Oh My God! This was War! In the first quarter Matt was 2004, unsure and inexperienced. In the second quarter, Matt was 2002. Matt has 9 interceptions this season. Not bad considering that the team record is 7-up and 4 down. Thru 11 games Cool Hand Luke has 9 picks. Could be worse. But then again, Matt had only nine thieves cashing in on his ill-gotten bootie though out all of last season, including the Playoffs and the Superbowl. Matt threw more picks last night than the chain gang working on the Rail Road in 1864.
Ok, Ok. So I’m being a bit hard on Mathew. He has after all, given Seattle it’s only Superbowl birth in Franchise history. You’d figure that I would cut him a little slack.
Sorry Matt, that’s the price you pay for tea in China. That’s because you have raised my expectations as a Seahawks fan and for that I thank you. Before you arrived, all we had was Dave Krieg and a couple of really great playoff years. Now we accept nothing less than excellence.
Enter Old Man Winter. He was your Mentor. He showed you what NFL tough was really about. Though you only played under his Tutelage for a meger three years, you and your coach, were wisked away into the Seattle Abyss to start a new Quest. (<---noted)
Mike Holmgren has now been a coach in Seattle longer than he was a coach for the Pack. I didn’t realize that it has been that long.
Bret Farve entered the game as the Lion on the hill. Old Man Winter has played in 16 stadiums that no longer exist, this was his Quest Field debut and it looked for all intensive purposes that he would own this one too. He showed his student that tough still throws laser passes after 13 years as well as long bombs that connect to Donald Driver After the student popped up two picks in his first two possessions. Before we knew it, 12 seconds passed and the Master had racked up yet another TD in his storied career. It wasn’t looking good for Hass. What it was looking like was that the master was going to school the Lamb convincingly. Only there was one small problem, make that two big problems. Mike wasn’t about to let his new student lose to the old student.
Make that his new steam roller. Matt found his Gonya, and rode the Coat tails of Alexander The Great, who took it upon himself to gallop to a Paultry 200 and one of I still love you Shaun, yards. Alexander put this game on his shoulders and Matt followed suit. DJ Hackett fired the first spark late in the first half and Holmgrens half time pep talk fired up the Hawk offense that we have waited the entire season to see. Little did we notice that the Seattle defense refused to not only give up yards, but they refused to give up points thru the third quarter. Had it not been for a few errand passes from our humble leader, the Green bay Packers would have likely put up a mere 10 points in the Monday Night Malay.
Tho I have not been an avid supporter of Jeramy Stevens, I think a record crowd of 68,000 people need to get off his back. All of you fools that are booing him for last nights efforts need to take a reality check. You try taking the shots that he took, like a knee to the ribs at 30 mph in the back and hang on to the damned ball. Go ahead, try it. I'll wait...Tick tock....Thats what I thought.
(to comment, click the green number to the right of the title above)
Nice article, but I have to disagree with your views on booing Stevens. I am not paid to take a knee to the ribs and hold onto the football. He is, and there's a lot of tight ends and receivers around the league that can take a hit and hold onto the football. As fans, our expectations for him holding on to the ball isn't asking for some miracle, its asking him to do his job.
ReplyDeleteUnder normal curcumstances, I would have to agree with you, Alan. Tho when the boo's were raining down on two plays in particular, it was impossible for anyone to hang onto the rock. Check the replay's.
ReplyDeleteImpossible or improbable? Gonzalez, Crumpler or Gates catches at least on of those. Shockey might too.
ReplyDeleteI'm calling the TE situation now. Seattle signs Stevens to a cheap/short contract, nobody else will even offer him, and they sign Daniel Graham, NE, to a good contract. NE signes Mili, since that is what NE does. Cash may motivate Stevens, and to be honest, I thought the boos also may have motivated him.
Im with Max. While I find it ok to be frustrated, I think booing is a little extreme.
ReplyDeleteThe mentioned TEs above didnt play in the rain and get struck pretty hard on several occassions. The funny thing is, everyone acts like Stevens was the only whos dropped easy passes this year. (not directed to you Alan)
My thoughts on the game were typed up in the game thread so yeah...I went pretty deep and maybe I noticed a few things some didnt. (Like Scoobs doing great blocking for the guy who took his job)
Well, I was fortunate enough to have been there last night. I think some of the boo birds (myself included) were aimed at the fact that the cheesehead defenders were all over Stevens before he had the ball. I actually yelled at Jackson and Burleson when they dropped their passes in that game, too. It was a tough, tough game to catch the ball in yesterday, and that is probably why SA set the team record for rushing attempts.
ReplyDeleteI've got a few pix up on my Sports Photos blog, and will have more there when I get a chance to look at them. It only took 5 hours to get home to Oly, thanks to the foot of snow that happened to fall between South Center and Federal Way during the evening commute (and the subsequent pileups and abandoned vehicles that led to further congestion) . And I left early.
Yeah, it's probably right to rag on Stevens for dropping the ball. Last night, however, I'd mostly give him a mulligan. No one, except Hackett and the GB defenders, was catching the ball (and even Hackett dropped one or two).
As I said on the DOG post, I still trust him, and still have faith that he can get the job done. In watching the replays from that game, those hits he took were good shots, but I've seen players get hit like that before and hold on.
ReplyDeleteIf Stevens wants to become an elite TE in this league, along the lines of Gonzalez and Gates, he needs to learn to take a hit and hold on.
Also keep in mind, this is hardly the first game this season he's had a case of the drops. I think some of the boo-birds last night were getting frustrated with his problems all season.
Yea, the boos from last night were definately from the frustrations of his season, not just last nights game. They've been mounting more and more with each home game. And in talking with friends who were at some bars last night to watch the game, it's a shared frustration. They told me their was plenty of bad-mouthing of Stevens amongst the people at the bars.
ReplyDeleteStevens needs to seriously redjust himself. I said this over at the Blue and I'll say it here: make him work for his starting job. Call him out on his play, tell him to prove it or he loses his job to Mili or Heller. Yea, they might not have the potential he has, but with his dropped passes and fumbles that kill potential scoring drives and deflate the momentum of the game, it's better if we have someone in who doesn't contribute in a negative way.
After reading thru some things today, I realize I might be a little harsh on the guy, but after last season stepping up to become our clutch player, we've come to expect him to stay a clutch player. And he's failed in that aspect this season, miserably so.
What I was very impressed with was our defense. Yea, there were instances of poor tackling once again, and that slip up allowing the 48 yard TD catch - but they never quit. While Matt and the offense were struggling to produce, our defense kept feeding them the ball (with great help from the ST I might add). Eventually, our offense finally did what needed to be done. Matt can do what Seneca had trouble doing - keep the offense on the field to allow the defense to rest. Matt put together some time sustaining drives, allowing our defense to rest, get their legs somewhat fresh. It was a huge bonus that those drives ended in points.
And it was great to see Scoobs blocking downfield for Burleson.
I imagine Holmgren's really working with Stevens. Hass, too. You better believe those guys are trying to get him straightened out.
ReplyDeleteI'm still not going to harp on him too much for last night's game. I snagged a decent shot of one of the balls that he dropped right before being leveled by ex-Hawk Manuel. I'm not so sure the ball was in a spot that would've been easy for him to grab and secure before getting the whoopin' he got.
The announcers had it partially right: "Seattle hasn't played anyone this year." What they forgot to add was "they had an even easier schedule last year, so the 13-3 record is highly suspicious."
ReplyDeleteDear Realist,
ReplyDeleteWhile we appreciate you bringing up last year, and how fun it was (who doesn't love happy memories?), the members of Seahawk nation have moved on and are discussing this year's team. While we can all agree that last year's Seahawk team was a special one, it was last year's team. So, really taking shots at the 2005 Seahawks makes you look like somebody who lives in their mom's basement, eating beans out of a can while you wait for your blow-up doll to inflate.
Hope you step outside soon and update your calender (it can be tricky to update those Page-A-Day's can't it?) We look forward to you realizing how mornic your latest post was.
Sincerely,
The Management.
Dear Realist,
ReplyDeleteYou may remember me from the Arizona Cardinals' fashion show. You probably have wondered where I have been.
Well, bend over.
Dear Son,
ReplyDeleteYour sponge bath is ready.
Well, bend over.
Mili Carches the ball. Jeremy doesn't. Whats the issue, Holms?
ReplyDeleteGreat, I gotta be the guy to mis-spell my own damned name...Uhg!
ReplyDeleteHello, my name is realist. But you can call me cobag. I have the brain of an four year old and the penis of a midget. My hobbies include cross dressing, coital bestiality asphyxiation, and sudoku. Currently single, seeking someone to teach me about sex with other humans besides my mother.
ReplyDeleteGO DOLPHINS!!!
I think it was a great game and the snow made it even more exciting. Even with 3 turnovers in the first half they came back and made it one HELL of a game
ReplyDeleteOh yeah Max, you have mail.
Stevens has been earning those boos since we drafted him, it finally caught up with him, and people let him ahve it, because they are tired of seeing him underachieve.
ReplyDeleteIf he were making mistakes but trying and NOT running his mouth, that would be different, but he is VASTLY underachieving and everyone knows it, and it is for that people are more likely to boo. People are genereally forgiving, but not when the problems are ongoing.
As for any criticisms of Hass, forget about it! Sure he looked awful the first half, (as I expected he would, it takes awhile to get back to game speed) but by the time that drive at the end of the third period came around, Matt was back and in charge. He looked great in the second half considering this was his first game in four games, and that he honestly was unsure if he was even ready to be playing in the first place.
Well spank my Monkey, Nice post, primate. I couldn't agree with you more about Hass. If he conteinues the same level of play that he was at during the second half of the, look out.
ReplyDeleteStevens has earned his critisisms, deservedly so. It was just overwhelmingly critical during the Packers game.