[ Blue Man Sings The Whites ] | |
| [ home - contact Blue Man - "f"aq ] | |
|
[ Watch The Birdie II, Revenge Of The Feathery Thing (Page 8) ] Week 8 – Seattle Seahawks (4-2) @ Arizona Cardinals (4-2)
Strengths
Weaknesses
Game Plan On defence, it's a quandary. We can't afford to go after Hasselbeck with too much heat, because leaving any of the Seattle receivers single covered is effectively the same as sending out gilt-edged cards saying "The Arizona Cardinals cordially invite you to kick their ass. RSVP." On the other hand, given enough time, someone out of Robinson, Jackson, Stevens or Engram is going to get open. We can't sell out to defend the pass, either, because if Mike "The Walrus" Holmgren sees lots of skinny blokes on the field, he's going to run Alexander until his legs fall off. In summary, then - damn. - So. This is the first game of the rest of our season, and a pretty damned important game it is, too. With St. Louis and San Fran winning in the early kickoffs, a loss would drop us to the bottom of the division and leave us with a mountain to climb. It'd be nice to give a packed crowd at Sun Devil something to cheer about, as well - the home fans haven't actually seen a win since the Bears came visiting in Week 2. And beating the Bears this year - or, indeed, any year - isn't exactly a cause for wild celebration and dancing in the streets. The early signs aren't great, with Seattle winning the toss, taking the ball and flying down the field, using their balanced offence in tandem with a hefty dose of play-action to keep us off balance. It looks like it's going to take a great individual effort or a lucky break to keep the Seahawks out of the endzone, and in the end we get a bit of both - Levar Fisher coming on a blitz on 1st and goal that sees Shaun Alexander doing a wonderful job of blocking absolutely bugger-all as the linebacker blows past him to bring Hasselbeck down hard. David Barrett and Terry Fair combine to nearly pick off a third-down pass that looks for Alexander down the seam, and Josh Brown comes in and hits the short trey to give Seattle the lead. It looks like an immediate response is on the cards when the o-line does a fabulous job on 3rd and 14, giving Jeff Blake time to roll out, wait, wait, wait for slot-receiver Shaun McDonald to fight through press-coverage and get open over the middle for a 26-yard pickup. But Jeff clearly has some sort of sublime/ridiculous clause in his contract, and the very next play successfully picks out linebacker Randall Godfrey, who makes the interception at the second attempt - 1st down Seahawks at halfway. The defence steps up, though, albeit with the help of a clipping penalty, and the drive is stopped just inside our 30, forcing Brown to try a 46-yarder that barely creeps over the crossbar. Gawd demmit. End of 1, SEA 6-0 ARI We need a spark on offence, but quickly get ourselves into a spot of bother when Freddie Jones drops a pass on 3rd down to leave us with a 4th and inches just inside the Seattle half. We're almost duty-bound to go for it, and resist the temptation to get clever, handing off to Marcel Shipp on an off-tackle run right. James Hodgins absolutely destroys a linebacker at the point of attack, Shipp runs right through an arm-tackle and away into daylight - he's eventually run down at the 1 after a 43-yard gain, but that only holds him up for a single down, and suddenly we're in front. SEA 6-7 ARI The Seahawks can't quite make it happen, but their punt is excellent, high and steepling and downed at our eight - 2:43 left in the half. To this point they've done an excellent job of keeping our #1 playmaker, Bryant Johnson, quiet, but that all comes to naught as Johnno loses his corner off the snap, slants in behind a safety who's come up in run-support and turns a 10-yard catch into a 38 yard gain. We quickly get ourselves into another 4th and 1 situation, though, when the half-blind officials re-spot a Shaun-O-Mac reception that looked to my eyes, to the crowd's eyes, to the eyes of everybody WITH eyes like it had gotten past the sticks. One yard to gain, and we go back to Old Reliable, but Seattle get great penetration and LB Chad Brown hits Shipp a full yard behind the line of scrimmage... and Shipp is going down... and there's an outrush of air as every Cardinal fan in the stadium sighs at once... and Marcel spins as he falls... and reaches out with the ball... and somehow, somehow, hits the ground bare inches past the 1st-down marker. Criminy. That, as it turns out, was their one chance to stop us, and with just 20 seconds left in the half and the ball at their 11, the Seahawks rush four and drop 7 into a soft zone, giving Jeff Blake an age to scan the field, choose his target and deliver a perfect pass that leads Anquan into the gap between four defenders - Boldin stretches to make an unfussy catch, and as the half expires we've grabbed ourselves a nice little lead, thanks very much - SEA 6-14 ARI
Well, we've blown bigger leads than this to worse teams than Seattle, that's all I can say. Still, better 8 points up than 8 points down, especially when we suddenly remember that we're the Arizona Cardinals, give up sacks on consecutive plays, punt the ball away then watch the Seahawks come flying straight back down the field the other way, beat History's Most Badly-Timed Blitz for six to Darrell Jackson, then beat History's Second Most Badly-Timed Blitz for the two-point conversion. Arse. SEA 14-14 ARI Luckily, we forget we're the Arizona Cardinals on the very next play - Anquan finds a seam in the zone, slows to make the catch, turns the jets back on to leave a couple of would-be tacklers flat on their faces and runs like he done stole something. Shawn Springs eventually collars him... seventy yards later. First down inside the 5, or as we know it round here, Shippland. Heh. SEA 14-21 ARI The Seahawks march in, then march straight back out again, and a 15-yard penalty for kick-catch interference (!) gets us back into Seattle territory. Feeling that another score at this point will make for a very dull 4th quarter, we decide to reward the fans' devotion by getting into the red-zone, screwing things up then bringing in Thingamajig Gramatica to fire a pin-point kick straight at the left-hand upright. That's entertainment, boys. Well done. Nine and a half minutes left in the game, and in comes the Seattle offence to try and manufacture a game-tying drive. We've been consistently vulnerable to the deep pass all year - for the whole history of the franchise, actually - and that's what they look for almost straight from the off. Hasselbeck hangs on to the ball, and hangs on, and hangs on, waiting for his routes to develop downfield - but the coverage is good, and the pocket starts to give way, and he's forced to shuffle forward and launch, off-balance and across his body toward Bobby Engram. Despite all that, the pass is a good one, and Engram has found a little gap in the deep centre, and this one's got "big gain" written all over it in letters ten feet high. But David Barrett glances back, sees the ball in flight and comes off his man to try and make a play. Two steps, and he launches himself, up and up and up, stretching out and snatching a fantastic one-handed interception.
The crowd go wild, but there's more. His fellow d-backs take out the Seattle receivers, giving Barrett enough time to come down, assess the situation ahead of him, outrun the lumbering o-line as they try to cut him off from getting to the sideline and break into clear air all the way to the endzone for a 50-yard return that almost makes the game safe. Jesus. You can take his starting job away, you can bury him down the depth-chart, you can make him a situational player, you can drive a wooden stake through his heart and bury him at a crossroads, and No-Mark Barrett STILL comes back to make big plays. The Cornerback Who Would Not Die. SEA 14-28 ARI The Seahawks get back within a touchdown after Hasselbeck gets an hour and a half in the pocket and ends up finding his tight-end for a long score, but their defence can't stop us grinding the clock and Marcel Shipp restores the 14-point lead from 8 yards with just over a minute to play, and Levar Fisher ends any last faint, lingering hopes with his third interception of the year. We've beaten a bloody good team, and we've beaten them well - final score SEA 21-35 ARI and we improve to 5-2. [
^ back to top ] (c) daniel roe 2004 |
|
|
|
