Hawks Smash Denver Several Time-Consuming Drives Carry Seattle To Surprising 27-10 Victory

Sometimes, all the statistics and notebooks filled with post-game analyses can’t capture the essence of a game as well as a single image.

Like Kevin Mawae’s face.

Bruised, red in spots, and seemingly swollen, it looked as if it had been used for evil intents all day.

“This is smash-mouth football,” the Seattle Seahawks guard said through his smashed mouth. “That’s how it’s supposed to be played.”

And so it was for the Seahawks on Sunday, when their offensive line drove face-first through five clock-gobbling, Bronco-busting scoring drives in a surprising 27-10 demolition of Denver.

“I can’t help but smile,” Seahawks coach Dennis Erickson said after his team leveled its record at 2-2 and the Broncos slipped to 2-3 in front of 49,914 in the Kingdome.

Erickson noted that the win showed that the Hawks could achieve some things that had not been seen in some time.

“A win, coming off a bye, which we haven’t done around here in a while (never, actually), and against an AFC West team, Denver, who has beaten us the last five times - all those things are really positive for our confidence,” Erickson said.

They did it with quarterback Rick Mirer (16 of 24 for 222 yards) getting so comfortable with the new offense that he connected with eight different receivers.

They did it with Chris Warren’s 115 rushing yards, which led a team rushing effort of 230 yards.

They did it with a seven-year high of 422 yards of offense and an incredible 21-1/2-minute time of possession in the 30-minute second half.

But mostly, they did it by dominating the line of scrimmage on drives of nine plays and 88 yards, 13 plays and 92 yards, 13 plays and 73 yards, and 10 plays and 64 yards.

“The offensive line did a great job and each week they’re getting better,” said Warren, whose 100-plus-yard effort was the 15th of his career. “It started out kind of shaky at the start of the year, but offensive lines take a while to jell together. We are real proud of them, and we all have something to prove this year.”

Somehow, this one seemed destined to go Seattle’s way from the start.

Denver pushed the Seahawks defense deep into its own territory on the first possession when quarterback John Elway appeared to convert a fourth-and-1 sneak at the Seattle 18. But as Elway spun for extra yardage, Michael Sinclair jarred the ball loose and safety Eugene Robinson recovered.

Seattle’s good fortune continued as Denver mounted a 14-play, first-quarter drive that resulted in zero points when Jason Elam missed a 23-yard chip-shot field goal.

“When you get down there, you’ve got to put points on the board, preferably touchdowns,” Elway said. “But when you miss a field goal, it hurts that much more. Right now, we’re just eating our own lunch.”

Actually, it was being fed to them by the Hawks offensive line.

And receiver Joey Galloway made the first of several impressive individual plays to help the Hawks score before half. Mirer was chased out of the pocket, but saw Galloway darting deep in single coverage by Eric Thomas.

Mirer launched one, but couldn’t quite get it to Galloway, who shook off Thomas and came back to pull in the under-throw for a 51-yard completion. Warren later jumped over the top for a 1-yard score to give the Hawks a 7-0 lead with 1:42 left in the half, punctuating an 88-yard drive.

Elway, as is his custom, led Denver on a lastminute drive into Seattle territory, but Elam missed again, this time from 52 yards out.

Getting the ball with 20 seconds on the clock, Mirer connected on consecutive completions to Carlester Crumpler (24 yards) and Brian Blades (7 yards) to set up Todd Peterson’s 45-yard field goal to stretch the Seahawks advantage to 10-0 at half.

“Dennis (Erickson) is aggressive,” Mirer said of the decision to try a late drive. “If there’s a little bit of time, we’re at least going to take a shot at getting something.”

Seattle only got better in the second half, turning the first possession into a 13-play 92-yard exercise in domination.

Three times the Seahawks converted third-down situations - with an 18-yard reverse by Galloway, a 27-yard pass to Robb Thomas and an 18-yard completion to rookie tight end Christian Fauria.

Those clutch efforts set up a 4-yard score by Warren to make it 17-0, stimulating the Kingdome crowd.

Elam earned redemption late in the third quarter with a 33-yard field goal after the Hawks defense forced Elway into three straight incompletions at the Seattle 13.

The Hawks then put together another impressive march - keyed by the rushes of reserve tailback Steve Broussard - that ended with Warren’s third touchdown of the game.

Seattle’s first major blunder of the game led to a 26-yard scoring pass from Elway to Mike Pritchard with 7:48 left in the game. Hawks cornerback Carlton Gray jammed Pritchard out of bounds illegally and then let him run, unattended, into the end zone to pull in Elway’s toss.

On that drive, Elway connected on 6 of 8 passes for 76 yards.

As the game drew to a close, the Hawks added another long drive and a 20-yard Peterson field goal.

Seahawks 27, Broncos 10

Denver 0 0 3 7 - 10 Seattle 0 10 7 10 - 27

Second quarter

Sea-Warren 1 run (Peterson kick), 13:18.

Sea-FG Peterson 45, 14:58.

Third quarter

Sea-Warren 4 run (Peterson kick), 7:22.

Den-FG Elam 30, 12:25.

Fourth quarter

Sea-Warren 4 run (Peterson kick), 4:10.

Den-Pritchard 26 pass from Elway (Elam kick), 7:12.

Sea-FG Peterson 19, 13:04.

A-56,483.

Den Sea First downs 18 26 Rushes-yards 19-75 41-230 Passing 243 192 Punt Returns 2-23 0-0 Kickoff Returns 3-67 3-50 Interceptions Ret. 0-0 0-0 Comp-Att-Int 23-45-0 16-24-0 Sacked-Yards Lost 0-0 4-30 Punts 3-40 3-40 Fumbles-Lost 2-1 0-0 Penalties-Yards 5-20 4-23 Time of Possession 22:57 37:03

Individual statistics

RUSHING - Denver, T.Davis 15-61, Elway 3-11, Carver 1-3. Seattle, Warren 24-115, Galloway 3-54, Broussard 5-37, L.Smith 6-21, Mirer 2-3, S.Smith 1-0.

PASSING - Denver, Elway 19-37-0-209, Musgrave 4-8-0-34. Seattle, Mirer 16-24-0-222.

RECEIVING - Denver, Sharpe 8-94, Carver 5-32, Johnson 4-44, T.Davis 3-24, McCaffrey 2-23, Pritchard 1-26. Seattle, Galloway 4-89, Blades 4-32, Fauria 2-37, S.Smith 2-7, R.Thomas 1-27, Crumpler 1-24, Broussard 1-3, Warren 1-3.

MISSED FIELD GOALS - Denver, Elam 23, 54. Seattle, Peterson 48.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo