Archive for October, 2006

On Sundays, there are three lists on the right side of the NFL.com home page. These lists show the top QB, top RB, and top receiver around the league — each one measured in terms of yards. At halftime of the Seahawks-Chiefs game, there was a Kansas City player on top of all three lists. That tells you what kind of day the Seahawks’ defense had.

By day’s end, the Chiefs put up staggering numbers: 499 total yards, 42:15 time of possession, 30 first downs, 79 plays from scrimmage, almost 20 yards per completion, a 300-yd. day by QB Damon Huard, a 155-yd. day from RB Larry Johnson, and two receivers with more than 100 yards (Eddie Kennison and Tony Gonzalez).

And still, with 6:30 to go in the game, the Seahawks somehow had a 28-27 lead after Seneca Wallace’s 3rd TD pass of the day — a 49-yard flying duck to a wide open Darrell Jackson. But the defense had no chance on the following drive, letting KC march 80 yards on 8 plays for the winning score. It was a microcosm of the day: big plays by KC, missed tackles and no resistance from the Seahawks.

Seneca Wallace was the big story coming into the game, but the big story coming out is the Hawks’ defense. Wallace acquitted himself admirably, though there were about 5-10 plays during the game where you thought, “You know, Matt would have hit that receiver.” But Wallace wasn’t the problem. He showed up and played well enough. The defense didn’t.

Link: NFL.com Recap

Game ball: Julian Peterson made some good defensive plays, but he also got beat badly a couple times by Tony Gonzalez. Still, I’ll let him and Seneca share the honors. Wallace was infinitely better than most of us expected, and almost figured out a way to overcome an overall embarrassingly poor game from the defense.

Play of the game: The Huard-to-Kennison 51-yard pass late in the 4th quarter. Kennison got completely free from Marcus Trufant, but still had to stretch every inch of his body to make a great catch as Ken Hamlin was closing in on him. He made it, went down on the Seahawks’ 7 yard line, and Johnson scored the game-winner three plays later.

Next up: Monday night at home against the Raiders, who’ve now won two in a row after somehow beating the Steelers today. Oakland intercepted 4 passes, 2 for TDs. Their offense mustered only 17 yards passing, 98 overall for the game. Far cry from what KC put up today, but the result was the same.

Game #7, Seahawks (4-2) at Chiefs (3-3)

AKA, “Backup Bowl ‘06″

Today’s theme: Low expectations. I’ll be online around 10:45 or so.

(I actually picked up Seneca Wallace in my fantasy league. Not to start today against the Chiefs, but possibly to start next week against the Raiders.)

I’m not making this up:

The weekend sports gal on our local NBC station just did about 30 seconds on the passing of Red Auerbach — his Celtics history, the championships, drafting Larry Bird, etc. She explains that he died of a heart attack, etc. And then she ends with this:

On a brighter note, at least he’s in a better place tonight.

For real!

If a Sonics center goes down for the season, but they were expected to suck anyway, does it really matter?

Young Robert Swift, who just this week was named the starting C, is out for the year with a torn ACL suffered during Wednesday’s preseason game. Ouch.

But would it make much of a difference if he was healthy?

Apparently not. In the Sports Illustrated NBA Preview issue, the Sonics are ranked 14th out of 15 teams in the Western Conference. Double-ouch.

Who’s #15, you ask? Why, the Portland Trail Blazers, of course.

I’m not much into gambling, other than as a curiosity, but there’s an interesting article on a site called Covers.com about the Seahawks’ injuries and the impact they’ve had on the betting line for Sunday’s game in Kansas City.

“Normally Seattle would have been the favorite and now we’re looking at Kansas City -6,” says Peter Korner, oddsmaker and founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas. “With Alexander out, Wallace is going to have to pass and he’s shown that he can’t do that.”

(snip)

“Seattle is still a quality team and its defense is intact. But with the starting quarterback and running back out – I mean we’re talking about Shaun Alexander the MVP here – that’s going to persuade the masses to bet K.C.,” explains Korner.

The article was posted today, but unfortunately hasn’t been updated to reflect the news that Chiefs’ QB Damon Huard might be out Sunday, too — that would leave KC going with 3rd-stringer Brodie Croyle. The article about Huard’s injury mentions the Chiefs are only 4.5 point favorites, so that may reflect the Huard news.

Oh, and it’s not just injuries we’re dealing with on Sunday. There’s news that Sean Locklear has been suspended and won’t play Sunday. That might mean … please sit down if you’re not already … playing time for Tom Ashworth, the former Super Bowl lineman with New England has been a complete bust so far with the Seahawks’ blocking schemes.

Ain’t this great? The Huskies again did some public posturing a couple days ago about the possibility of dropping their ongoing hoops commitment to facing Gonzaga every year. Bulldogs’ coach Mark Few weighs in on the subject in today’s T-N-T, and minces no words whatsoever:

“You know, if we were ever in a situation where we lost seven of the last eight games, I’d probably look to get rid of that team,” he said. “I don’t blame them at all.”

This goes back to last November, when Lorenzo Romar first talked about quitting the series, and made it clear it was because the Huskies couldn’t compete.

“One thing that certainly helps is if we can be successful,” he said. “If one side is successful and the other isn’t, it’s not much of a rivalry.”

Romar added that his comments were aimed at his own program.

Fast forward back to today, and T-N-T writer Don Ruiz is inexplicably making excuses for UW.

Yes, Gonzaga annually plays a dazzling out-of-conference schedule – this season’s lineup features Texas, Duke, Virginia and more. But then the Zags head into West Coast Conference play and pad their win total there.

Night in and night out, the Pacific-10 Conference is simply stronger and deeper. Strong and deep enough that the Huskies might reasonably want to leave room for a few clear-the-bench breathers in their nonconference plans.

C’mon, Don. Don’t let them off the hook so easily.

Number one, it’s not Gonzaga’s fault the WCC is a notch or two below Gonzaga’s level. They have no control over that part of their schedule. If they did, it’s pretty obvious they’d prefer to play tougher competition leading up to March Madness.

Number two, let’s not make the Pac-10 out to be some incredible hoops hotbed. UCLA had a great run last year and UW the year before that, but traditional powers like Arizona and Stanford have been down the past few years, and teams like WSU, ASU, and USC are every bit the doormat that WCC teams are.

Ultimately, I stand by what I said last November: Dropping the Gonzaga series because you can’t beat the team sends the wrong message to fans and, more importantly, to kids/players. It’s a bad idea.

Sonics News: Walker on way out

Oh, man. My memories of Wally Walker will always be tied to 1997-98, the period when I was hosting a sports radio call-in show here in Tri-Cities. That was right in the midst of the Jim McIlvaine debacle and the firing/release of George Karl. And I’m not kidding, it was impossible to have a phone call about the Sonics that did not include the caller saying something bad about Wally Walker. It got to the point where I started feeling bad for the guy.

But not now. This is a pretty obvious move, as Walker himself says in the article. New ownership is coming in, and they’ll want to put their own people in place to run the show.

No surprise that the Seahawks have signed a 3rd quarterback, but it’s news to me that Gibran Hamdan was even available. I was under the impression he had stayed with the 49ers when they signed him during training camp. Kinda convenient for the Hawks to be able to grab a guy who’s been in camp the past couple years.

Speaking of the Hawks, they’re #20 in the latest Football Outsiders ratings — seems a bit low to me, but given the injury situation, maybe not. Ugh.

And you’ve likely heard about the new contract between MLB owners and players, but for a fan’s view on what it means, let me send you over to USS Mariner.

You’ve surely heard by now that Matt Hasselbeck has a sprained MCL in his right knee and is expected to miss “about” three games. Hasselbeck had a few different things to say about it, first and foremost that he’s glad it wasn’t worse. JM Romero quotes Hasselbeck in the Times as saying, “The news on the MRI was really good today, and I feel really lucky. So now I just have to get better.” In the P-I, Clare Farnsworth quotes similar comments from Mike Holmgren, who called it “good news.”

Now the discussion turns to the play itself, and you can visit Mike Sando’s T-N-T blog to read and even hear Matt’s comments on the injury being avoidable:

“I don’t think it was unavoidable, but only he [EJ Henderson] would know…. I’m sure he didn’t try to put me out for a long period of time, but they didn’t want me to finish the game, either.”

Ouch.

So Seneca Wallace is your starting QB for at least the next three games, it would appear. That’s at KC this week, then a Monday night home game against the Raiders, and — the most important one of the bunch — at home against the STL Rams.

In the immediate future, the Seahawks are now without more than 90% of their offensive production with MattHass and Shaun Alexander out. Expectations will be low, but you hope they can split the next two games. Then for the Rams game on 11/12 … yikes.

Losing a game is never fun, but some losses hurt more than others — and sometimes for a variety of reasons. This loss is one of those that hurts as bad as a loss can hurt. Two reasons why:

1) The obvious reason: Matt Hasselbeck’s injury. No one is saying anything about it, and as I write this, very little is known other than the knee sprain we heard during the game. He’ll have tests tomorrow.

2) The Seahawks were manhandled on both sides of the ball. They lost, and they looked bad doing it. The defense allowed big plays and sustained drives. The offense managed only two FGs over the last 55 minutes of the game. Special teams gave up almost 200 yards in punt and kickoff returns.

I would add Holmgren to the list of offenders, too. His play-calling was suspect before and after the MattHass injury. The Seahawks never seemed to find that rhythm, which is what happens when you have smart play-calling and good execution. The Seahawks had neither.

If you want to look on the bright side, the Seahawks are still 4-2 and still on top of the division and there’s a lot of football left to be played. Losing to the Vikings isn’t the end of the world.

Losing Matt Hasselbeck? Might be.

Link: NFL.com Recap

Game ball: Julian Peterson was strong again on the defensive side, but I’ll reluctantly go with Darrell Jackson. He had a good game and made the only big play the Seahawks had. I say “reluctantly” because he also brain-farted on that 4th-quarter catch and cost the Seahawks a 1st down. Not that it really mattered much by then….

Play of the game: The 95-yard TD was one thing, but if MattHass is in the game, you still assume the Hawks can come back from 24-10 with 5 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. So the play of the game was MattHass’s injury. Let’s hope it’s not the play of the season.

Next up: @ Kansas City. The Chiefs improved to 3-3 with a big home win today over the Chargers. KC held LaDainian Tomlinson to just 66 yards rushing.