[ Blue Man Sings The Whites ] | |
| [ home - contact Blue Man - "f"aq ] | |
|
[ Watch The Birdie II, Revenge Of The Feathery Thing (Page 12) ] Week 12 – Arizona Cardinals (7-3) @ Seattle Seahawks (7-3) Strengths On defence, we did a pretty decent job containing Shaun Alexander but gave up a few too many long passes. Blitzing is a risky strategy given the number of weapons Hasselbeck has at his disposal, so it's a case of carefully picking and choosing when and where to bring heat. - It's a big old game, this one, given how delicately-balanced the NFC playoff picture is. The East has three teams locked at 6-4 queuing up behind the 7-3 Indigenous Persons, and the Saints sit second in the South, also at 6-4, so whoever loses here stands a very real chance of missing out on the playoffs - particularly if it's Seattle, given that we'd then hold the tie-breaker over them. The necessity of a win is underlined for both teams after the early games, where the Rams drop 41 points on the Bills' league-leading defence to solidify their 8-2 record atop the NFC West. We win the toss, and elect to have the strong wind that's whipping through the sold-out stadium at our backs in the 4th. The wisdom of that decision is brought home as the Seahawks fly straight back down the field, Alexander doing the majority of the damage, to put seven on the board before latecomers to the imaginatively-named Seahawks Stadium have even found their seats. It's vital, given this early pressure and his cover-your-eyes-awful game last week, that Jeff Blake get off to a strong start today, and he does just that - 5/6 for 57 yards, although the last yard is Marcel Shipp's to answer the Seahawks in the best way possible. ARI 7-7 SEA Just as the crowd are getting geared up for a free-scoring, end-to-end game, both teams decide to treat us all to their celebrated impression of the first two quarters of this year's Superbowl - five consecutive possessions end in punts, just two first downs amoung them. It's a thrilling, thrilling time for fans of incomplete passes and two-yard inside runs. And then, as if by magic, a drive appears. As so often, Marcel Shipp is the catalyst, taking on and punishing anyone daft enough to get between him and the first-down marker. A 62-yard march takes 6 minutes and by the time Shipp is crunching across the goal-line from a yard out, there's just 1:17 left in the half. With awesome predictability, Seattle need only 30 seconds of it, Hasselbeck going 4/4 then Shaun Alexander breaking a 20-yard touchdown run over defenders frankly baffled by where all this action has suddenly sprung from. It's not over yet, either. Hilariously, the Seahawk defence bites on The World's Most Obvious Play-Action Fake and allow Macca McDonald to get behind them for a big gain that sets up Whatshisname to clobber one between the uprights and end a half that couldn't make up its mind whether it was a shootout or a dour defensive struggle - ARI 17-14 SEA - A slashing return by Terry Fair, who's really stepped up to the plate in the last few games, and we start the second half at the Seattle 42. But which offence is going to show up? The one that self-destructed last week then managed one first down in almost the entire first half, or the one that ended that half with two scoring drives? Five minutes later, fullback James Hodgins plunges over from point-blank range, and there's another silly question answered. ARI 24-14 SEA The brakes are off the Seahawks as well though, and it's Shaun Alexander and Darrell Jackson who're bringing the pain, as it has been for much of the game. But just as Seattle are camped in the shadow of our goalposts and a touchdown seems inevitable, Levar Fisher comes off the edge absolutely unblocked and hits Matt Hasselbeck hard enough to knock his false teeth out.
Well. He'd better hope those teeth were false... Chad Brown makes the short three, and with one quarter to play it's a seven-point game, ARI 24-17 SEA Both offences are in gear now, but where Seattle are shooting up and down the field like rocket-propelled cheetahs after twenty cups of espresso (and I think we've all been there), we've got more of a "slow and steady wins the race" deal going - 12 plays move us just 46 yards but eat five minutes of clock. Travis Minor can't convert a 3rd and 1, but Whosamaflip Gramatica smacks a 31-yarder hard and flat between the sticks to restore a ten-point advantage with less than six minutes in the game. To nobody's surprise, Seattle don't hang around closing the gap, completing six passes in seven attempts to go 78 yards in 3 minutes. Darrell Jackson, a player I'm rapidly getting sick of the sight of, caps the drive with a 10-yard score. We just can't seem to shake these gits off - a smidge under three minutes to play, ARI 27-24 SEA Two first downs should be enough to see this out. They know we're going to give it to Marcel, we know we're going to give it to Marcel, there are tribes of natives deep in the Amazon as yet untouched by western civilization that know we're going to give it to Marcel... which probably how Johnno gets so wide open on the short-slant on second down, taking us down to the 2-minute warning. Heh heh heh. That's it for the clever-clever stuff, though - I don't want to find myself turning into Mike Martz. The plan is three handoffs to Shipp no matter what, so that we at least milk all of Seattle's timeouts before we punt back to them. As it is, it only takes two handoffs for Marcel to convert for a first, letting us kneel out the game. Wa-hey! Final score ARI 27-24 SEA, advancing us to 8-3 and putting us effectively two games clear of the chasing pack in the race for a wildcard. [
^ back to top ] (c) daniel roe 2004 |
|
|
|
