Seahawks end losing ways
SEATTLE – This wasn’t St. Louis revisited, though another unnecessarily harrowing ending had that feel.
And this definitely wasn’t a replay of last week’s listless effort against Arizona.
Seattle’s 23-17 victory over Carolina on Sunday was yet another example of why the Seahawks are either your next NFC Super Bowl rep or an also-ran.
As of now the Seahawks are somewhere in between, teasing their followers with a couple of pristine quarters and then committing inexplicable crimes against the game of football that make it seem as if they’re allergic to winning games they have spent the previous 50-plus minutes dominating.
If nothing else, Seattle put an end to a three-game losing streak that sapped the momentum of Seattle’s 3-0 start. The Seahawks didn’t exorcise the demons of the St. Louis collapse three weeks ago when they blew a 17-point lead midway through the fourth quarter. In fact, they brought all those creepy feelings back to the surface with a ragged final few minutes.
“DéjÀ vu all over again,” coach Mike Holmgren exhaled before a question was asked in the interview room. “Was anybody nervous? Holy Toledo.”
No, nobody, other than Seattle’s 47 active players, an agitated set of coaches and a throng of 66,214 at Qwest Field.
Cornerback Ken Lucas didn’t have time for nerves. He was burned on a 63-yard pass play that set up Carolina’s last touchdown and injected drama into the ensuing onside kick that landed in the sure hands of Seattle’s Marcus Trufant with 1:39 left.
“I was praying we got the onside because I know it would have fallen on my shoulders by allowing them the deep ball to get down there,” Lucas said. “It was a dumb play I made. I’m an aggressive player and the quarterback pump-faked. I hesitated a little and it gave the receiver just enough time to get on top of me. Next time, I’ll make them throw it underneath.”
Lucas’ miscue came after quarterback Matt Hasselbeck botched the hold on a probable game-clinching field goal attempt. That, coupled with Carolina’s quick-strike touchdown, turned a 23-10 lead into a vulnerable six-point edge. Though Carolina was out of timeouts, it wasn’t without hope.
“Once (receiver) Keary Colbert caught that long ball, we were like, ‘Oh, we might as well go close it out,’ ” Carolina safety Mike Minter said. “But we didn’t get the onside kick to get that opportunity.”
On the onside kick, John Kasay’s kick bounced high over the first wave of Seahawks to a waiting Trufant.
“You would like to not be as nervous at the end, but anyway we can get a win is good for us,” Trufant said. “It feels like the ball is up there forever, but you can’t jump because the ball is too high in the air. I just wanted to make sure I looked it in.”
When he did so, Seattle had survived, and lessons learned after a victory are much easier to digest than those delivered during a loss. At 4-3, Seattle is tied for first with the Rams, who were idle Sunday. The Seahawks are entering a particularly friendly portion of the schedule – at San Francisco, at St. Louis, home to Miami, Buffalo and Dallas – with a chance to reclaim the top spot in the NFC West.
But these Seahawks are not an easy team to get a read on. At times they are a fluid, offensive machine. And on the next play, Hasselbeck is throwing the ball to a Carolina linebacker inside the 5-yard line. On one down, Shaun Alexander will jet through the line and rip off a 30-yarder. On the next, he makes your blood boil with a sideways dance, ala Jeff Suppan between home and third.
The defense, stung by injuries to Grant Wistrom and Anthony Simmons, hasn’t been able to generate a pass rush. Seattle had no sacks and hurried Jake Delhomme on only a few occasions. The Seahawks were torched by receiver Muhsin Muhammad and didn’t exactly stymie a Carolina ground game that was without its top three running backs.
But at the end of the day, Seattle had allowed just 342 yards – 63 on the late pass to Colbert – and a respectable 17 points.
“I thought they were playing on a short field a good portion of the game,” Holmgren said. “Carolina had pretty good returns. If they punted to us, we had a long way to go. In that respect, I thought our defense did a pretty good job.”
Hasselbeck, for the most part, was patient and effective. The Seahawks gained 5.9 yards per snap and probably would have scored in the 30s if not for a pair of turnovers, including the pick thrown by Hasselbeck.
“The last thing Mike said to me on the headset was, ‘Don’t be careless with the ball,’ ” Hasselbeck said. “Just a really poor play on my part.”
One of the last things Holmgren said in his post-game comments summarized the day.
“I don’t know if I could take one more like we had against the Rams,” he said. “That would have been really bad if that happened, but it didn’t happen. That’s how close every week is and that’s the reason I can be cranky in here about some of the things that happened, but that’s also the reason I can go and have dinner with my family tonight and not be a jerk like I’ve been the last three weeks. I’ll enjoy it, because it’s hard to win a game.”
Tidy up those endings, coach, and Seattle’s season and those Sunday night dinners will really be something to savor.