Sports

POSTED: Monday, Nov. 09, 2009

Boling: Yes, it was only the Lions, but Seahawks show spark

So, it’s come to this for the Seattle Seahawks – delight about a come-from-behind win over one of the epically awful teams in the NFL.

It didn’t quite inspire storming the field or tearing down the goal posts, but, in a way, you can understand at least an enormous sigh of relief with a 32-20 defeat of the Detroit Lions at Qwest Field on Sunday.

As the Seahawks walked off, the PA system played a tune that urged all to: “Celebrate good times … come on.”

That’s because nobody has recorded a song with lyrics: “Whew, we almost all lost our jobs in the first half of this stinker.”

The boos from “The 12th Man” had to have been the loudest since they’ve been playing in this stadium. And well-deserved, at that.

Considering how grotesque it looked in the first period, when the Seahawks were behind 17-0, when it appeared that they deserved to relinquish their league membership, this was an important comeback. At least in the short run. Considering the very possible alternative.

Coach Jim Mora called this “a measured step in the right direction.” Well-stated. Because it could have been an enormous slide backward.

Detroit has only one win in the last season and a half, defeating the weak Washington Redskins in late September to snap a 19-game losing streak.

Of course, they’ve lost four straight since then.

So how was it that the Seahawks were almost run out of the stadium in the first period?

Well, when your quarterback gets credited for a tackle on your first offensive play, that’s not good.

When your first four plays are two turnovers and two runs for lost yardage, that’s not good. When you then go for it on fourth-and-inches and don’t get it, that’s not good.

“It was really, really a terrible, terrible way to start,” quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said.

But Hasselbeck played a large part in this turning out to be a less-than-terrible outcome.

On the verge of this getting away, the staff decided the best chance of a rally was to trust in Hasselbeck. Good move.

He responded by playing smart, taking what was open, spreading the ball around. In one stretch, he connected on 15 consecutive passes, mostly of the low-risk variety. With 39 completions for 329 yards, he passed Dave Krieg’s team record (2,096) for career completions.

Hasselbeck “showed his true leadership,” Mora said.

Look, this one was homely. Aside from the early turnovers, the run game was nonexistent for the most part: 16 yards on eight carries in the first half. For the second straight week, the Hawks were penalized for having 12 men in the huddle, which is a substitution-protocol rule that is not something new, is not something that should be repeated, and is absolutely inexcusable.

But after weathering the 17-0 blitz, the Hawks outscored the Lions 32-3.

Young, replacement middle linebacker David Hawthorne added two interceptions to his impressive season, being a legitimate bright spot. The defense, in fact, picked off Lions rookie quarterback Matthew Stafford five times, nearly double its total for the first seven games.

Almost every point of praise, though, has to be qualified: It was against Detroit.

Including this: In a game in which the Seahawks were down, they fought back. Yes, it was against the toothless Lions, but the Seahawks competed.

Hasselbeck pulled out the old “backs against the wall” cliché to describe the team’s comeback.

This team now must go on the road three straight weeks. The record is 3-5 at midway and problems abound. Maybe it’s just that they found a team that was willing to collapse, a team with even more fragile confidence.

So, Mora wasn’t ready to break into a chorus about celebrating good times after the struggle to come back from such a deficit against Detroit. In fact, he couldn’t even put it into words.

“I don’t know how I feel,” he said. “I feel good that we won, but I don’t know … I just feel.”

Which is a heckuva lot better than he would have felt if that 17-point deficit had held.

Dave Boling: 253-597-8440

dave.boling@thenewstribune.com