Hawks sack Bears

SEATTLE – The last time the Chicago Bears and Seattle Seahawks met in a regular season game, it was to determine the best team in the NFC. The two teams reunited in January for a chance to go to the NFC Championship game.

How long ago that seems.

On Sunday, the Seahawks and Bears were at it again in a matchup of two underachieving teams that were just trying to stay alive in the NFC playoff race.

After a 30-23 victory on an afternoon that had all the intensity of a postseason game, the Seahawks are still standing. And, just as important, they are starting to look like a legitimate contender.

“The second half of the season, that’s really when the run for the playoffs begins. You’ve got to make a run,” defensive end Patrick Kerney said after Seattle’s second consecutive victory. “They haven’t had much success this year, but they’re still a dominant team, so it was a huge win.”

For the second week in a row, the Seahawks (6-4) came out throwing caution to the wind with a passing game that’s really found its groove. Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck threw passes on 15 of Seattle’s 19 plays in the first quarter and finished the game with 337 passing yards on a season-high 30 completions.

The defense buckled down after spotting Chicago an early 10-0 lead midway through the first quarter, and the Seahawks knocked the defending NFC champion Bears (4-6) back further in the postseason race.

Unlike last Monday’s 24-0 win over San Francisco, the Chicago game was a battle for most of the way. Nate Burleson’s 4-yard touchdown reception on the opening drive of the third quarter gave Seattle a 24-17 lead, and the defense helped that lead hold up.

Brian Russell’s heads-up play to knock an onside kick out of bounds with 13 seconds remaining clinched the victory.

“We had to regroup and refocus,” defensive end Darryl Tapp said of the Seahawks’ rough start. “They hit us with two quick scores, so we had to calm down and get back to what we do best.”

Bears running back Cedric Benson popped a 43-yard touchdown on the second play of the game to give Chicago a 7-0 lead.

After Seattle’s Josh Brown missed a field goal, the Bears went on another scoring drive to go ahead 10-0 six minutes into the game.

“We were down 10-0 before we could blink,” Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said. “So I was proud of our guys the way (the Seahawks) battled back and got even. They hung in there.”

From that point, the Seahawks’ pass-first offense got on a roll. Seattle’s unbalanced attack – 48 of the 69 plays were designed for passes – led the way to scoring drives on three of the final five possessions of the first half.

Hasselbeck was hitting his spots and making all the right audibles against Chicago’s defense.

Hasselbeck and Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher played a game of chess on almost every snap, with the quarterback and middle linebacker exchanging calls at the line of scrimmage.

“It’s tough when you are playing a guy as smart as he is in terms of football knowledge, and he can just sense things,” Hasselbeck said. “I think a couple of times, we were going with dummy audibles, and he just sensed that they were bogus. There were other times when they were real audibles, and he was calling out the play.”

Still, the Seahawks were able to pile up 425 yards of offense, including 322 in the air. Seattle’s pass-first, run-second attack worked for the second time in as many games.

“We are going to continue to do what we think we have to do to move the ball,” Holmgren said.

After a 4-4 first half of the season that made the Seahawks look like anything but super, the past two games have brought signs that things might be turning around.

“I’ve always, since Day 1, thought we were a serious contender,” said cornerback Kelly Jennings, who had a key pass breakup on a fourth-down play late during the final quarter. “We had a couple close games that didn’t go our way, but I really think we’re going to get it together and show everybody what kind of team we are.”

On Sunday, the Seahawks put together some pretty compelling visual evidence.

“I am comfortable with where we are,” said Hasselbeck, whose Sunday performance moved him up to fourth in the NFC in passer rating (91.3).

“We control our own destiny in terms of winning the division. We just have to keep winning, and just worry about us.

“We need to just win games. If we win games, good stuff happens.”