The Seattle Seahawks came through in a big way on MNF, even if it was against the lowly 49′ers. Mike Holmgren said he was going to go back to the pass-first mentality, and they did. Matt Hasselbeck looked great as he threaded pass after pass through the 49′ers secondary. In my opinion, this was the best he looked since their Super Bowl season. It really makes you wonder why they moved away from such a winning formula though. I mean, isn’t this how the offense was SUPPOSED to be run? Why did they abandon this philosophy all year? It seems more than coincidental that on the National Stage, and without their supposed “Star”, they had their best looking offense all year. The Seahawks offense was never built around the “run to set up the pass” philosophy. It has been about using the pass to set up the run. That is basically the West Coast Offense. You use short passes in lieu of running plays. When you do run, it tends to produce higher gains because defenses have to play against the pass.

I know a lot of people want to put this on Shaun Alexander, and I tend to agree..to a point. It is pointed out that he seems to not be trying as hard. I heard over and over on the MNF telecast that Shaun got paid, and now he is dogging it. There is evidence to suggest he might be that type of player. In 2004, on the last game of the season, everyone watched as Shaun threw a fit on the sidelines because a pass play and not a run play to him was called in the 4th quarter. The play resulted in a touchdown, and a win for the Hawks. It also ultimately meant that Shaun lost the rushing title by one yard to Curtis Martin of the Jets. When Seattle threw that TD pass, there was four minutes left to play. Holmgren made a smart move; he knew everyone was expecting a run to Shaun. He also gambled on the fact that Seattle would get the ball back once more before time expired. When they didn’t, Shaun was inconsolable. There is also the questionable head injury sustained in the playoff win over the Redskins in ‘05. He seemed wide awake and alert on the sidelines, jumping around and clapping. It was never fully understood why he didn’t come back in that game. Those incidents, along with reputation that comes with scoring an NFL record 28 TDs the next year, help to solidify this claim.

On the other hand, if you watch those games this year, you notice that he has not had a decent hole to run through. Often, there seems to be a defensive lineman in the backfield half the time he gets the ball. It is true that he seems to go down easily, but I think that has a lot to do with the fact that he is playing hurt, and has lineman wrapped around him before he can even get going. Give him credit, he was asked to play hurt, and he has. Not being able to switch the ball from hand to hand has to be tough for a running back. Nursing ankle problems on top of it, and you have a very diminished product.

So, then, what is really going on? Well, I think it is the play-calling. We have an offense built on pass first, then run. But we haven’t been doing that. We have managed the clock poorly, again. Numerous times on 3rd and 4th and short situations, they have run running plays to the outside..always resulting no gain or even a loss. Maybe it is just me, but it seems obvious that you can gain one yard or less by pounding a QB sneak or a play up the middle to the FB. This works much more often than sweep. The Hawks have been predictable. And if I know what they are going to run, you can bet Defensive Coordinators are going to know.

This seems to have been addressed this week, because the play calling was much better. Hasselbeck looked more confident. A healthy running back was afforded room to run, set up by the passing game. All was well on a Monday Night. But this was against a clearly struggling team. We will just have to keep an eye and see if they can keep this momentum going for the duration. Luckily, their schedule here on out is the easiest in the League.

Let’s hope the keep that West Coast Offense rolling all the way to the Super Bowl again, because their window of opportunity is quickly fading.

Being a Washington (State, for all you east-coasters) native, I have grown up a Seattle sports fan. Accordingly, I have had to endure the agony of being a Seattle sports fan. Oh, of course there have been some fine sports moments in Seattle; The Sonics in back-to-back NBA Championships in the late ’70s (winning the 2nd one), The Seahawks in the ’80s when the Kingdome really rocked and the wave was born (maybe), The Mariners(Refuse To Lose!) and Sonics in the ’90s, and, finally, the Hawks again in ‘04.

Even though we have had some good seasons, we have been mostly embroiled in mediocrity. The Seahawks, while exciting, were not ever a great team until 2004. The Mariners were simply an awful team until Sweet Lou Pinella and “The Kid” rescued us. As a result, both the Mariners and Seahawks were very close to leaving The Emerald City. The Mariners were going to leave in 1995 unless they got a fancy new stadium. Luckily, the Mariners had an incredible run that year and the voters decided to fund the stadium. The Seahawks, too, were packing for greener pastures. They even tried to move in the middle of the night! That got the voters’ attention and the decided to fund a new Football stadium.

One constant in all this, though, was the Sonics. They always seemed to put quality on the floor. They didn’t always win, but they never had years and years of bad teams. They, too, got funding for a new venue, but more as a reward. With that reward came a stipulation, they had to sign a lease to play all their home games in Key Arena through the 2010 season. Turns out, it wasn’t a great deal for the owners and the deal ended up being labeled as the worst in the NBA. We thought we had our Savior in Howard Schultz, the founder of the Starbucks Coffee Empire. Hey, he made his fortune right here in the Pacific Northwest, he was rich, we were saved! Much to our dismay, he flaked out on us much too quickly when he got an offer he couldn’t refuse. Clay Bennett, Oklahoma businessman, offered way more than the current value of the Sonic( $350 Million, to be exact). Oklahoma had just lost the Hornets who had played there temporarily while New Orleans cleaned up after Katrina, but Clay insisted that he was here to stay, and so were the Sonics.

It took about five minutes for Clay’s promise to fall apart. It became obvious that his intentions were to meve the Sonics all along. Oh, he claimed he “tried” to keep The Sonics here, but he did so by alienating every politician in Washington, soon followed by every other resident. David Stern first said nothing, which was not a good sign. But just yesterday, he acknowledged the situation, but has chosen to side with Bennett. This has basically confirmed fears that the fans already had; the fix was in. Stern even went so far as to say that there would never be another NBA team in Seattle if the Sonics left. Basically, he has given the City of Seattle an Ultimatum; either give Bennett what he wants( a publicly funded Brand-New venue), or Seattle loses its’ team after 40 faithful years.

Part of me wants to tell Bennett and Stern to shove it, far. But the part of me that remembers hearing the voice of Kevin Calabro on the radio and TV during the cold winter months just wants to give in so we can keep our team. Ultimately, this is what it is going to come down to, do we capitulate and keep our team and all the memories that go with it, or do we stand up to the Bully (NBA)?

Unlike the Hawks and M’s, I don’t think we will be keeping our Team. I really hope I am wrong though, it will hurt less.

Hello and welcome to my private site and playground! This is basically a place to play with code, themes, plugins, podcast, etc. I will be podcasting and blogging about my favorite subjects, so if you are really bored, take a look!