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Week 16 - Saturday December 24th 2005 |
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If you were trying to think of one word to describe the Seahawks 2005 season you could do a lot worse than incredible. I even looked it up in the dictionary: 'so implausible as to elicit disbelief'. Yep!
In the film our heroes try to live out a quiet unassuming life away from the beaten track before bursting into action to make the world sit up and take notice. It's like the character Syndrome says in the film "Oh yes now you respect me because I'm a threat. That's the way it goes."
One thing that isn't clear is how much respect the Seahawks gained for this relatively routine victory over a team that themselves appeared invincible only a couple of weeks ago. Certainly they got it from Michael Smith writing for ESPN. He rates us and I quote 'the most complete team in football'. In a season of unaccustomed quotes that's probably the most incredible to type out yet.
Sure the Colts were missing some starters but it certainly didn't appear they were taking things at anything less than 100% when they put together a long opening drive. They were helped of course by playing a Seahawks secondary that has hardly seen the same starting line up used more than once. As it happens they made it to 1st and goal on the 5 and went backwards by a yard on 3 plays before kicking a field goal.
Then it was time for the NFL's number 1 ranked offense to take over. It started with a 46 yard return by Josh Scobey who, lest we forget fumbled the ball before the season was even 10 seconds old. 5 plays later it was a touchdown as Alexander went in from the 2 following up a 14 yard run to get it down there. 7-3 Seahawks.
The Colts again drove into the red zone but once again had to settle for a field goal attempt as the Seahawks D allowed the yards but not the score. Even better was to follow as rushing off the left edge Michael Boulware blocked Vanderjagt's kick.
It was then time for the Seahawk backs to take centre stage as Strong caught a pass, Alexander gobbled some more yards up before being hit out of bounds, without a flag I might add, only for Morris to step in and gain 13 yards on 2 plays. Alexander returned to drive it to the Indy 15 before Hass beautifully faked out the Colts defense to the right before delivering to a wide open Stevens and 14-3.
Jim Sorgi came into replace Manning at QB for the Colts and it was interesting to note that he would finish the game with a passer rating of 103 against Manning's season average of 104 so it's quite possible that Manning wouldn't have done much better than young Sorgi. He certainly did a good job of imitating him by driving to the Seahawks red zone and delivering only a field goal for 14-6 at the half.
Taking the opening possession of the second half the Seahawks continued their excellent record of scoring on opening drives to either half by marching right down the field combining pass and the run to great effect. As if to emphasize the point Hass then did something which he hasn't done all season and that was to pass the ball to Shaun Alexander for a touchdown. I still can't decide if this was an attempt to give potential play off opponents something else to worry about or simply to give him another touchdown as the single season record of 27 came into sight. Probably a mixture of both. 21-6.
The game then petered out to an extent into a punting competition, although we were kept aware by the commentary crew that the Colts were still within two scores. Well they were but they never looked likely to score them.
Neither team had shown much willingness to rush the passer and I'm not sure we saw a blitz from either side all game but in the end Marcus Tubbs got Sorgi up the middle forcing a sack and a fumble which popped up in the air for Craig Terrill to gather in at the 7th attempt. That set up a TD for Mo Morris to scamper in from 13 yards, or so it seemed but they ruled him down at the 1 yard line.
There was then a great shot of Alexander (who had been taken out by this stage) on the sidelines positively itching to get on the field. It looked like he had got the call from one of the coaches but Mike Holmgren thrust out a play card clenching hand to block his path. A time out eventually gave the crowd what they had been shouting for as Shaun again went in left to tie Priest Holmes' record of 27 touchdowns in a single season. MVP, MVP shouted the crowd and there are few now who disagree with that assessment. 28-6 Seahawks.
It might have been nice if we could have kept the Colts out of the end zone all game but Sorgi eventually got on top of our secondary and put together a series which he finished with a 6 yard pass and a final score of 28-13.
The way I see it that leaves the Seahawks with the best record in the NFL at present. Tied at 13-2 with the Colts, we take the tie breaker on head to head record so maybe the ESPN analyst's opinion is not so incredible after all!
Andrew Robinson (HawksHead)
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