About two years ago, I wrote this:

Either way, it can be done. And I can’t help but wonder why it hasn’t been done already. The fact that MLB.com and MLB TV offered live coverage is a step in the right direction, and I would bet we’ll see ESPN (or someone else?) doing the MLB draft live within the next 3 years.

Well, would you look at this….

Matt 1, Phil 0

Heheheheee……

I just came back Thursday night from a quick trip back east, and tomorrow I’m off on another trip. I’ll miss the Seahawks game, so no open game thread and no game recap, either.

And, I’m not even sure The Fan is going to continue too much longer. There are too many other things pulling me in all directions, and since this blog never really managed to start a community as I had hoped, it’ll be easy to walk away. Probably won’t make any decisions until the holidays or soon after…..

GO SEAHAWKS!

40 carries. 201 yards. Forty carries. Forty! This from a guy who’s just in his 2nd game back from a broken foot, and who plays on a Mike Holmgren offense. Amazing, surprising, and the key to winning a Monday Night Football game over the Packers in Qwest Field conditions that looked more like Green Bay than Seattle. Let’s just hope Shaun Alexander feels fine in the morning.

It’s obvious Matt Hasselbeck was rusty: 3 INTs on the first 4 possessions, and a fumble later in the 1st half that led to a Packer TD. He was 10-22 for only 88 yards in the first half. Meanwhile, Shaun Alexander had already passed 100 rushing yards by halftime on 19 carries. So, what do you do when you have a rusty QB and you find yourself down 21-12 in the opening minutes of the 3rd quarter?

You don’t put the game in your QB’s hands. The next two Seahawk TD drives, which put them up 27-21, were a near perfect split: 10 passes and 9 rushes over the two drives. Great play-calling, perfect balance, and 59 yards on the ground from Shaun Alexander. All of that seemed to calm MattHass down, and he had a much better 2nd half — 7-14, 69 yards, and 3 TDs.

I thought the defense was solid overall. The Packers first two scores were on a short drive after an INT and a fumble return. The only other TD Green Bay scored was the one defensive breakdown Seattle had — letting Donald Driver take a short slant 48 yards for a TD.

The weather didn’t seem to be much of a factor. There weren’t a lot of slips that I saw. Probably the biggest impact was dropped passes — slippery when wet, perhaps?

In any case, if you’re a Seahawk fan you have to love what you saw in the 2nd half and hope that is the Seahawk team we’ve been waiting to see all year.

Link: NFL.com Recap

Game ball: Shaun Alexander, but honorable mentions go to DJ Hackett, Nate Burleson, and Josh Brown. Hackett just seems to catch everything thrown his way. I hope he still sees plenty of action after Bobby Engram comes back. Burleson made 3 catches and had a great night returning punts and kicks. And Josh Brown kept the Hawks in the game during that sloppy 1st half.

Play of the game: MattHass to Darrell Jackson, 4-yard TD, putting the Hawks up 27-21 early in the 4th. It was the game-winning score, but it was also a perfect throw and an amazing catch. Charles Woodson got a hand on the ball, and kept his hand in D-Jack’s face, but Jackson still held on and got two feet down.

Next up: Sunday night at Denver. The Broncos are 7-4, have dropped 2 straight, and just named rookie Jay Cutler their starting QB for the rest of the season. Raise your hand if you want John Marshall to turn the defense loose on Cutler they same way he did on Oakland’s Andrew Walters….

Game #11: Packers (4-6) at Seattle (6-4)

You’ve got MattHass back in the starting lineup, Brett Favre still in the starting lineup, the whole Holmgren/Favre/Green Bay storyline, and all kinds of other stuff going on here. And none of that is as important as the fact that the Hawks need to win this game to keep their breathing room in the NFC West.

GO SEAHAWKS!

Happy Thanksgiving to all. Posting will likely be light until the weekend, or maybe until the Seahawks Open Game Thread we’ll do on Monday.

Speaking of the Seahawks… Adam Schefter reports on NFL.com that the Hawks will face Broncos rookie Jay Cutler when the two teams meet on December 3rd. It seems odd for a team in the playoff race to go to a rookie QB, but the Denver offense has been terrible. As a team they’ve scored only 185 points in 10 games — exactly the same as the 2-8 Detroit Lions.

Mike Kahn has an article on Fox Sports that talks about the hi-tech advancements in NFL coaching, and all the quotes are from Seahawks’ personnel. Interesting to hear Holmgren tell how the Competition Committe gave some thought to computerizing the in-game communications.

Not much new here, but Randy Youngman claims in the OC Register that the Mariners and Dodgers are front-runners to land Jason Schmidt.

And finally… The A’s apparently are interested in Cliff Floyd and Mike Piazza. Now, neither one of those guys does anything for me on the surface, but when you think about the M’s and A’s free agent track records, shouldn’t the Mariners also be interested in anyone the A’s are trying to get?

Quick hit and run post here:

1) Mike Holmgren says MattHass will play next week against the Packers.

2) The Packers aren’t sure if Brett Favre will play (but knowing him, count on #4 being in there).

3) The December 3rd game againsrt Denver has been moved to the NBC prime time Sunday slot at 5:15 pm PT. No surprise there at all…….

It’d be easy to put the blame on Seneca Wallace for his 3 INTs, including that painful one late in the 4th quarter, but the Seahawks lost this game in the first half with what has to be their worst 30 minutes of football all season: Penalties, turnovers, and the worst tackling I’ve ever seen.

Wallace has been doing exactly what he’s been asked to do the past couple games: manage the game, and don’t turn the ball over. That, combined with a renewed rushing game and solid defense, gave the Hawks a modest 2-game winning streak. And today, the Seahawks got none of that. I already mentioned Wallace. The rushing game was MIA, even with Shaun Alexander back in the starting lineup. And the defense was MIA — anyone see Julian Peterson do anything against his old team? The ‘D’ let Frank Gore run all over the field — 212 yards on 24 carries. It was like watching Larry Johnson and Chester Taylor dice up the defense earlier this season. Frank Gore is good, but he’s no Larry Johnson — at least not normally. SF, as a team, averaged 7.7 yards per rush.

Ugly, ugly, ugly. And now, suddenly, we have a race again in the NFC West. The 49ers are just a game behind and come to Seattle in Week 15.

Link: NFL.com Recap

Game ball: Deion Branch had to be the best guy in blue & white today. 7 catches, 113 yards, and a TD. Plackemeier also kicked the heck out of the ball, but I’m not gonna pimp the punter over a WR who scored and caught passes.

Play of the game: The whole first half is when the game was lost; there was no single play that did it. The Stevens catch and fumble hurt big time. I can’t help but wonder how deep in Holmgren’s doghouse he’s going. Obviously the failed Alexander run on 4th down and the INT late in the game didn’t help, but the game was lost in the first 30 minutes.

Next up: At home on Monday night against the Packers. Green Bay got railed today by the Patriots, 35-0, to fall to 4-6.

Game #10: Seahawks (6-3) at 49ers (4-5)

Strange that the Seahawks and 49ers are facing each other for the first time in Week 11.

Strange that the 49ers are in 2nd place in the division, only 2 games behind the Hawks.

Not strange that Mike Holmgren is all hush-hush about MattHass and Alexander playing today. My gut feeling is that Alexander plays and Hasselbeck doesn’t, but what the %$#@ do I know? I do know that I’m keeping Seneca Wallace in my fantasy lineup as the starting QB, and if he doesn’t start … gulp … I have to switch to David Garrard.

Go Seahawks! Go Seneca!

Holmgren says MattHass and Shaun A. are game-time decisions Sunday. That’s the word from Mike Sando on the T-N-T blog. “Both players practiced extensively today,” he writes, but he’s not allowed to say who took the most reps with the starters.

Baseball’s GM meetings are over, and the Mariners are still talking to what seems like almost everyone out there. Bavasi tells Larry LaRue in the T-N-T today that there’s plenty of interest in Beltre and Sexson, but “nothing remotely close” has been offered.

Go figure out Sonics’ coach Bob Hill for me, would ya? Frank Hughes writes in the T-N-T that Hill sat down to chat with frustrated PG Earl Watson and reassured Watson about his role on the team. Then, when asked about Watson’s public complaints last week, Hill’s head spins around 360 degrees, fire and smoke come out of his nostrils, and he bit–slaps Watson like this:

“This is all a waste of time. He knew he was going to be a backup when he came here. We talked about it when he first got here. It is a waste of time to talk about not liking his role.”

Yikes. Careful, Bob. Try the decaf…. Anyway, Gary Washburn writes in the P-I about the same situation, with comments from Hill predicting a good game from Watson tonight. Well, 6 points and 6 assists in 18 minutes is not too bad off the bench. But the Sonics lost another at home, 118-109 to Utah.

Oh, yeah, what’s this about an “Apple Cup”? My 8-year-old is excited. He’s a Husky fan, “because dogs are cooler than cats.” Me? Couldn’t care less at this point, but I do root for both teams when they’re playing well, reaching bowl games, etc. We’ll watch the game, but I’ll be much more interested in Ohio St.-Michigan.

This is going around the blogosphere (hate that word), so you may have seen it already. If not, maybe you’ll find it fascinating (as I do):

NFL TV Distribution Maps

It’s a week-by-week look at what parts of the country get which games. So, why do you think extreme SE Texas as well as the Philadelphia market (and a couple other strange locales) will be getting the Seahawks-49ers game…???? Got me!