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Saturday 14th January 2006 |
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Like the man said 'What a glorious feeling, and I'm happy again'.
Before this season it had, almost famously, never rained during a game at Qwest Field. That was until a never to be forgotten victory over the Dallas Cowboys and a rather more routine mugging of the hapless Rams.
If we were looking for omens then 25 days of consecutive rain in Seattle sure sounded good to me. As it happened the wet ball seemed to be causing the Seahawks more problems than the Redskins in the opening exchanges.
Firstly Shaun Alexander fumbled the ball away when the Seahawks looked certain scorers on the first drive of the game. Then with both teams struggling to get anything moving through the second quarter Jimmy Williams fumbled a punt and the Redskins recovered. It was a bitter blow to take especially as the Seahawks were winning the field position battle.
Although the defense did a good job keeping them out of the end zone a 26 yard field goal saw us down by 3. Worse was the news that Shaun Alexander had a concussion and was unlikely to return.
'Let the stormy clouds chase, Darrell Jackson's in space' were words not quite sung by Gene Kelly but oh how appropriate they would have been for the Seahawks next drive. In fact he wasn't in that much space but Hass was threading the ball to him and DJack was making some huge plays in hanging onto the ball. It was beautifully finished off with a 29 yard reception by Jackson and 7-3 Seahawks at the half.
It certainly put a smile on my face and the Seahawks were getting happy as they took their opening possession of the second half all the way down field. The biggest play was a 31 yard reception by Joe Jurevicius. It would be his only catch of the game but coming on 3rd and 3 on the Seahawks 48 it was massive in terms of the game.
Just 3 plays later and the Seahawks were facing another 3rd down on the Redskins 6. Hass sat in the pocket searching for an open receiver for what seemed like an age and appeared to realise at the same time as me that he could take it in himself. 'Go in, go in' I screamed as he took off running to the right corner of the end zone before sliding in with a dash of style sending water spraying up as he went. 14-3.
The Redskins were now getting desperate but had already completed a 3rd and 20 and a 4th and 2 when Clinton Portis aimed a throw at Cooley in the redzone. Thankfully Marquand Manuel wasn't buying it and broke up the pass. Brunell was then called for intentional grounding and ended up sacked and without the ball as Bryce Fisher made the hit and Grant Wistrom recovered.
Out of all of the column inches written about the Seahawks this season I don't think I ever read that we deserve even more respect because we've done it without our best receiver but Darrell Jackson showed just how good he is with a 37 yard reception to take him to 143 yards on the day.
It set up a Josh Brown 33 yard field goal and 17-3 with only 14 minutes remaining. Given that the Redskins had only scored 3 points on a muffed punt I was by now feeling quite confident that the Seahawks would coast this one out.
It didn't last long as on 1st and 10 Brunell hit Cooley for a 52 yard gain. Surely we wont going to blow it now after dominating for so long? Surely we aren't that team any longer?
No we aren't and I started to celebrate as Andre Dyson intercepted in the endzone. So why are the commentators shouting touchdown? Amazingly it had deflected off Dyson straight into the hands of Santana Moss. 17-10 and time to start biting those fingernails.
It got worse on the kick return as Josh Scobey launched himself into what I thought was an unnecessarily risky move to try and gain an extra yard and fumbled the ball. The D stood up firm and held out the Redskins to a 36 yard field goal but in a delightful Jay Feely style moment he pulled the kick wide left. In truth Marcus Trufant deserves the credit for applying pressure and forcing him to snatch at it and it was interestingly the same overloading tactic that had worked in blocking a Colts field goal in week 16.
I then stopped watching the game and started watching the clock as it was all down to Mo Mo to gain a couple of first downs, or so I thought.
With 5:17 remaining the Seahawks faced 3rd and 6 in midfield when Matt Hasselbeck produced arguably the best quarterback play of the weekend when he saw the blitz coming and audibled to a Mack Strong blast up the middle. 32 yards later the Seahawks were in field goal range and Mack had his longest career run and a Seahawks post season single run record to his name.
Before the game I had seen a Redskins mocked up picture of the Seahawks kicker missing in week 4 with the UPS slogan 'What can Brown do for you?' I'll tell you what he can do he can put you 10 points down with 2:54 remaining that's what.
The Redskins looked like they were drowning and sure enough on 4th and 2 with 54 seconds remaining Michael Boulware broke up a pass intended for Santana Moss. and it was all over.
Du du du du du du du du du du du du du du du du du du.
Andrew Robinson
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