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It's always exciting to see something BIG happen early in the game, especially if your definition of BIG is a bad snap by the opposing team that's recovered by Anthony Simmons of the Seahawks! Thus it was we had an opportunity to get a jump on the Cardinals early in the pre-season game! First pass of the Seahawks offense, Hasselbeck threaded it between two defenders and Mili caught it PERFECTLY!!! My hopes were high already! Second offensive play for the Seahawks...a handoff to Mack Strong, fumble, Cardinals recovered. Disheartening is the word that comes to mind. Along with... Aaaauuuggghhh! In Strong's defense, it was a more of a terrific defensive play than a poor offensive play. Strong was running through a congested line and the defender swiped at the ball, knocking it loose. It was disappointing to Seahawks fans because we lost the ball as quickly as we'd stolen it but I really can't fault Strong for trying to make something happen. This was the first pre-season game I've seen for the Seahawks this season so I was most anxious to see how much of the hype panned out. Of course we know that Shawn Springs is out with a hamstring injury so the news of Willie Williams breaking a forearm on the first play of the game comes as devastating news. Willie, who was in line for a starting position due to the Springs' injury, will be out 4-6 weeks. Holmgren has been quoted as saying we'll be looking for someone to sign in the coming days. It's great for the young guys who are trying to make the team, maybe someone will step up and claim the role but it's a little scary too. I'm pretty sure there aren't too many really good secondary players on the market right now. It took our offense a couple of series to get anything going. Our first offensive series after the fumble resulted in a pass, another pass, a third pass, and a fourth down. Feagles had a great punt but I'd rather be telling you about a touchdown. Alas. It took our defense a while to get started as well. Had it not been for a referee, Arizona might have scored a long touchdown early in the game on a running play that we didn't cover very well. The Cardinal RB ran right into the official, slowing down enough for the Hawks to catch up to him and bring him down. Not what you want to see even in a pre-season game. However when the teams steadied, I liked what I saw. Chad Brown was awesome, returning to the form he had two years ago. One play that comes to mind was when he zeroed in on the quarterback causing a fumble. The ball flopped around loose on the ground with several players on both teams having a chance for a recovery. The Cards ended up with the ball but it could have easily have been another turnover for us. Good for Chad Brown! Paul Miranda, a name you're probably not too familiar with yet, had an awesome play in which he attempted an interception. He wasn't able to bring it in but I love the effort he put forth. More than once I looked at my program to find out who the player was that made that great play only to see Miranda's name pop up again. He may be one to keep an eye on as the pre-season continues. Lucas is another that we'll want to watch, as he seemed to put forth extra effort. He made an awesome shoestring tackle in the open field that would have been disastrous had the Cardinal not been tackled. Ike Charlton got an interception after we'd pressured the Cardinals QB. That was pretty exciting! We're going to be REAL happy Kirkland is wearing the blue and green of Seattle this season! He lived up to his star billing easily throughout the first quarter and more. I've been withholding my opinions on Hasselbeck until I saw him play. Those of you who talk with me regularly know that I've been a bit leary about his quotes in the paper recently, but I think he has a right to make those comments. MAYBE finally we've got the QB we've been waiting for (not to bag Kitna, you all know I loved him!) I was MAJOR impressed with his scrambling abilities as well as his ability to look off the primary receiver to find the next open guy. He remains calm under pressure and keeps moving his feet to fake out the defenders. On one particular play the defense was bearing down on him and I was thinking for sure he'd be sacked, but at the last minute he simply stepped up and out of the way to avoid the sack. It looked too easy!!! Hasselbeck also had a great play where he did a fake hand-off, rolled out and passed across his body to Mack Strong. That one had me cheering!! WAY cool! I was disappointed to see that Darrell Jackson dropping a couple of passes that probably should have been caught. I thought Darrell looked great at training camp so I'm miffed that he wasn't able to have more success in the game. I hope it's a timing issue that will work out with more reps. Bailey, who also looked good at camp (in my opinion) fumbled a ball out of bounds. It was a personal foul on the Cardinals (blow to Hasselbeck's head - I'm not entirely sure it should have been called but we'll take it!) that kept our first scoring drive alive. Fauria had a nice reception on that drive, Watters had a nice run, a pass to Koren Robinson was batted down, and then finally Steve Hutchinson, another player who will be BIG for us this season, opened a huge hole for Watters to run through for the touchdown. Don't think for a moment that Watters has lost his speed, he was incredible here and in the training camp exercises!! Huard played in the second half. It was as good a performance as I've ever seen from Brock but I'm still not sure it was all that impressive. Certain passes were, I recall one to Koren Robinson and another to James Williams. A pass to Stewart netted 17 yards and was awesome! However the interception at the end of the game blew it for the Seahawks. I know it doesn't really matter in pre-season but it was disappointing just the same. How would I evaluate Mike Holmgren? I wasn't impressed when we started off so slugglishly. Whether or not that's Holmgren's responsibility I don't know, but I'd like to see the boys come out with more confidence. Early in the game when the offense came off the field, Warren Moon, reporting from the sidelines, said that Holmgren used "explicit language" which Moon didn't care to repeat as he talked to the offense. He certainly had a right to scold the players for their poor performance and they did a better job the next time on the field. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions. Overall, I think we can be optimistic about our season. We're not there yet by any means, but if we can make improvements throughout the season I think we can have a strong finish. Our first games won't be a walk in the park. They're going to need us, Seahawks Fans!!! #12 is going to be indispensable this season! Notable: Our Trey Junkin was the holder for the Cardinals. How old is he, anyway?!?! :-) [40 years old!] Ads: We like our chances - I got to see the new ads on television for the first time! I don't know that I found them as funny as the hype but they were sort of cute. I liked seeing the making of the commercials during the game. Be Like Mike - buy the clothes that he wears on the sidelines. OK...whatever! GIJoes.com - haven't been there yet but they advertised Seahawk merchandise enough that I thought it was worth a mention in this report!
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