Seattle at Cincinnati

(This is an occasional blog entry on the NFL, usually Seattle Seahawks games. Most of these will be from my couch, drive by drive observations. This is a good exercise for me in following a game from beginning to end while analyzing what’s going on on the fly. It’s like exercise for the sports brain, really.)

Seattle’s offense, engineered by QB Matt Hasselbeck and RB Shaun Alexander, takes on Cincinnati’s defense, led by head coach/defensive guru Marvin Lewis, at the new Bengals Stadium in Cincinnati.



Seattle’s first drive — (own 24 yd line, 14:54 1st qtr) Chess match between Mike Holmgren’s offense and Lewis’ defense begins. Seattle’s running game is slow, but the passing game is hot early. Hasselbeck hits 4 of 5 passes, including a 46-yard strike down the middle to a wide-open TE Itulu Mili for the touchdown. Good start, but ominous. 7-0 Seattle.

Cincinnati’s first drive — (own 33, 10:35 1st qtr) Former Seattle Seahawk and Central Washington University product Jon Kitna leads the Bengals. No Corey Dillon due to a minor car crash and his yearly “I want a trade outta Cincinnati” whine. Kitna is on fire as well, slicing up Seattle’s secondary. A slugfest is brewing. Nothing notewothy defensively. Run defense is good, until Rudi Johnson, replacing Dillon, runs 18 yards off-tackle for the TD. 7-7 tie.



Seattle’s second drive — (own 30, 5:28 1st qtr) 3-and-out. Hasselbeck sacked on second down. Darrell Jackson drops an easy catch on third down for 1st down distance. Punt. Shanked, but roll goes 35 yards and Cinci’s Peter Warrick bobbles it.

Cincinnati’s second drive (own 22, 4:13 1st qtr) 3-and-out. Rudi run. Rudi short catch. Sea’s Marcus Trufant bats Kitna pass away to force punt. Orland Huff, of Seattle, called for holding, moves ball from 34-yd line to the 16.



Seattle’s third drive — (own 16, 2:46 1st qtr) Maurice Morris rumbles for 12 yards. Jackson bobbles low throw that was catchable. Alexander 5 yd run. Engram hauls in 3rd down pass for 25 yards and a 1st down. He’s money and will prove to save Seattle’s butt. Hasselbeck now has 103 yards passing in the first half??? Uh oh. Seattle is a great team when Shaun is handling the rock and the offensive load. Ominous. Jackson makes catch on third play in 2nd qtr, fumbles but his knee hits the ground before the ball is loose. Replay? Holmgren throws red flag, officials look (they have the same replays as the TV crew provides to the home viewer, by the way) and the call stands? Ah shit. That’ll get looked at in the NFL offices on Monday morning. Fumble stops a very promising drive by Seattle.

Cincinnati’s third drive — (own 25, 13:46 2nd qtr) Big play: Warrick takes an end-around pitch, stops, reverses field and sprints 50 yards to the Seattle 15-yd line (then the longest play from scrimmage against Seattle all season). Three plays later, Kitna hits K. Washington for the 8-yd touchdown pass. 14-7 Cinci.

Marvin Lewis is seen yelling and encouraging his offensive unit to continue what they’ve been doing. Seattle is allowing a below-average team to stick around and on the road, too. Bad sign.



Seattle’s fourth drive — (own 28, 10:33 2nd qtr) This is how the Seahawks should play the game — nothing but Alexander. Runs of 23, 9, 2, 18 and 2 put Seattle on the Cincinnati 18 yd line. Hasselbeck throws to Shaun for 16, a run for no gain, an incomplete pass to Mili and then Alexander catches a 2-yd pass and rolls into the end zone for the score. 14-14 tie.

And that’s pretty much it for Shaun for the rest of the game. Pathetic. The football gods will not be happy and they will extract revenge.

Cincinnati’s fourth drive — (own 27, 6:29 2nd qtr) Kitna to Warrick for 27 yds, then incomplete, no gain run and incomplete brings up a punt.



Seattle’s fifth drive — (own 15, 4:53 2nd qtr) Long pass overthrown, Shaun is stacked at the line and Hasselbeck is picked off on an underthrown pass to Jackson. (See a trend here...)

Cincinnati’s fifth drive — (Sea 39, 3:51 2nd qtr) Run, sack, then Kitna to Charles Johnson down the middle for the 1st down. Run, run, incomplete. Field goal. 17-14 Cinci.



Seattle’s sixth drive — (own 38, :50 1st qtr) All but two of the final plays of the first half come from Hasselbeck’s arm. Seattle get one negative yardage run from Shaun and miss two chances at the end zone from the Cinci 8-yd line. Ugh. Field goal 17-17 at the half.



Second half



Cincinnati’s first drive — (own 30, 14:55 3rd qtr) Ill. use of the hands penalty makes this a 3-and-out drive. Punt.

Seattle’s first drive — (own 38, 13:32 3rd qtr) Hasselbeck, Alexander and Morris all drive Seattle down into Cinci territory. Cincinnati’s defense is confused. Second-half adjustments??? Who knows. Hasselbeck ends it with a 6-yd TD pass to Mili. 24-17 Seattle.



Cincinnati’s second drive — (own 17, 9:09 3rd qtr) Seattle’s defense looks horrible as Kitna and Rudi take over. The Bengals get to the Sea 1-yd line with 1st-and-goal. Then, the Hawks defense wakes up. Rudi minus-two yards, 1 yd, then Kitna sacked for minus-five yards. Field goal. 24-20 Seattle. Big stand. Momentum is clearly on Seattle’s side. Cincinnati had a long drive and only got 3. That could hurt. (But wait, there’s more...)

Seattle’s second drive — (own 40, :06 3rd qtr) Kickoff goes OB. Seattle set with good field position. Hawks get to the Cinci 35-yd line before punting. Rouen dead-balls it to the Cinci 3-yd line. Nice.



Cincinnati’s third drive — (own 3, 12:32 4th qtr) Kitna escapes sack in the end zone on second down for a new set of downs. Rudi run, then pass, pass? Ugh. Punt. Engram, who is money by the way, puts Seattle on Cinci’s 39-yd line.

Seattle’s third drive — (Cinci 39, 10:46 4th qtr) Penalty on Cinci defense. Two Alexander runs for 2 total yards, pass to Alexander low by Hasselbeck. Brown’s 50-yd FG blocked. Ugh. That momentum thing I mentioned earlier. Well, it is gone now.



Cincinnati’s fourth drive — (own 40, 9:00 4th qtr) This one play marks how Seattle’s day went: Kitna pressured on third down, is hit when he throws it, the ball looks like a turkey in the air and Charles Johnson catches it on a deep in pattern and runs 53 yards for the winning touchdown. 27-24 Cincinnati. Johnson got hit with a 15-yd unsportsmanlike penalty for a throat slash gesture in the back of the end zone while he celebrates with teammates and fans. Pathetic. He’s from Oregon State, which says a lot, really. The Beavers under Dennis Erickson were undisciplined and juvenile, like Johnson’s actions.

Seattle’s fourth drive — (own 50, 7:55 4th qtr) Four Hasselbeck passes leads to an interception. The football gods are angry. Run the ball, Holmgren. There was plenty of time to go down the field for a tying FG or a go-ahead touchdown. But no. Cincinnati’s defense has adjusted to Seattle’s passing game and were begging the Hawks to throw the ball at them. They were waiting for it. When defensive linemen are throwing their hands in the air instead of pass rushing, then you know they have you. Run, damn you, run.



Cincinnati’s fifth drive (own 34, 5:53 4th qtr) Cincinnati runs and throws the ball, mostly throws. The clock winds down. Punt.

Seattle’s fifth drive (own 20, 2:24 4th qtr) The Hawks are 8-1 in the past nine games (this season and last season) with five fourth-quarter comebacks and two overtime wins. Hasselbeck hits Engram on first down for another 1st, then hits Mili on a clutch fourth-down conversion. Two minute warning. Good sign. Seattle has one TO left and are at midfield. Hasselbeck to Engram for 19 yards. Hasselbeck pass tipped at the line of scrimmage again (oh no!) And intercepted. Hasselbeck threw the ball 43 times in this contest, including a last-second hail mary that was lateraled three times before fumbled and recovered.



Cincinnati goes 3-and-out on its last drive. Punts the ball and Engram is tripped up at the Sea 20-yd line with :03 left.



End result: Seattle played down and looked down at Cincinnati and thought they had a win in the bag. The Seahawks have one of the easiest schedules in the league and they should have won this game. However, when you turn the ball over four times and cause no turnovers on defense, you tend to lose most of those games.

Alexander finished with 86 yards rushing, which is pathetic when you look and see that three-quarters of those yards came in two drives. There’s no reason for Hasselbeck to throw 43 times. Three touchdowns are nice, but those interceptions hurt. Two were tipped at the line of scrimmage, which isn’t his fault, but Holmgren’s. Why? Not enough adjustments to Cincinnati’s defense in the second half was the culprit. The Bengals were looking pass. The Seahawks should have been running the rushing game.

When Alexander runs for more than 100 yards, the Hawks win. Shaun should have been given the chance to run more and Hasselbeck could have play-actioned off of the run for better results.

So much for that. Next week, Seattle hosts Pittsburgh, which is struggling. Then again, now the Seahawks are struggling.



Now I’ll sit back and watch the Niners. Oh, they’re losing to Arizona? Great. Pass the beer and pretzels, please....