Week 16 - Sunday 24th December 2006

I'm sure that winning 3 consecutive NFC West Championship's is supposed to feel better than this.

As it was the Seahawks rather backed into pole position in the Division as a late and unlucky loss to the Chargers was negated by the 49ers loss at the Cardinals. The 49ers, you will recall, are a team so poor that they only team they can beat are the, erm...., Seattle Seahawks.

If that is an example of NFL parity then how about this game? Lousy NFC team more than a match for the cream of the AFC?

In yet more wet weather the Seahawks generally held field position early on in what was little more than a punting contest.

Ladainian Tomlinson was being severely restricted with the Seahawks bringing safety Michael Boulware into the box to stop him and make Rivers pass. As a plan it was working but the 2006 Seahawks are rarely fault free.

Twice in a hard fought first half the Seahawks clawed out enough yardage to be in scoring position and twice Hasselbeck threw off target passes that were tipped by the Seahawks intended receiver and intercepted by the Chargers.

The defense made one slip and that was to cost a touchdown. For once Tomlinson found a gap in the Seahawks line but Kelly Herndon looked to have an easy tackle. Rather than taking the legs of the most dangerous runner in the NFL, Herndon went high and tried to strip the ball. Words fail me.

The 62 yard run that followed set up the Chargers for Rivers to all too easily find Jackson who ran from the far right to the far left of the endzone without anyone looking to be in coverage.

The Seahawks best position of the first half almost came when Ryan Plackemeier boomed a 72 yard punt that was fumbled and recovered by the Chargers despite a host of surrounding Seahawks.

At the start of the second half there could have been a shift of momentum as a Tomlinson TD was taken off for a face mask penalty on a block and the Chargers were held to an impressive 46 yard Nate Keading field goal kick into the wind.

On the kick off Nate Burleson took off and returned the ball fully 96 yards for a TD but a flag was down and no surprise that it was against the Seahawks. The amazement came on the replay when it showed that the flag on back up TE Ben Joppru was totally wrong. He'd done no more than knock his player to the ground, there not being a hold anywhere in sight.

With Tomlinson being held in check Shaun Alexander showed that he might just be approaching the form of last season when running in TD's from 33 and 9 yards. Both showed that when he gets a bit of room he is still a very elusive runner and strong enough not to be brought down easily.

They were sandwiched between another Chargers field goal but the Seahawks led 14-13 in the 4th quarter and looked good value despite Deion Branch dropping 2 simple catches that had the Qwest Field crowd booing.

With 5 minutes to go the Seahawks put together another nice drive that deserved a better finish than Josh Brown's 33 yard field goal but with the Chargers struggling to move the ball it actually looked good.

Forcing a 3 and out the Seahawks should have ended it but once again mistakes were made. Firstly Burleson lost track of his bearings and fair caught the punt on the 7 instead of letting it sail into the endzone. This backed up the Seahawks and despite the fact that a first down would have all but ended the game there can surely be little complaint about the 3 running plays that were called.

It meant a punt but the 2 minute warning had been reached and a Chargers TD looked unlikely to say the least. Regular readers might know what is coming as Rivers gained enough yards to get him into position to find Jackson with a 37 yard pass that saw Boulware fail to cover the deep ball with only 36 seconds left and that was it.

An ultimately frustrating game where the level of performance left me feeling far, far more positive than the meek surrender to the 49ers of the week before where flashes of excellence were tarnished by old familiar inconsistencies.

With a place in the play offs secured and a home wild card game against the Cowboys or the Eagles there is still some hope that one day in 2007 the excellence will outweigh the inconsistency.

Hawkshead (27/12/06)

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