make it back to the Super Bowl. It ain’t happening folks. No more Monday mornings attempting to digest another blown fourth-quarter lead. It’s not important anymore. No more Friday’s spent running down injury news on Marshawn Lynch. No matter what, the Hawks aren’t going to be a factor come January. Oh, they still may rally and make the playoffs. They are a proud team and proud teams do things like that. But making noise once they get there? Who in their right mind would waste time worrying about it? Unless Russell Wilson has an accuracy transplant or three All-Pro offensive lineman somehow show up on the roster next week, that’s not an option. But it’s more than that. There are holes all over the place, including on the defensive side of the ball. Maybe Jeremy Lane will help in a couple weeks, but the secondary is struggling right now. And, at 4-5, it may be too late to make a difference. Unless Carson Palmer ends up on injured reserve again, the Cardinals are going to win the West. And unless Kam Newton becomes Clark Kent than Superman, the Panthers are going to be the NFC favorite. And both teams have already defeated the Hawks this season – in Seattle. Any playoff matchup will be on the road, where the 12s are immaterial and the turkey legs are served in to-go boxes. So let’s be happy with the past couple years – though another yard or two in last season’s Super Bowl would have been better – and thank the Hawks for the few hours we will have each Sunday now. No more worrying about the score. No more obsessing over the officials ignoring the blatant holding. No more time spent in front of the TV hoping Lynch will break two or three tackles en route to the end zone or Wilson will squirt free down the sideline or Earl Thomas will make a big play. Now we can sit back, listen to some jazz, sip eggnog and remember back when the Hawks were good. Excellent, actually. Good times.

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• WSU: The Cougars are really good right now and the polls show it. Yep, WSU is ranked again, the first time since Bill Doba’s penultimate season and their highest AP ranking since 2003. Associated Press has them at No. 24 while the USA Today coaches’ poll has them a spot higher. Jacob Thorpe has that news and look at bowl projections in his morning post. ... WSU is moving up in just about everyone’s power rankings, too. ... Next up for the Cougars is Colorado, which lost its starting quarterback during Saturday’s loss to USC. ... The Pac-12 has destroyed itself in the eyes of the football playoff committee. The conference’s depth and parity makes it unlikely it will get anyone in the final four, but it also means each game is worth watching. ... Former Washington State walk-on Jordan Simone was injured Saturday and his college football career is probably over. ... WSU’s volleyball team couldn’t get past Stanford.

• Gonzaga: The GU women are playing without two of its top eight players – senior Shaniqua Nilles and 6-foot-5 post Emma Wolfram are out with injuries – and it showed yesterday in a 65-48 home loss to Stanford. The Zags led 47-46 before running out of gas down the stretch. Jim Allen has more in this game story while Colin Mulvany has a photo gallery.

• EWU: The Eagles held a doubleheader on Reese Court yesterday with both teams winning. The women started it by getting past Air Force 65-44. Then the men blasted overmatched George Fox 126-64, setting a school record for scoring.

• Whitworth: The Pirates were given an NCAA Division III playoff berth yesterday, though that’s all that they were given. Their opponent is second-ranked Linfield, which already owns a 42-point win over Whitworth from earlier this season. Jim Meehan has more in this story. ... The women's cross country team also got an at-large bid to nationals.

• Seahawks: The Seahawks’ “dynasty” is the subject of John Blanchette’s column this morning, but Blanchette isn’t alone. A lot of columnists used the loss to dissect how far the Hawks have fallen this season, how tough the assignment is going to be over the next seven weeks and how they got where they are at. ... The Hawk defense was its best offense Sunday – Wilson was just putrid throwing the ball – but also gave up 39 points to Palmer and the Cardinals despite the best efforts of Cliff Avril. ... You may not have been happy to see 14 penalties called on the home team. Neither was the home team. ... Ricardo Lockette showed up yesterday and helped raise the flag before the game.

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• So what will you do with your free time Sundays? Or are you still going to spend it sitting in front of the TV, just waiting for the Hawks to surrender another fourth-quarter lead? Until later ...



Vince Grippi
Vince Grippi is a freelance local sports blogger for spokesman.com. He also contributes to the SportsLink Blog.

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