Seattle Seahawks 28, Philadelphia Eagles
24
Sunday December 2, 2007
Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia,
PA
Play Of The
Day: Fourth-and-goal
from the Seattle one-yard line with seconds left on the clock and the Eagles
hand off to Brian Westbrook. Rocky Bernard blasts through the Eagles offensive
line and greets Westbrook in the backfield. Seattle
snuffs out the go-ahead score and heads into halftime with a 21-17 lead.
Handouts to the Standouts: Lofa Tatupu intercepted three A.J. Feeley passes, two were later converted into touchdowns by the Seattle
offense, and the last enabled the Seahawks to kneel on the ball and end the
game. Tatupu also finished the game with a team-high eleven tackles.
Nate Burleson returned a punt 36 yards to the Philadelphia
43-yard line. One play later Burleson caught a quick pass from Matt Hasselbeck
and juked Lito Sheppard out of his shoes en route
to a 43-yard touchdown. Burleson finished the day with 4 receptions for 73
yards and a score.
Bobby Engram continues to impress week after week, leading the team with 5 catches
for 80 yards and a touchdown. Late in the game, Engram caught two long third
down passes to extend a drive that would ultimately eat up over four minutes
of precious fourth quarter time.
Shaun Alexander and Maurice Morris combined for over 125 yards rushing and one touchdown
each. Morris scampered 45 yards around the left end on a third a short for
his touchdown, while Alexander bounced an inside run out to the left on his
2 yard score.
For
the second straight week, the Seattle
defense has stood tall on a goal line stand. Against Philadelphia,
the defense stuffed Brian Westbrook three times and didn’t fall for the TE
scrape play-action pass on second down that seems to work virtually every
other time it’s attempted. Later in the game, the Seahawks would also stop
a 4th and 6 with just two minutes left to play.
Things That Made Me Go “Blech”: Punter Ryan Plackemeier may be looking
for a job after his horrifically poor performance on Sunday. His longest
punt of the day bounced for a meager 38 yards and he averaged just 20.4 over
his seven kicks. He appeared to have shortened his follow through, much to
his detriment. One would hope that he’s not going to use weather as an excuse,
because if he can’t kick in the rain and snow, then he’s not on the right
team.
Josh Brown continues to struggle with field goals, missing his only attempt of
the day, bringing his record to an abysmal 4-9 over that last few weeks.
Not the kind of performance needed to land a big free agent contract in February.
Brain
“Ole” Russell whiffed on a tackle on a running back in the open field that
allowed a long rushing touchdown for the second straight week. Looks like
the Seahawks will be in the market for another free agent safety this off
season.
Third-and-one
in the first quarter and the Seahawks call a play action pass. Matt Hasselbeck
goes through his progressions and sees no one open but instead of tucking
the ball and running for the first down, Matt hangs back in the pocket scanning
the field again like it’s first and twenty which leads to the inevitable sack
and forced fumble. Hasselbeck has to have better awareness of the field and
situation in that case.
Offense: Matt Hasselbeck finished the game
19-34 for 184 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, but he had a rougher
day than those stats might imply. He had two easy interceptions dropped by
Eagles linebackers and overthrew receivers on deep routes consistently all
day. Both sacks recorded by the Eagles were a direct result of Matt holding
the ball for too long. This brings us to the offensive line. Despite losing
Walter Jones for a few plays, and Chris Spencer for the second half, the offensive
line did a nice job protecting Matt from pressure up the middle of the field,
and managed to open some holes for the running game. While it’s way too early
to tell if the unit has turned a corner, it was encouraging to see fewer defensive
linemen greeting the ball carrier four yards deep in the backfield on Sunday.
Shaun
Alexander seemed to run much harder than he had over his last few games and
using Maurice Morris as a change of pace appeared to work quite well. Leonard Weaver continues to impress as a checkdown receiver, although he missed a few blitz pickups
while blocking.
Defense: Kudos to Defensive Coordinator John Marshall for not over-blitzing. For a vast majority of snaps, he was content
to rush four and the end result was four interceptions by linebackers. It
can be frustrating as a fan to see an enemy quarterback have a lot of time
in the pocket, but Feeley never really established himself as a threat in
the game, and Marshall wisely called off the dogs and kept seven men in coverage.
The
Seahawks are still susceptible to the big play on defense giving up touchdown
runs of 29 and 30 yards and several long pass plays including a 24 yard touchdown
pass to Kevin Curtis in the second quarter.
Before
the previously mentioned fourth-and-one play, the Seahawks stopped Westbrook
on 3rd and one through a great team effort. Leroy Hill jumped
over the top and knocked Westbrook back from the goal line, then
Julian Peterson, Daryl Tapp and Jordan Babineaux held him back and wrestled
him to the ground without allowing the ball to break the plane of the goal
line. Rocky Bernard will get credit for the fourth-and-one stop, as well
he should, but this third down play was just as crucial.
Special Teams: I guess the best thing I can say
about the Seattle special teams was that they didn’t cost the team any points.
Between Ryan Plackemeier stunningly awful 20.4 yard punting average, Josh
Brown’s short kickoffs and missed field goal, the return men getting creamed
on almost every kick return and the Eagles starting field position never being
father back than their own 21, the special teams just flat out stunk. The
lone bright spot was Burleson’s 36 yard punt return.
The Golden Microphone Award: Credit should go to Tony Siragusa
for making a Dewey Oxburger reference at the end
of the first half, but it fell on deaf ears as the wooden duo of Kenny Albert
and Moose Johnston are apparently the only people over 30 who have never seen
“Stripes”. Johnston continues to blather on about whatever
he wants during plays (today it was the B.C.S.) and Albert actually called
the Seahawks “St. Louis” at one point. Not that we’re going to let Goose off the
hook, here. His first ten comments were about the ball being wet. We get
it, Tony. It’s raining. We can see it. This is television.
Not
to be outdone by the commentary, the guys in the truck featured Elton John,
Tony Conti and Survivor for their outro musical selections. And was that
actually Aldo Nova I heard during the fantasy football cutaway? Guys, there
have been a few developments in music since 1982. I’m just saying. Then
there was the “second-and-2” graphic on the screen when it was actually third-and-2.
And, of course, it wouldn’t be a FOX broadcast if we didn’t miss the beginning
of play to watch some insipid pre-packaged musical montage coming back from
commercial. The only thing keeping this broadcast from being as bad as ESPN’s
Monday Night Football was the absence of a booth interview. Can you just
imagine Moose Johnston interviewing Keifer Sutherland
while a touchdown is scored? Oh … I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
Sorry about that, folks.
Random Notes: Lofa Tatupu joins Eugene Robinson
and Darryl Williams in the Seahawks record book for most interceptions in
a single game (3).
DE
Brandon Mebane hustled off of the field, just barely avoiding a
12 men on the field penalty. Bad move being caught on the field when
you weren’t supposed to, but nice move actually getting off of the field before
the play was snapped.
During
Maurice Morris’ touchdown run, Center Chris Spencer was 30 yards downfield
with Morris looking for someone to block. Great hustle.
After
Lofa Tatupu’s second interception, Patrick Kerney was downfield making blocks
during the return. Again, great hustle.
Summary: Seattle
won an East Coast road game that started at 10 am, which has been a traditional
stumbling block for the team in the past. Still, the team had ample opportunity
to put the hammer down and finish off the Eagles early in the fourth quarter
and couldn’t get the job done. While it’s always great to come home with
a win, there is still plenty of work to be done on both sides of the ball
(and in particular on special teams) in order for this team to be considered
anything more than a “one-and-done” playoff team.
Next Week: Arizona
Revenge.
Dylan is a die-hard Seahawks fan trapped
in Eagles Country and firmly believes that “Live At Leeds” is the single greatest
live performance since a deaf Ludwig Van debuted his final symphony in Vienna
in 1824. You can e-mail Dylan at NJSeahawksFan@gmail.com.
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