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Week 15 Thursday 14th December 2006 |
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The Seahawks reminded me of a lumbering heavyweight boxer, ahead on points late in the contest but unable to put away his plucky younger opponent leaving himself wide open to the sucker punch.
On reflection the Seahawks are not NFL heavyweights any longer. The players have just not performed well enough individually or as a team and I get the impression that some of the coaching is leaving them fighting with one hand tied behind their back.
Yet again an inexperienced opposition quarterback was not sacked and remained pretty much untouched despite a 49er offense that was not functioning for most of the contest.
On Seahawk offense there was again some conservative play calling but the same old failings of drops, fumbles and penalties disrupted the flow of what had been almost total domination of the ball in the first half.
All we had to show for it was a 3 yard Alexander TD following on from his own runs of 17 and 18 yards.
With 5 minutes remaining in the half the Seahawks moved downfield and Hass found Jerramy Stevens at the 49ers 11 but on review the pass was ruled incomplete as Stevens had indeed dropped it first. It set up 4th and 12 from the 36 and we punted into the end zone for a net gain of 16 yards.
Mike Holmgren later said that giving the ball to Mack Strong on a 4th and 1 was 'aggressive' which had me scratching my head. Aggressive to me is either trying for the FG or going for it even with 12 yards required if the likely net gain of a punt is only going to be 16 yards.
On the 49ers next possession they faced a 4th and 5 in midfield and out of a punt formation gave it to rookie RB Michael Robinson who took it 33 yards. Sadly Mike Holmgren's idea of adventure is sending Mack on 4th and inches. The 49ers could only end up with a field goal but it did seem as though a point had been made.
The opening drive of the 2nd half was going great again until on 2nd down at the 49ers 20 Hass threw a hopeless interception to Mark Roman. You sort of had an idea what was going to happen.
Out of respect for the squeamish I'm going to spare you the details but the 49ers put up 3 TD's in 10 minutes in the 4th quarter as a mixture of inept defending and a stumbling offense put what should have been a sure fire win out of sight.
The Seahawks ended the game by putting together a 1 minute drive ended with a pass to Jerramy Stevens to make the final score 14-24.
We need to get the Seahawks problems in some sort of perspective because we are still an 8-6 team with 2 games to go and a place in the play offs seem more likely than not. Offer any Seahawk fan that in the past and hands are likely to have been snapped off but this time it is different.
Expectations have been raised, for sure but to say the 2006 Seahawks are underperforming is a massive understatement. Last season we had the NFL MVP and numerous pro-bowlers. This season it's a question of who has our best player been, the kicker the punter or the punt returner.
As it stands it is not certain that the Seahawks will make a play off game but even a pessimist would fancy our chances of getting there. The problem is that even the optimists can't see us winning one.
HawksHead 18/12/06
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I
know I should be able to take a defeat especially as I have certificates in
it from a young age but this one really hurt.