Jim Meehan: Luck sides with battered Seahawks

SEATTLE – It is the equivalent of the 1-foot putt you give your buddy on the golf course. The dunk in a basketball game. The breakaway in hockey after the goalie has been pulled.

It is one of the closest things to a sure thing in football. A field-goal attempt from 19 yards, essentially a PAT. The Dallas Cowboys lined up for this routine kick Saturday, poised to take a 23-21 lead and leave the Seattle Seahawks with roughly a minute and change and no timeouts to answer at a somber Qwest Field.

Turns out the only answer the Seahawks would need was massive good fortune – the kind that accompanied the team’s magical run to the Super Bowl last season – and the awareness of Jordan “Big Play” Babineaux, whose nickname doesn’t seem quite big enough right about now.

The snap was fine, the catch was clean by quarterback/holder Tony Romo and then … somehow the ball slipped from his grip. By the time Romo scooped up the ball, kicker Martin Gramatica had gone too far on his approach.

Romo, who possesses quick feet, alertly jetted around the left side. Babineaux began chasing Romo, who needed to get to the 1 for a first down. For a moment, it appeared Romo would score the probable clinching touchdown.

Babineaux, a safety pressed into cornerback duty because of several injuries, ran down Romo from behind and dropped the quarterback at the 2. The Seahawks, who looked every bit the mediocre 9-7 team that scraped into the playoffs on fumes, had survived for another week, the beneficiary of a 21-20 wild-card victory that could not have produced a crazier finish.

“He tried to get it down, but that clock went off in his head and he was just trying to make a play,” Babineaux said. “Man, it was just about getting it done, there was no stopping.”

Or consoling Romo.

“It obviously cost us the game,” Romo said. “I can’t remember the last time (something like that happened).”

Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren was planning his 2-minute offense, assuming the field goal would be good.

“That’s about as automatic a play as you have,” he said. “You work on it a lot, and it was unbelievable.”

It pretty much fit right in with this zany contest that featured huge momentum swings. The Seahawks seemed to have the upper hand, but settled for field goals instead of touchdowns and trailed 10-6 at half.

Then, a stream of unlikely Seahawks heroes stepped forward.

First it was tight end Jerramy Stevens, who has drawn the wrath of fans for numerous drops this season, hauling in a 15-yard TD catch to give Seattle a 13-10 lead.

Rookie Miles Austin’s ridiculously easy 93-yard kick return for a touchdown volleyed momentum and the lead back to the Cowboys. They tacked on a field goal, taking advantage of Matt Hasselbeck’s second interception.

It began to look bleak when Seattle blew a first-and-goal at the 1. The Cowboys weren’t fooled on a fourth-down play and forced Hasselbeck into an incomplete pass.

Enter Kelly Jennings, a rookie pressed into duty at corner. He stripped the ball from Terry Glenn and the Seahawks nearly recovered in the end zone. It was initially ruled a touchdown, but an official review correctly resulted in a safety.

Seattle took over at its 50 and Stevens came up with another TD catch, this one a 37-yarder that put the Seahawks on top 21-20 with 4:24 left after a failed two-point conversion.

All Seattle needed was a defensive stop. But the Cowboys finally threw to Terrell Owens, who was limited to two catches by a secondary that often included the rookie Jennings, the safety-turned-corner Babineaux and Pete Hunter, who was a loan officer two weeks ago.

Julius Jones raced for 35 yards. Instead of milking the clock that was now less than 2 minutes, Dallas threw on third-and-7 at the 8 and tight end Jason Witten gained just enough yardage for a first down, which meant the Cowboys could run the time down to a precious few seconds and kick the deciding field goal. An official’s review, however, adjusted the spot of the ball to the 2, just shy of the first down.

Romo’s miscue followed.

“The ball kind of bounced our way,” Hasselbeck said.

In the process, receivers D.J. Hackett and Darrell Jackson, who were already playing hurt, were re-injured. Seattle will face the top-seeded Chicago Bears or No. 2 New Orleans on the road next week. The Seahawks probably won’t have a couple of key receivers and the secondary might be manned by players who weren’t in the lineup at the outset of the season. Both groups more than held their own against the Cowboys.

“That’s been the story of my life. Coming out of high school I had one scholarship offer at a school with only 1,200 students. … It seems like long odds are always up against me,” Hunter said. “I just keep fighting and believing in myself.”

That’s the closest thing to a sure thing Seattle has right now.