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Monday 5th December 2005 |
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Pulp Fiction by definition is a bit like Monday Night Football. Bright, fast paced entertainment for the masses to feast upon and enjoy until another one just as good comes along next week.
The difference is that Monday Night Football is real, it's not made up, or is it? Look at the score at the top of the screen, pinch yourself. Gee that really did happen!
Although the Seahawks started a slight favourite the omens were really not that good. Playing a game 3 time zones away starting at 9pm, in a hostile environment, snow falling, Eagles pumped up by tribute to Reggie White, Eagles desperate for a win to salvage any hope of the playoffs.
All those things had me nervous about our prospects yet on the other side of the coin was the momentum the Seahawks gained from beating the Giants. We followed up our heart stopping win against the Cowboys with our best road performance of the season in Arizona. Could we turn an even more dramatic win to our advantage again?
The Seahawks first drive was not quite perfect but it felt like a master class of how you should open difficult road games. 16 plays covering 65 yards in 8 minutes and 10 seconds finished off with a pass to a wide open Bobby Engram for his first touchdown of the season.
Mike Holmgren had asked the Seahawks defense to step it up a level after 2 weeks of giving up big yardage. Lofa Tatupu later said that after that opening drive the D just wanted to get out there and show what we could do.
Although the Eagles got a drive going I'm sure there was a noticeable improvement in the Seahawks tackling. When Eagles QB McMahon ran up the middle with the ball he was nailed with a ferocious hit by Marquand Manuel. It was a head on smash that jolted McMahon 2 yards backwards but amazingly it never even received a mention from Madden and Michaels in the commentary booth.
Whether it contributed to what happened next I don't know but 4 plays later Andre Dyson in tight coverage stepped in front of a pass intended for Greg Lewis. It was a great play and I expected maybe 5 yards on the return but the D were already throwing blocks ahead of him and showing a neat turn of pace Dyson sprinted all the way home for a 72 yard return.14-0 Seahawks.
The story of Lofa Tatupu already reads like something from a pulp fiction novel yet there he was, twice pummelling Brian Westbrook at the line of scrimmage on Monday Night Football. It sounded far fetched until on the Eagles next possession he dropped into coverage, picked off a McMahon pass and stormed untouched into the endzone. He then proceeded to celebrate by punching the goal post padding to mimic the celebration of another former USC linebacker Ken Norton jr.
2 possessions later and Lofa almost does it again but his deflection on the pass sent it into the arms of Michael Boulware. I love Boulware interceptions for the nonchalant way in which he picks them up. I get the impression that some backs let their eyes get as big as saucers when they see the ball heading their way and have a tendency to drop them, not Boulware who snaffled it, ran it back, then added an extra 5 yards with a dive to take it to the Eagles 2 yard line.
Regular readers of these pulp reports will know what happened next as Shaun Alexander went left and forced his way over. 28-0 Seahawks.
With only 4 minutes left in the 2nd quarter the Eagles were twice forced to go for it on 4th down in midfield. First time they made it second time they didn't leaving the Seahawks with good field position but less than 2 minutes remaining in the half.
At last weeks press conference Mike Holmgren had promised to go deep more to DJ Hackett and the Eagles had a good idea of what was coming as he went downfield in double coverage but he still made the leap and came down with the ball at the Eagles 3 for a 42 yard completion. A penalty nudged the Seahawks further and for the 22nd time this season Shaun Alexander ran in a touchdown.
Half time and 35-0 to the Seahawks. Hey, you could write it as fiction but no-one would believe it! I'd say I was astounded by it all but I checked the definition on dictionary.com and it says "to astonish or bewilder" but that hardly seemed to do justice to how I felt. I can tell you that my ass had never been so tounded.
One thing was for sure this couldn't go on and the Eagles would get the ball first in the second half. OK, the games underway again. Eagles are running it, oohh look he's dropped it and a Seahawk is running it in 25 yards for a score. How unusual in this game. For the record it was rookie LeRoy Hill with the tackle (he also took his sack count to 6.5 on the season so far) and Andre Dyson with his second score of the game. 42-0 and the second half was 10 seconds old.
A good story shouldn't end here but this one did as the Seahawks killed the remaining 29 minutes 50 seconds of the game. Alexander and Hasselbeck were rested and by the end just about all of the starters were resting.
The only thing of real note was that Joe Tafoya forced a fumble from Eagles back up QB Detmer which Marcus Tubbs recovered at the Eagles 22 but we couldn't move it and Josh Brown missed another field goal where he misses all of his field goals hooked left.
The Eagles only came close to Seahawk territory in the final 2 minutes of the game with a 44 yard punt return but succeed only in lobbing an incomplete pass into the endzone as time expired.
If there was an explanation it was the play of the defense who had been asked to step up. After not scoring a defensive touchdown all season they score 3 in a smidgen more than a half and had another effort returned to the 2 for a score on the next play, effectively 28 points right there. The big fat Eagle egg 0 next to their name also tells it's own story of how the defense performed.
It was one for the books as time slipped past 5:00am UK time and the realisation that the truth is sometimes a lot stranger than fiction.
Andrew Robinson HawksHead
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