Week 6 - Sunday 15th October 2006

Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem entitled 'If..." in which he talked about keeping your head when all about you people are losing theirs and it's a sentiment that I've struggled to get out of my head since I sat down to think about this game.

Keeping your head, nerve, bottle, call it what you will but the Seahawks showed us last season that they are a special team and on Sunday in St Louis they showed us they aren't about to quit as NFC Champions without a damn good fight.

That they were 21-7 down at the half against our fiercest divisional rivals  only made the comeback sweeter still despite the huge dose of joyous agony served on us in the final moments of the game.

The opening was brisk by both teams. Length of the field drives finished of by quick TD passes to Holt and Deion Branch respectively. We know about Torry 'Big Mouth' Holt all too well so it was nice to see Deion Branch glide past a trailing Rams CB and start jawing with the Rams fans. As Kipling put it "If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue" I'm sure that's not quite what he had in mind but still...

The noticeable thing about the Hawks was that if this drive had happened with Shaun Alexander in the team he'd have maybe had 5 of the 11 plays called. Back up Mo Morris had 2 carries for a total of 1 yard. It all pointed to more tentative use of the running game in the absence of the MVP.

The rest of the first half did not make pretty watching for the Seahawks. Steven Jackson finished off a Rams drive with a 2 yard run to make it 14-7 and all we could do was punt. In fact Hass was getting hit so much it was lucky in a way we were getting the chance to punt.

After Plackemeier had boomed his first attempt, his second was shanked giving the Rams a short field and another TD for my favourite Ram, Holt. 21-7 at the half but at least we would get the ball first I encouraged myself.

It is still not quite clear how many "Holy Toledo" or "Jiminy Christmas" exclamations Mike Holmgren came out with at half time but whatever he said worked as did the change of plan.

From scarcely giving the ball to Morris he took it 6 out of 11 plays in the Seahawks first drive after the break. The drive stalled in the red zone but the way the first half had gone I would have been happy with any points so it was scarcely believable that Josh Brown not only missed the 34 yard FG attempt but hit BOTH posts in doing so.

If the Rams had been good enough they'd have scored on the next possession and it would have been game over but no, the momentum was now swinging to the Seahawks even though the punt put us back on our own 14.

Mike Holmgren then made the play of the game. As Deion Branch was barged off the ball downfield he whipped the yellow flag off an official and called pass interference himself. Not quite but it seemed like it as Mike lobbied hard for the call and got it for a 30 yard penalty. The game was just showing signs that it was entering crazy mode as on 3rd and 5 Mack Strong blasted for a 32 yard TD run called back on a holding penalty on Chris Spencer.

The Seahawks are used to being killed by the deep ball against the Rams but standing on the big Rams head in midfield Hasselbeck launched a pass to Darrell Jackson in triple coverage and he made the grab in the back of the end zone. It's in the books as a 42 yarder but the ball travelled nearer 60. 21-14.

3 and out for the Rams led to a Josh Brown 49 yard field goal as the game slipped into the 4th quarter and the Rams were starting to get nervous. After a touchback on his previous kick off Brown put Rams return man Kevin Curtis back on his own goal line. He only got to where the ball would have been for a touchback before he was hit by DD Lewis who forced a fumble and Kevin Bentley recovered the ball.

Before we knew it there was Branch making his second TD catch of the day and amazingly the Seahawks were winning 24-21. The Seahawks still weren't finished with Bulger who was sacked twice before a weak punt put the ball on the Rams 33. Although the Hawks failed to move it Brown knocked over another 49 yard FG to make it a 6 point game.

I'm always nervous of 6 point leads but when you know that it should be a 9 point lead then the feeling is even worse. Josh Brown had a lot to answer for...

So here it was. 3:27 remaining and Bulger with the ball on the Rams 20. It's already been a crazy game but really I had no idea how crazy it was going to get. If the commentators had said that Bulger hadn't thrown an interception all season once they'd said it a thousand times and there it was Lofa Tatupu taking it away from Holt and back to the Rams 17 for the game winner. All it needed was a couple of runs and a kick and our work here was done.

Sadly Morris had 3 runs and a fumble made even more frustrating by the fact that he'd actually picked up a first down which would have been pretty much good enough to end the game anyway. Mike Holmgren challenged the call and lost of course. Now there's only 2:48 remaining but I'm pretty sure the Seahawks fans in the chat room knew what was coming.

Sure enough there it was, Bulger finding who else but Holt for a ridiculous, sickening, juggling catch which he took in for a 67 yard reception. The extra point had the Seahawks down 28-27 with only 1:38 on the clock and no time outs.

After some goofiness in the Superbowl the received wisdom seems to be that the Seahawks don't have a 2 minute drill. Which overlooked the fact that in 2005 we actually had one of the best if not the best but even so, starting from the 17 it was a tall order.

Hackett 14 yards, Jackson 19 yards to midfield. 1:00 remaining, nerves fraying. Branch 9 yards, Strong 9 yards ON A RUN, spike the ball, spike the ball, 17 seconds. In FG range for the third 49 yarder of the day and at least we wont be calling another RUN, damn, 1 yard gain spike it, spike it, spike it as Steve Raible counts down the seconds on the radio. 4 seconds spiked, flag, illegal formation.

I would now like to award the Jeremey Shockey Early Celebration award to Rams coach Scott Linehan who came on the field celebrating thinking that the penalty carried a 10 second run off the clock and game over. Back to NFL rules 101 for Linehan who was wrong and Josh Brown would get a chance to kick the Field Goal but from 54 yards.

Cue Raible, The snap, a good spot, the kick is up, it has the distance and it issss.........GOOD, THE KICK IS GOOD, HOLY SMOKES....

As Kipling concluded,

If you can fill the unforgiving minute,

With sixty seconds worth of distance run,

Yours is the earth and everything that's in it,

And-which is more-you'll be a man my son!

HawksHead 16/10/06

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