Despite Defeat, Hawks Hopeful

You take what you can from preseason football games.

Saturday night, in a 20-17 loss to Indianapolis, Seattle Seahawks coach Dennis Erickson saw his team come up short in a number of areas.

But he saw one thing that made him extremely pleased. “I’m very happy with the way we competed,” Erickson said.

“It came down to the end and it was good and exciting - well, it was exciting, I don’t know how good it was,” Erickson said.

Hawks kicker Judd Davis missed a 44-yard field goal on the last play that could have sent the game into overtime.

Good play by reserve quarterbacks John Friesz and Stan Gelbaugh helped the Hawks stay in the game in the second half.

For most of the first half, though, the Hawks appeared to be throwing more passes than blocks.

“We didn’t pass-protect nearly as well as we did last week,” Erickson said. “We’ve got to protect Rick (Mirer) a lot better than we did in the first half, no question about that.”

“I’ve got to give them credit,” Mirer said of the Colts’ pass rush, which resulted in him getting sacked four times and forcing him to dump the ball for incompletions another handful of times. “They got up the field in a hurry.”

Perhaps the heavy pressure was to be expected as the starting line included James Atkins in place of injured Ray Roberts at left tackle, and at left guard, Jeff Blackshear, who has only recently returned to the Seahawks after a holdout.

Adding to the problems was a second-period ankle sprain to starting right guard Kevin Mawae.

While the Seahawks offense was impressive in last week’s 34-20 win over St. Louis, very little went as planned Saturday.

In the first half, before reserves filled the field, the Hawks rushed for a total of 12 yards. And although Mirer completed 11 of 18 passes for 115 yards, he was sacked four times for 24 yards in losses and had to throw the ball away several more times.

For the second week in a row, though, Coeur d’Alene native and University of Idaho quarterback John Friesz looked sharp in reserve of Mirer. Friesz hit 5 of 11 passes for 72 yards, including a 32-yard TD to Ronnie Harris.

Following the game, Friesz was told of the death of a grandmother and he hurriedly left.

Gelbaugh went 8 for 10 for 69 yards with a 10-yard scoring toss to tight end Carlester Crumpler.

Aside from Roberts, the Hawks had a number of players taking the night off. Starting tailback Chris Warren rested an injured Achilles, while free safety Eugene Robinson, rounding back into shape after off-season Achilles surgery, did not even suit up.

The game featured several other developments, as the Hawks slipped to 1-1:

Brian Blades saw his first action of the preseason. The veteran receiver’s personal life has been the subject of scrutiny since being charged with manslaughter in the July death of his cousin.

Blades had appeared distracted and not at all sharp early in training camp, but Saturday he played briefly with the form that has made him the team’s most reliable receiver, pulling in the only ball thrown his way for an 11-yard gain.

Late in the first period, the Seahawks offered a preview of what their offensive approach will be, going almost exclusively to the one-back, three-receiver set.

Mirer hit 4 of 6 passes as the Hawks moved sharply to the Colts’ 1 but failed to score.

Terrence Warren, whose pro duction has been virtually nil in his first two seasons with the Seahawks, had his best moment Saturday night, returning Chris Gardocki’s kickoff 50 yards in the third period.

The Colts offense, which com piled nearly 400 yards of offense, was sharp from the start as Marshall Faulk gained 32 yards on five carries - setting up a 42-yard field goal by Mike Cofer.

Indy scored midway through the third period to make it 10-0 on a 6-yard quarterback draw by Jim Harbaugh.

Friesz fired his third touchdown pass in two games, finding Ronnie Harris on a stop-and-go pattern for a 32-yard score with 13:47 left in the game to tie the score at 10.

Cofer broke the 10-10 tie by nailing a 45-yard field goal with 9:43 remaining.

But Gelbaugh passed for his score to Crumpler with 3:02 left to give the Hawks the lead.

Harbaugh brought the Colts back, though, in the final minutes and threw a 4-yard TD to Marvin Marshall to make it 20-17.

Colts 20, Seahawks 17

Indianapolis 3 0 7 10 - 20

Seattle 0 0 3 14 - 17

First quarter

Ind-FG Cofer 42, 5:53.

Third quarter

Ind-Harbaugh 6 run (Cofer kick), 6:47

Sea-FG Davis 28, 10:00.

Fourth quarter

Sea-R.Harris 32 pass from Friesz (Peterson kick), 1:13.

Ind-FG Cofer 45, 5:17.

Sea-Crumpler 10 pass from Gelbaugh (Davis kick), 11:58.

Ind-Marshall 4 pass from Harbaugh (Cofer kick), 14:15.

A-38,006.

Ind Sea First downs 22 23 Rushes-yards 30-154 23-77 Passing 212 232 Punt Returns 2-10 2-11 Kickoff Returns 4-117 5-132 Interceptions Ret. 0-0 0-0 Comp-Att-Int 23-34-0 24-39-0 Sacked-Yards Lost 2-18 4-24 Punts 2-39 3-47 Fumbles-Lost 3-1 0-0 Penalties-Yards 7-63 5-25 Time of Possession 33:14 26:46

RUSHINGIndianapolis, Faulk 9-72, Harbaugh 3-28, Warren 10-21, Potts 4-19, Humphrey 2-7, Crockett 1-7, Erickson 1-0. Seattle, L.Smith 7-26, Broussard 10-25, Gelbaugh 2-11, Johnson 1-6, Mirer 1-5, S.Smith 1-2, Strong 1-2.

PASSINGIndianapolis, Harbaugh 13-20-0-142, Erickson 10-14-0-88. Seattle, Mirer 11-18-0-115, Freisz 5-11-0-72, Gelbaugh 8-10-0-69.

RECEIVINGIndianapolis, Bronson 4-48, Potts 4-39, Bailey 4-37, Jones 3-35, Warren 2-25, Turner 2-12, Stablein 1-13, Hill 1-9, Dawkins 1-8, Marshall 1-4. Seattle, R.Harris 6-84, L.Smith 3-40, Crumpler 3-27, Proehl 2-26, T.Warren 2-20, Galloway 2-17, Broussard 2-16, Fauria 2-11, Blades 1-11, McKnight 1-4.

, DataTimes