Week 10 Review – Caddyshack
By Mark Demaray
How much better have Mondays been this year when, almost without fail, you watched your beloved Seahawks win the day before? Sure, there might be a tinge of a hangover after too much post-victory celebrating. Sure, you may have stayed up too late watching the highlights of the game for the 10th time. But for the first time in your life, your favorite team is 9-1 and firmly in the drivers seat in the NFC. It was one of the great days in regular season history if you’re a Seahawks fan. Let’s re-live it through the majesty of Bushwood Country Club and Caddyshack.
“It’s easy to grin / When your ship comes in / And you’ve got the stock market beat. / But the man worthwhile, / Is the man who can smile, / When his shorts are too tight in the seat.”: And a lot of grinning was done yesterday, that’s for sure. It’s been a while since we’ve been able to watch a road game and really have almost no concern that things were going to go against the Hawks. Maybe that game in Toronto last year was the last time. The way the Hawks played yesterday didn’t put any more gray hair on my head. It didn’t necessitate an apology to the neighbors. It didn’t eat at my stomach lining. It was a thoroughly enjoyable time watching this team get back to where we know they can be.
“A flute without holes, is not a flute. A donut without a hole, is a Danish.”: And an offensive line without holes makes Beast Mode angry. Thankfully, not the case yesterday. We’ve seen this offensive line be stuck together with duct tape and twine before. But I would venture to say we haven’t seen this many guys at their non-traditional positions on the line as many times as we did yesterday. Maybe in Holmgren’s last year where they had 28 lineman on the IR (at least it felt that way). Hand it to Tom Cable. He got those guys ready to play and they opened up holes for the running game that we haven’t seen for a while. They protected Russell brilliantly, gave him time, and gave him lanes to put on a throwing clinic. It also has created some impressive depth for when the starters do come back. Now the backups have significant playing time under their belt and won’t be overwhelmed by the situation if they have to unexpectedly cover for more injuries.
“You’re rather attractive for a beautiful girl with a great body.”: Looking right at you receiving corps. That was some impressive work yesterday, particularly by Golden Tate and Jermaine Kearse. Golden continues to prove that once you put the ball in his hands, he can make people miss and get some big yardage. That catch in the back of the end zone right before halftime was an all-timer. Jermaine has become Russell’s go-to guy and has not disappointed. He was making great catches in pretty good coverage yesterday. Darrell Bevell actually called a trick play and Jermaine made it work to perfection. That’s a guy that is taking full advantage of the opportunity given to him with the injury to Sidney Rice.
“Pick up that blood!”: You probably couldn’t hear it, but that’s exactly what Marshawn Lynch said to that poor soul he stiff-armed into next Thursday. How about the game from Marshawn yesterday? This guy goes for 145 yards and many of those yards were needed on 3rd down for the conversions. Darrell Bevell stopped being Coach Kilmer from Varsity Blues and actually gave the ball to Marshawn at the goal line. Ultimately though, I think he set the tone for the entire team yesterday and that was sorely needed after the very flat performances we’d seen the last 2 weeks.
“Last time I saw a mouth like that, it had a hook in it.”: Then there’s Colin Kaepernick and the Forty Whiners. They obviously want out of that hell hole known as Candlestick Park as soon as possible because they apparently don’t want to have any home playoff games there. The Tattooed One wasn’t kissing his biceps yesterday. Carolina did that for him after each of their 6 sacks. The Whiners managed a gaudy 151 total yards yesterday en route to falling 2.5 games behind the Seahawks in the NFC West. At least when the Hawks only get that many yards, they still win the game.
“You’re not, you’re not good, Al. You stink.”: The only thing that would have put the cherry on top of the delicious sundae yesterday would have been a Cowboys win against the Saints to increase Seattle’s lead over the NFC, but that would mean depending on Tony Romo to forget he’s Tony Romo. 10 for 24 and 128 yards ain’t gonna get it done in the Superdome. Oh, and newsflash Cowboy fans, Rob Ryan wasn’t the reason your defense has been putrid the last couple years. They gave up over 600 yards again last night, making it the 3rd time this year. That puts you by yourselves in the Hall of Suck as no NFL team has ever achieved that dubious feat.
“Yes. Yes. Winter rules”: Winter does rule, because it means playoffs. Speaking of playoffs, Mr. Playoffs from KJR was nice enough to make a brief appearance this morning with some very encouraging news. With the Seahawk win and the 49er loss yesterday, the road to the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs just got a lot clearer and potentially easier. I won’t bore you with all the tiebreaker scenarios here, but it boils down to this. All the Seahawks need to do is win their last 4 home games and the #1 seed is theirs. They can lose both at San Francisco and at the Giants and they’d still clinch the #1 spot. Now, help me out here. How have the Hawks done at home lately? What’s that? They’re 12-0??! The 12th Man has yet to see Russell Wilson suffer defeat at home in his career??! Hmmm….that sounds promising.
“Bless this ship, and all who sail on her. I christen thee The Flying WASP.”: Bless this bandwagon and all who jump aboard it. I’ve heard some grumbling about the Johnny-come-lately contingent of our fan base. I say who cares? I don’t care if they became fans last week or they’ve been fans since 1976. Have you seen the crowd shots they do for our road games? In some places, Hawks fans have been 25% of the crowd. Who in their right mind ever thought we’d see that?! These kinds of things haven’t happened very often around here so I say enjoy it while it lasts. Everybody’s welcome.