Week 13 - Sunday 3rd December 2006

In the old AFC days the Seahawks were 4-20 when travelling to Denver so it was sweetness indeed to secure this vital victory in yet another wild and crazy Seahawks game day. Don't we do anything easily any more?

In the preview I was stupid enough to suggest that the Seahawks wouldn't have too much of a problem with the cold because we have snow in Seattle too you know. Mmm, Seattle cold doesn't really match Denver cold as the thermometer plumbed depths never seen in Seattle.

The Broncos had decided to take advantage of their 10 day break by starting rookie QB Jay Cutler. With the team at 7-4 with a play off battle looming it looked a strange decision to me as far as the 2005 season was concerned.

Shanahan was breaking him in gently by calling up run after run. As a tactic it had the effect of allowing the Broncos to win the early field position battle. Tatum Bell broke through some frankly suspect tackling for gains but the Hawks held and Jason Elam settled for a field goal and 0-3.

The Seahawks were scarcely moving the ball at all. At least 4 passes were dropped in the first half, Matt was committing false start penalties like they were going out of fashion and Alexander struggled to get much beyond the line of scrimmage. One strange thing was that the Seahawks were just not even throwing the ball longer then 10 yards. In our collection of Seahawks poor first half's this looked worse than most.

This time Tatum Bell broke off a big one setting up Cutler for his first TD as he hit TE Steven Alexander from 7 yards and 0-10. It showed Cutler on the sidelines on the phone to his QB coach. A mop of hair falling across his forehead and a goofy smile made him look a soppy teenager making a call to his first girlfriend. Whatever he looked like he was beating Seattle and it did not look good.

Just when we needed it the Seahawks forced a rookie mistake out of Cutler. Desperate to avoid the sack by Chuck Darby he just lofted the ball up to get rid of it. "Uh oh" went John Madden in the booth and Tapp almost did a dance as he gleefully picked it off and ran it in unopposed and another nice play by the rookie for 7-10.

If it was a turning point it wasn't immediately apparent as Josh Brown missed a 53 yard field goal to add to his miss from 40 earlier but I didn't really blame him too much due to the extreme cold.

As it happened the field position set up Elam for a 43 yarder at the end of the first half but they ran a fake which they'd intended to trot in for a TD rather than just achieve a first down as Madden seemed to think. It was sniffed out by Kelly Herndon and Lofa Tatupu for only a 2 yard gain so the Broncos reverted to plan A and kicked it for 7-13 at the half.

That score of 7-13 would remain on our screens for a depressingly long length of time, in fact for well into the 4th quarter. Things started to change when Josh Brown lined up an optimistic 53 field goal. Instead of a kick attempt he pooch kicked out of his hands to the Denver 15 where it was promptly muffed and Broncos MLB Al Wilson was injured on the play.

Whether it was his presence stopping the Seahawks throwing the ball down the middle or longer than 10 yards I don't know but on the Seahawks next possession Hasselbeck hit Darrell Jackson for gains of 27 and then 33 yards down to the Broncos 1 to provide a stark contrast to what had gone on before it. Shaun Alexander finished it from the there and the Seahawks were leading 14-13.

Then it was the Broncos turnover show that increased the lead. On the kick off following the TD Clark was making a decent return before Jennings knocked the ball out of his hands just as Josh Brown levelled him with a great hit. Joe Tafoya recovered.

The Seahawks looked to have gone 3 and out but a holding call gave them 10 yards and a first down. It looked like a phantom call but if you watch the replay closely the Bronco Veal pulled Rob Sims back by his jersey as he tried to work his way back to the ball. It was a relatively minor pull but when the referee saw him with a handful of stretchy jersey it was enough to bring the flag. Still unable to move it much, Brown settled for a 44 yard field goal and 17-13.

As if that wasn't enough Cutler then had his next pass tipped by Wistrom and intercepted by Babineaux and returned to the Denver 14 with only 4:00 remaining. A first down would have sealed the game but on a Deion Branch end around which looked to have been executed perfectly Pork Chop Womack missed his block and again coming up short the Seahawks settled for a 23 yard field goal and 20-13.

With less than 3 minutes remaining there looked to be no way that Cutler could do enough to get the Broncos back and the fans in the stand headed for the door. One pass into soft coverage, several missed tackles and a 71 yard run by Brandon Marshall was all it took to level up the scores for the same old Seahawks.

Boulware missed him in open field. Jennings and Babineaux hit him together but still he managed to break free. Ken Hamlin came over but took a bad angle as did Lofa Tatupu and effectively took themselves out of the play. Boulware had done well to work back around and as the last man had to nail him but let him squirm out of a waist high tackle.

With 2:31 remaining Madden said "No we see how good a quarterback Matt Haselbeck is" and he is rather good at running 2 minute drills despite his aberration in the Superbowl. Stevens 6, 2 minute warning, Burleson 16, Alexander 5, Branch 8, Hackett 13, Alexander 3 but then a 5 yard penalty for a false start.

As it stood with a 22 seconds left, Brown would face a 58 yard field goal and the Seahawks desperately needed to take some yards of that in the 1 play remaining. My eyes popped slightly as Shaun Alexander got the ball but he rumbled for 8 valuable yards before Hass spiked it. As Madden said 'I'd have passed it that far then spiked it". Well bully for you John but you might just have given Alexander or the play call, or Hasselbeck some credit rather than talk about Jay Cutler

It set up a 50 yarder for Josh Brown and I must admit to feeling less than confident despite his 5 winners of a similar distance he has kicked in the last 12 months or so. It wasn't a lack of faith in him more of a worry about the temperature and the weather but there it was on it's way and it never looked anything else than long enough and strong enough.

Back in the Five studio Martin Bayfield said the Seahawks had 'pinched it' then went on to talk about Jay Cutler. Oh well if Madden can fail to give credit where it is deserved I suppose you can't blame Bayfield. Mike Carlson banged his head repeatedly into the desk and made a case for Cutler's poor showing to be the fault of Seahawks TE Jerramy Stevens.

It wasn't pretty and you hardly get the 'I believe' sort of feeling that the 2005 Seahawks gave you but it was a vital win chalked up in hostile territory. In fact you could make a case for saying that, rookie quarterback or not, this was a tougher game, and certainly road game, than the Seahawks won in all of 2005 so I'll definitely take it and take the 8-4 record which it brings.

With 4 games left it is still possible for the Seahawks to finish 2-2 and still claim the number two seeding in the NFC which would be astonishing in an injury hit season where the Hawks have failed to look really convincing for the full course of one single game.

To listen to the Seahawks Radio network highlights click here: audio highlights

HawksHead (4/12/06)

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