Archive for October, 2004

One quick note … I was wrong Friday night when I wrote that Hasselbeck would have a career day since I finally benched him on my fantasy team. But I was right in making the move — the guy I put in the starting lineup did have a career day: 22-25, 281 yds., and 5 TDs. Drew Brees. About time I make a good move in fantasy football.

37
Originally uploaded by The Fan.

There are some coaches who like to play all coy with the media in the week before a game, like Mike Shanahan for one. He never talks about game plans, never talks about injuries, who’s gonna start, all that stuff. Mike Holmgren is not that kind of coach. He made it clear early last week that Shaun Alexander would be featured heavily today. And despite the advance notice, the Panthers had no solutions for #37.

Have to admit this up front: I missed the first TD. I thought it was a 1:15 kickoff, so I was turning on in the TV just as they were showing the replay of Alexander’s TD catch. Oh, well.

A few good things stand out about this game: Firstly, Shaun Alexander is such a better runner when he’s going straight ahead, as opposed to bouncing outside and looking for holes. Secondly, Jones and Hutchinson are about as good as it gets on the left side of center. (And Wunsch did a fine job after Hutchinson left.) Thirdly, Matt Hasselbeck showed me a lot today — mainly, a lot of confidence, which he had no reason to have after that debacle last week. Nice bounce back for Hass today. The one INT was a poorly thrown ball, but did you notice that Alexander broke off his route on that screen, leaving the ball to fall easily into Brian Allen’s hands — he’s the LB that would’ve been covering Alexander if he’d run the full route. Lastly, nice game for Mack Strong. 4 carries for 18 yds, 3 catches for 21. Solid.

On the other hand … WE HAVE GOT TO GET A PASS RUSH, AND QUICK. Our front 7 did nothing to put pressure on Delhomme. The secondary wasn’t anything special today, but the effectiveness of your DBs is largely dependent on the strength of your pass rush. Heck, we turned Muhsin Muhammad into a Pro Bowl receiver today because there was no pressure on Delhomme.

Game ball: Gotta let Shaun Alexander and Walter Jones share this one. They were the two best players on the field all day.

Play of the game: 4th quarter, 11:00 left. Seahawks have it on a 3rd down and 14 from their own 16. This is the point in the game where you’re getting concerned, because we’re only up 10 and we’re probably about to be punting from our own goal line. Instead, Hasselbeck avoids the rush and hits Itula Mili for 17 yards and a 1st down. Play of the game right there. Alexander rumbles for 44 yds. on the next play, and the Hawks wrap up a nearly 7-minute drive with a FG to make it 23-10.

Next up: The 1-5 (at this moment, pending the late game tonight) SF 49ers, who were the victims of the Hawks best game of the year, that 34-0 whitewash in Week 3. It’s an obviously winnable game. It’ll be interesting to watch our front 7 next week to see if they can do anything against a team that’s allowing more than 3 sacks a game, one of the worst rates in the NFL.

I was planning to write a bit about the big game Shaun Alexander should have Sunday against Carolina. There are, after all, a lot of things pointing toward that:

ESPN has posted a list of MLB players eligible for free agency this off-season. Plenty of room for discussion there — who the M’s will pursue, who they’ll keep (Villone / Wilson), etc.

They always post these breakdowns by team at this point, but I hope there’s a list by position somewhere…

A good run in the NCAA Tourney and the return of your top player (Nate R.) have added up to a spot in the ESPN Top 25 pre-season college hoops poll. The Huskies are #24.

Full list/story

Arizona is the highest Pac-10 team at #11. Stanford is right behind UW at #25.

And how about Gonzaga at #26. I don’t know. That seems a bit optimistic to me. They’ll be good, as always, but with that schedule and the loss of Stepp et al, might be a struggle for Gonzaga, especially coming out of the gate.

Oh man, this is great. Curt Schilling on A-Rod and the Red Sox:

“I think if we get A-Rod, we don’t get here [to the World Series]. I don’t question that for a second. He’s a Hall of Famer, sure. But after getting to know people who, A, play with him and, B, have played with him, I don’t think it would have worked here.”

The stuff there about talking to people who play with him and use to play with him is very interesting. There were plenty of interviews with various Texas Rangers players this year where they talked about how much better the clubhouse was this year without A-Rod around. And look how much that team improved the year after he left. Look what the Mariners did in 2001 (116 wins) the year after A-Rod left. Yes, there are other factors at play in both examples, but the coincidence gets a lot stronger in light of what Schilling is now saying.

Full article: ESPN.com

To take a look at some of the Seahawks message boards and chat rooms and such, you’d think the end of the world is nigh.

Hasselbeck should be benched. Hasselbeck shouldn’t be re-signed.

They should let Alexander go.

They should let K-Rob go. (Or K-Drop as he’s humorously being called….)

They should can Holmgren.

Blah-blah-blah….

Note: Today is October 27th. The Seahawks have played 6 games. There are more than 2 months to go in the season. The team is better than they showed at Arizona. It’s a long season. Five of their last seven games are at home. Save your gasket-blowing until January, would ya?

For you Gonzaga nutters in the reading audience, word around Minnesota is that the T-Wolves are quite happy with Blake Stepp. Not suggesting he’s gonna see lots of minutes on an NBA Championship-caliber team, but it looks like the late 2nd-round draft pick has a secure grip on staying with the team.

Seahawks/Cardinals
Originally uploaded by The Fan.

Part of me is glad the Seahawks lost this game. After the Lucas INT and score put them up 17-16 early in the 4th, I thought “They’re gonna win this game and they don’t deserve it. They’re gonna get cocky and overconfident just because they pulled a win out in a game they shouldn’t win.”

Well, that shouldn’t be the case now. In fact, I’m afraid that instead of overconfidence, we may have a legitimate case of “no confidence” as they get set for next week’s game against Carolina. About all I have at this point are questions: How do you play as poorly as they did today? How does Matt Hasselbeck suddenly look like the guy he was 3+ years ago? At what point do the Seahawks actually learn to pick up the blitz? (Alright, they did a pretty good job of that in the 2nd half. But the first half???) How come they’re still missing so many tackles in the backfield and at the line of scrimmage? How come so many of Hasselbeck’s passes get tipped by defensive linemen?

This was just brutal to watch. We’re now a .500 team, and we have no reason to have any confidence going into a game next week against the 1-5 Caroline Panthers. I don’t believe there’s any such thing as a “should win” game right now for the Hawks.

Game ball: Antonio Cochran was solid in Wistrom’s place. Alex Bannister was great on special teams. Darrell Jackson was the only bright spot on the offense. But I’ll go with Tracy White, who did a bang-up job replacing Anthony Simmons. Ten tackles and a sack – that’s a great day for anyone, but especially for a backup making his first-ever start.

Play of the game: The blocked punt and safety. It gave AZ the lead and just killed any momentum we had from Lucas’ INT.

Next up: The not-as-bad-as-their-record-indicates Carolina Panthers, who must be the best 1-5 team around. Yeah, they lost today to San Diego. But check out the number they did on LaDainian Tomlinson: 17 rushes, 47 yards. The Panthers are actually in a similar spot as the Hawks — a struggling QB, a record worse than anyone expected, and injuries. The Panthers have been hurt on the offensive side, the Hawks on the defensive side.

Some stuff from the SI NBA Preview issue, as it relates to the Sonics and Blazers.

Northwest Division predicted finish
1. T’wolves
2. Nuggets
3. Jazz
4. Blazers
5. Sonics

Blazers are ranked 11th in the Western Conference, and the Sonics 12th (out of 15 teams in the conference).

The Blazers article sings the praises of Theo Ratliff, and points out this interesting stat: Before Ratliff arrived via trade last year, the Blazers were giving up 94 points a game; after he arrived, that went down to 89/game.

The Sonics article talks about Nick Collison, and tells how he watched other teams leaving the Sonics big men wide open last year, and so he worked hard on 10-15 foot jumpers over the summer.

And that’s about all.