One Win Away...
One concussed MVP, three lost fumbles, and 21 years of bad history couldn't keep the Seahawks down today.
The Seattle Seahawks wrung out a comfortable 20-10 victory over the Washington Redskins on Saturday in a rain-saturated Qwest Field.
Although they were 9-point favorites going in, the Seahawks overcame a parade of setbacks to advance to the conference championships next week, when they'll host either the Bears or the Panthers depending on the outcome of that matchup on Sunday.
A couple minutes into the game, NFL MVP Shaun Alexander, who fumbled only once all season, lost his grip on the football close to the Redskins' goalline, abruptly ending a forceful opening drive that probably would have sent the Seahawks steamrolling through the rest of the contest.
Ten minutes after that, Alexander was clutching the turf in pain. The diagnosis: concussion. The Seahawks would have to win the game without their only true superstar, a man who rushed for nearly 1,800 yards and scored a record 28 touchdowns for them in the regular season.
This wasn't an ordinary playoff game for the Seahawks, which had gone an NFL-record 21 years without winning a post-season contest. Nor was it ordinary for Seattle, a city that has been without a pro sports title since 1979, when the SuperSonics won the NBA championship.
Seattle teams are notorious for being on absolutely on fire during the regular season, only to sputter and fizzle in the playoffs.
In 1994, for example, the SuperSonics racked up an amazing 63-19 season, and went up 2-0 against the 8th seed Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs. The Nuggets won the next two games and forced game 5 in Seattle, where they rallied to tie it as time expired. They won in overtime, marking what is surely one of the greatest comebacks in all NBA history.
Then, of course, there were the 2001 Mariners, who won the most games -- 116 -- of any team in history, behind the bats of rookie Ichiro Suzuki, DH Edgar Martinez and 2nd baseman Brett Boone, and the arms of Freddy Garcia, Aaron Sele and Jamie Moyer. But they struggled to beat Cleveland in division series and the lost to the Yankees in the ALCS.
So it would have been completely in character for the Seahawks to have collapsed. Fans would have been pissed off, but they would have shrugged and muttered, "Well, what do you expect? They are still the Seattle Seahawks, after all."
Instead, the Seahawks gradually built momentum after a stalemated first quarter that saw something like nine three-and-out series between the two teams. Washington got three on the board, then the Seahawks answered with seven, the first batch of 17 points that went unanswered by their opponent.
The Redskins did make it interesting for a while, with a 52-yard reception followed by a 20-yeard pass that ended up being a fluke TD by ricocheting off a defender right into the arms of a surprised Santana Moss.
But despite giving up the occassional big gain or allowing a couple fourth-down conversions, the defense stepped up and made enough stuffs, sacks and smackdowns to eventually squelch Washington's comeback hopes.
Looking at the game recap, what strikes me the most, after I'm done wincing at the "5-3" under Seattle's "fumbles-lost" column is that the 'Hawks only had two penalties for 10 yards, compared to Washington's seven flags that cost them 50 yards. One of those was a false start on Washington caused by the 103-decible roar of the 70,000 fans. Way to go, 12th man.
Seattle also had 50 percent third-down efficiency, versus Washington's 26 percent. And while Brunell was sacked twice, Hasselbeck didn't get taken down at all. Oh yeah, and Washington missed a field goal that would have brought them within one score of tying and maybe given them a little extra motivation. You can't miss 36-yard field goals in the post-season.
Now it's time for the deep breath as I look to next weekend. Is it safe to start believing that the Seahawks could actually make their first Super Bowl trip? Or shall I get ready to shrug and mutter, "What did I expect? They are still the Seahawks, after all?"
The Seattle Seahawks wrung out a comfortable 20-10 victory over the Washington Redskins on Saturday in a rain-saturated Qwest Field.
Although they were 9-point favorites going in, the Seahawks overcame a parade of setbacks to advance to the conference championships next week, when they'll host either the Bears or the Panthers depending on the outcome of that matchup on Sunday.
A couple minutes into the game, NFL MVP Shaun Alexander, who fumbled only once all season, lost his grip on the football close to the Redskins' goalline, abruptly ending a forceful opening drive that probably would have sent the Seahawks steamrolling through the rest of the contest.
Ten minutes after that, Alexander was clutching the turf in pain. The diagnosis: concussion. The Seahawks would have to win the game without their only true superstar, a man who rushed for nearly 1,800 yards and scored a record 28 touchdowns for them in the regular season.
This wasn't an ordinary playoff game for the Seahawks, which had gone an NFL-record 21 years without winning a post-season contest. Nor was it ordinary for Seattle, a city that has been without a pro sports title since 1979, when the SuperSonics won the NBA championship.
Seattle teams are notorious for being on absolutely on fire during the regular season, only to sputter and fizzle in the playoffs.
In 1994, for example, the SuperSonics racked up an amazing 63-19 season, and went up 2-0 against the 8th seed Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs. The Nuggets won the next two games and forced game 5 in Seattle, where they rallied to tie it as time expired. They won in overtime, marking what is surely one of the greatest comebacks in all NBA history.
Then, of course, there were the 2001 Mariners, who won the most games -- 116 -- of any team in history, behind the bats of rookie Ichiro Suzuki, DH Edgar Martinez and 2nd baseman Brett Boone, and the arms of Freddy Garcia, Aaron Sele and Jamie Moyer. But they struggled to beat Cleveland in division series and the lost to the Yankees in the ALCS.
So it would have been completely in character for the Seahawks to have collapsed. Fans would have been pissed off, but they would have shrugged and muttered, "Well, what do you expect? They are still the Seattle Seahawks, after all."
Instead, the Seahawks gradually built momentum after a stalemated first quarter that saw something like nine three-and-out series between the two teams. Washington got three on the board, then the Seahawks answered with seven, the first batch of 17 points that went unanswered by their opponent.
The Redskins did make it interesting for a while, with a 52-yard reception followed by a 20-yeard pass that ended up being a fluke TD by ricocheting off a defender right into the arms of a surprised Santana Moss.
But despite giving up the occassional big gain or allowing a couple fourth-down conversions, the defense stepped up and made enough stuffs, sacks and smackdowns to eventually squelch Washington's comeback hopes.
Looking at the game recap, what strikes me the most, after I'm done wincing at the "5-3" under Seattle's "fumbles-lost" column is that the 'Hawks only had two penalties for 10 yards, compared to Washington's seven flags that cost them 50 yards. One of those was a false start on Washington caused by the 103-decible roar of the 70,000 fans. Way to go, 12th man.
Seattle also had 50 percent third-down efficiency, versus Washington's 26 percent. And while Brunell was sacked twice, Hasselbeck didn't get taken down at all. Oh yeah, and Washington missed a field goal that would have brought them within one score of tying and maybe given them a little extra motivation. You can't miss 36-yard field goals in the post-season.
Now it's time for the deep breath as I look to next weekend. Is it safe to start believing that the Seahawks could actually make their first Super Bowl trip? Or shall I get ready to shrug and mutter, "What did I expect? They are still the Seahawks, after all?"
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