Heartbreak
Well, that was disappointing. Not unexpected, but disappointing nonetheless. The tough thing was that the Seahawks actually played some of their best football of the year. They could have won -- not on a Romo-esque fluke, but through talent, skill and perseverance. They lost. The defeat was all the more painful given how close victory was.
From where I was sitting, the key offensive play that blew the game was when it was 2nd and 10 with about a minute to go in regulation. The Seahawks just needed 6 or 7 yards to put Josh Brown -- one of the game's elite clutch kickers -- in range. So what happens? Hasselbeck airs it out to the endzone and waaaay overshoots the receiver. Now it's 3rd and 10 and they failed to advance far enough. Why were they calling a pass play -- much less one to the endzone, when the running back was having a 100-yard game? To be fair, it sounds like the play was designed to do something difference, and that tricksy Bears defense messed it up:
I highly recommend Art Thiel's column from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (linked above). Thiel proves why he's the only sports writer in the Emerald City I make a point of reading regularly:
From where I was sitting, the key offensive play that blew the game was when it was 2nd and 10 with about a minute to go in regulation. The Seahawks just needed 6 or 7 yards to put Josh Brown -- one of the game's elite clutch kickers -- in range. So what happens? Hasselbeck airs it out to the endzone and waaaay overshoots the receiver. Now it's 3rd and 10 and they failed to advance far enough. Why were they calling a pass play -- much less one to the endzone, when the running back was having a 100-yard game? To be fair, it sounds like the play was designed to do something difference, and that tricksy Bears defense messed it up:
I really wish I could say something about how the Bears played dirty, how the officiating sucked, or whatever. But hey, this wasn't Super Bowl XL. It was a remarkably clean game, the refs called it fairly, and the Bears played their hearts out. Despite the doubts, Grossman had a sweet 30-yard pass in OT that set them up for the winning figgie."I was surprised we threw the ball there," Holmgren said. "I was hoping to get a bit of extra yardage, maybe kick a long field goal. I don't know if we were fooled by the coverage. Maybe they adjusted their coverage. I was not going for a long one. We were trying to do something else."
I highly recommend Art Thiel's column from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (linked above). Thiel proves why he's the only sports writer in the Emerald City I make a point of reading regularly:
The season was hardly devoid of fortune. It is not unreasonable to suggest the Bears kicked the field goal that a week earlier the Cowboys should have kicked, but didn't, for reasons perhaps better explained in monasteries, synagogues, bars and other places of worship.
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