The Seahawks, playing at home against the Bears, came out looking flat at the start of this game and dug themselves into a hole early in the game. This game reminded me of the way the game started when the then winless Saints visited Seattle earlier this year.
That was the game where the Seahawks started with the ball and went three and out. On third down Matt Hasslebeck was sacked for a loss and then on fourth down, Seattle new long snapper, making his first appearance as a Seahawk, proceeded to hike the ball into the turf just out of reach of the placeholder. The Saints recovered the ball and rumbled into the endzone for an early touchdown.
The Seahawks never did recover from the poor start against the Saints as the Saints went on to score the first 21 points and ride them to their first victory of the year.
This game looked to have all of the same markings. The Seahawks kicked the ball off to start the game this time though. Upon the short kick that only went to the Bears 27 yard line, Devin Hester proceed to return it to the 50 yard line.
Rex Grossman then completed a short pass for 7 yards on first down to the Seattle 43 yard line. On the next play, Cedric Benson, the Chicago running back known best for NOT making long runs or big plays, proceeded to break his longest run of the year for 43 yards and a touchdown.
Just like that, Seattle is down 7 to nothing. Next, Seattle went 3 and out and punted the ball to the Bears. The bears made it into the Seattle red zone and put another 3 points on the board.
Seattle was now down 10 to nothing just about half way through the first quarter. But, this is not the same Seahawks team who featured Shaun Alexander at running back and were a run first team at the time. No, this time, Holmgren came out calling passing plays and letting Matt Hasslebeck work from the shotgun.
Matt had his best performance of the year and the running game once again opened up for the Seahawks backup running back Mo Mo (Maurice Morris). Seattle regained their composure and came back to beat the Bears with a final score of 30 to 27 and now Seattle remains atop the division with a 6 and 5 record.
