Hawks Open Season With HUGE Win!
By author
He who laughs last, laughs hardest.
My favorite part of the game yesterday was actually after the game itself. I was trying to leave the North lot across from Tiki Bob’s but was moving very slow due to the extremely unorganized exit strategy at Qwest Field. A group of 49er fans were in a big black truck next to me, and one of them stuck his head out the back, passenger side window and started yelling about the past, how many rings they had, and Jerry Rice. Within seconds this spineless fan was flooded in a sea of rowdy Seahawks fans and found himself unable to compete. At that time our eyes met, and I began laughing out loud, and he simply shook his head and then dropped it. We both knew what happened. After a few more seconds of blistering comments from Seahawk fans exiting the lot, the broken down 49er fan sulked back into the back seat and slowly rolled up the tinted window unable to face defeat. It looked exactly like the way the game had unfolded.
NOBODY on a national level picked the Seahawks to win. The 49ers have been the odds on favorite to win the division since the retirement of Kurt Warner (whom I do not miss at all). With all the roster movement and new faces, the Seahawks looked like they might just be going through the motions this year. But yesterday made it look like Pete Carroll and John Schneider actually did have a plan, and they are not tanking the season in order to get one more high draft pick as many have speculated.
The Defense was possessed at times and seemed to generate more momentum and pressure as the day went on. The 49ers were 1-15 on 1st downs. That is the most impressive stat I have seen this defense put up in quite sometime. It was sure great to see “Big Play Babs” do what he does best after nearly losing his roster spot. He just seems to have a knack for being at the right place at the right time. And Trufant looked like the superstar I nearly forgot about picking up an interception for a touchdown and having a generally great game limiting Crabtree to 2 receptions for 12yards.
Matt Hasselbeck looked good as well. I couldn’t believe his interception on the very first play of the game, however, nobody bounces back from a mistake like Hasselbeck. He is a savvy veteran who knows how to overcome adversity, and he did finishing with 3 touchdowns one of which was on the ground. Hass also spread the ball around completing passes to 8 different receivers. To me this represents an offensive system rather than one superstar throwing it to another superstar all game.
If you didn’t recognize the smell, it was the smell of coaching. Mike Holmgren wore it like a strong cologne, and Jim Mora was the industrial strength fan that blew any remaining wisps of it out of the stadium. Big thanks to Pete Carroll and the rest of his staff for filling our stadium with the aromatic essence of a smell long forgotten: a win.
The best news from yesterday is that we have the Broncos next week and actually have a chance of starting the season off with two wins in a row. I must say that I was surprised at how well the Hawks played at times yesterday. A little consistency mixed with a little confidence might be the recipe this team needs to really go on a run in arguably the weakest Division in the NFL. Cross your fingers everyone. The season may not be as long as many initially thought.