Week 12 - Tuesday 28th November 2006 1:30am

Monday Night Football in Seattle in late November against the Green Bay Packers. Mmm, sounds good doesn't it?

Although the teams have met in Green Bay in recent years the Packers haven't travelled to Seattle since 1996. You get no prizes for guessing that Brett Favre was under center for the Packers but have a choc drop for remembering that the Seahawks had a certain Rick Mirer at the helm. A 31-10 loss was, in retrospect unsurprising.

In more recent times I really felt the 2003 loss as the 3-0 Seahawks went into the 2-2 Packers. My optimism turned out to be entirely misplaced as even though Hass threw for more yards than Favre the Seahawks lost 35-13.

Of course the teams would meet once more at Lambeau that season as both teams would finish 10-6 and face off in the Wild Card game. The Seahawks exceeded expectations by taking the game to overtime before Matt won the coin toss and issued his now ever so slightly famous call of "We want the ball and we're gonna score" said very jokingly to Favre and a multi million person TV audience.

I think it's often said that Matt then promptly threw an interception but as I recall there were at least one if not two series exchanged before he threw his ill fated pass to Alex Bannister that was snaffled by Packers CB Al Harris and returned for the winning score. The sight of Harris and his flowing locks bouncing down the sideline remains an especially painful memory.

Last seasons game was the 'Get Shaun Alexander the rushing title" bowl as the Seahawks did just enough to do that before calling for the back ups and settling for a 23-17 defeat. However it has to be said that in the second half, some of the officials thought they were throwing flags at Favre's retirement party.

Favre and Holmgren have some history of course as the Walrus gave Brett his first NFL start way back in 1992 and he has yet to miss a game since. Last Sunday Favre had to leave the field suffering from an elbow injury and it looked for a while that his streak would end at the home of his former coach but the injury was not as bad as first feared. Favre isn't practising just yet but according to Mike Holmgren on Wednesday you can "bet the ranch" that Favre will start.

Matt Hasselbeck might not be quite as durable as Favre but he has made a recovery from what looked like a bad knee injury and is listed as probable on the Seahawks injury report so barring any adverse reactions he will start.

After being a little tentative last week against the 49ers it is to be hoped that Shaun Alexander has had another solid week of recovery and is ready to start getting back towards his 2005 levels. I really do think that the Seahawks need Alexander more than ever right now and that if the Seahawks are to be successful in 2006 it will only come through establishing a consistent running game.

Elsewhere on the Seahawks front it would also be nice to have Bobby Engram back. He has been suffering from a thyroid related illness and his recovery has been slow. He is officially questionable as are Robbie Tobeck, Sean Locklear and Rocky Bernard. The extra day might help as the Seahawks do not play the games teams like the Patriots play with the injury report. It is a worry because questionable on Wednesday is normally long hand for out on Sunday. (The Pats excelled themselves this week by listing opposing QB Rex Grossman as doubtful on their own report in an attempt to stir things up! Apparently there isn't a rule prohibiting this!!)

The Packers are currently 4-6 and a defeat will most likely extinguish any lingering hopes they have of making the play offs. As far as the Seahawks are concerned it is pretty much a must win game. Anything less than a 4-2 finish to the season for the Seahawks is likely to threaten the Seahawks place in the play offs and signal an early exit if we do make it. No pressure then lads.

The game is live in the UK at 1:30am in the early hours of Tuesday but you can rest assured that there will be plenty of Hawks staying up for the game. With work commitments and the recent acquisition of Sky+ my own status for the live game remains a Bobby Engramesque "questionable".

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.

HawksHead (22/11/06)

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