It Couldn't Last Forever

That’s right; the Seattle Seahawks were eliminated by the Chicago Bears on Sunday by a score of 35-24. The Seahawks were the underdog and they just got outplayed on the field. There was hope, but they couldn’t cheat the odds again this week.

On my last blog I mentioned two “X Factors” that could play a large part of the outcome of the game. The first was special teams. Leon Washington had five kick returns for a total of 143 yards. That number would be amazing except in order for a team to receive a kick return, the opposing team would have to have scored….and that Chicago did. Golden Tate also had one punt return for 11 yards, nothing impressive. For Chicago, Danieal Manning had one kick return for 18 yards while Devin Hester had one kick return for six yards. Devin Hester also had two punt returns for 30 yards. Looking over the numbers, Seattle did win the special teams battle.

The other “X Factor” I talked about was which Seattle Seahawks team would show up and play. The Seahawks are notorious for playing horrible on the road. For whatever reason, when there is no crowd cheering them on, the Seahawks have a hard time to get motivated. Blown coverage’s and not picking up your man put the Seahawks in an early hole that they could never dig themselves out of. The Seahawks had no answers for the Bears in the first half, giving up 21 unanswered points. But I will give them some credit; Seattle did out play Chicago in the second half of the game by outscoring them 24-14. It was just too little too late, but at least the Seahawks did not quit. They fought until the very end, scoring three touchdowns in the fourth quarter alone.

The main reason we lost the game was that the Chicago Bear’s defense was just too good. They have one of the better defenses in the league, and on this day, they played like it. Seattle rushed the ball 12 times for a total of a whooping 34 yards. That is an average of 2.8 yards per rush. That is absolutely horrible. Since we could not run the ball, or since Chicago’s run defense was just amazing, we had to pass the ball. Matt Hasselbeck threw for 258 yards and three touchdowns. He also had no interceptions. That is some very respectable numbers. A lot of fans put all the blame on their teams QB when the team is playing poorly, but Hasselbeck deserves his credit. He is the leader of this team and he manned up for both playoff games. The only problem was that Hasselbeck attempted 46 passes. Our offense was just too lopsided. A team wants to be close to 50-50 on their run/pass plays, but when Chicago is stopping our run game and we attempted almost four times as many passes and rushes, bad things happen.

Unfortunately, the Seahawks defense was not as affective. The Bears rushed the ball 45 times for a total of 176 yards. That is an average of 3.9 yards per carry. That is a great number. Jay Cutler threw the ball for 274 yards and two touchdowns. He only attempted 28 passes. Now I know in my last paragraph I said a team wants the pass/rush plays be about the same number, but when a team jumps out to an early lead, it is much safer to rush the ball then throw it…especially when you are averaging four yards a carry.

So that was the game. It is kind of hard to point out too many positives when the Seahawks just got outplayed so badly. I know the score does not seem as bad of a loss, but when a team starts the fourth quarter down 28-3, it’s just a bad game. They did keep fighting and managed to score 21 points in the final quarter, but it just was not enough. But that is something to point out, for every loss this season, the Seahawks would loss by over two touchdowns. This game they only lost by 11 points. It’s nothing much, but at least they ended that horrible statistic that many sport reporters would point out in their mocking ways.

All in all, the Seahawks won two very huge games, one to beat the Rams to win the NFC West during the regular season, and one win against the defending Super Bowl champs, the New Orleans Saints. Let’s just hope they can keep this positive momentum and start out strong next season.