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Week 17 - Sunday 31st December 2006 |
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With the Seahawks post season ranking cemented at 4 and the 4-11 Bucs post season cemented at 'not going to happen' there doesn't seem to be an awful lot riding on this one.
I must admit that I thought the Bucs were going to be real challengers in 2006 following their impressive end to last season but it just hasn't happened.
QB Chris Simms was injured in week 3 when he suffered a ruptured spleen against the Panthers. I'm sure Simms absence hasn't helped but they were 0-3 before his injury and they went for rookie Bruce Gradkowski to replace him rather than veteran Tim Rattay. Gradkowski lifted them back to 2-4 with wins over the Bengals and Eagles but it proved to be something of a false dawn as it was followed with only one win in the next 8.
Gradkowski was eventually benched after an uncertain start on the road in Chicago and Rattay proved an immediate success rallying the Bucs to force overtime that was lost to a field goal. He has then followed that up with a 22-7 victory in Cleveland so there will be a certain confidence and willingness to impress in the final game. Rattay has been talked of as a potential Seahawks back up and will be a free agent in 2007.
Part of my pre-season confidence in the Bucs was based on the rookie season of RB Cadillac Williams but he has significantly failed to live up to his first season, posting only one TD and denting the hopes of fantasy owners who reached to draft him early, grrr..
Main receiving threat Joey Galloway needs no introduction to Seahawks fans and still retains his pace at 35 years of age. Of course the UK base of the Seahawks Jersey Repository currently holds 2 Seahawks Galloway jerseys in stock as you never know when you're going to run out ;-)
On defense the Bucs haven't been quite as formidable as in recent years with a middling rank against the run and the pass. On both categories they are performing better than the Hawks so it would be wrong to expect an upsurge in the Seahawks offense all of a sudden and we will be seeing the starters on the field.
Whilst there might have been a temptation to treat the game as a mini-bye week ahead of the play offs Mike Holmgren has decided that his first team needs to play in this one. There is a risk in that of course but I suspect that most fans would be in favour of going out to win the game to try and get some momentum going into the play offs. I mention purely in passing the fact that Shaun Alexander needs 196 yards for his 6th successive 1000+ yards rushing season.
My main concern going into the play offs is the inconsistent form of Matt Hasselbeck whose QB ranking is down at 2001 levels of 74.5 with 17 TD's and 15 interceptions. Repeated changes across the O-line after many years of solidity haven't helped and neither has his injury or the repeated drops by his receivers but if the Seahawks are to do anything at all in the play offs we need Hasselbeck to start putting in the level of performance we know he is capable of.
The bad news for the Seahawks is that the season of Marcus Trufant is likely to be over with a high ankle strain so it looks very much like rookie Kelly Jennings will get his chance. As much as we might miss Trufant it will be interesting to see how Jennings performs as he has looked good in his limited time so far.
Of other injuries, Darrell Jackson is doubtful and I really can't see the Seahawks risking him whilst Pork Chop Womack will be available again for his 3rd comeback of the season. I'd be minded to stick with Rob Sims still but we will see.
I'm sure that the Bucs will be wanting to put up a decent performance to draw a line under a disappointing season and the Hawks will be trying to get themselves in play off mode so it could be one of those games that turns out better than it's billing and just a reminder of the now rare 6pm Sunday UK kick off time.
As ever, the game will be followed live in our exclusive Seahawkers UK chat room (no jeans or trainers please) where the properly attired are more than welcome.
Whilst there we like to listen to the radio coverage from the States www.thegamelive.com in the past the top link has been reliable.
There is also now a live streaming option for UK based fans with broadband via http://sports.yahoo.com/nflgamepass but this service has not been totally reliable so please check out the chat room first for further information.
HawksHead (28/12/06)
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So
here it is, the game that no-one is talking about.