Whether it was because he wasn’t feeling well, because he had just thrown an interception on the team’s last drive or because he suddenly realized that, with their 26-20 loss to the Arizona Cardinals at Qwest Field on Sunday, the Seattle Seahawks’ four-year run as NFC West champions is over, quarterback Matt Hasselbeck kneeled on the sideline after the game and puked. Also:
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He was surrounded by six or seven of the team’s trainers and doctors who shielded him from prying eyes as he spilled his Sunday brunch, then was ushered into the locker room by sympathetic administrators who had just watched him play for the first time in six weeks.
Hasselbeck has been attempting to recover from a pinched nerve in his back that has created a weakness in his leg, and he was able to rehabilitate the injury enough to play against the Cardinals, who with a 7-3 record are on their way to their first division title of any kind since 1975, when they were the St. Louis Cardinals.
But it was not without considerable effort by Hasselbeck.
More than an hour after the game, while his teammates had showered, dressed, spoken with the media and left the locker room, Hasselbeck still had not washed away the dirt from the team’s third consecutive loss, which dropped Seattle’s record to 2-8, its worst start since 1992.
Hasselbeck was, he said, getting an IV, ostensibly to replace the fluids he lost when he was vomiting.
And when he met with the media more than 70 minutes after the end of the game, Hasselbeck was clearly not himself.
Usually engaging and articulate, the 10-year veteran seemed disoriented, unable or unwilling at times to accurately describe what had happened during the game.
“I don’t know. I don’t really have an answer for you. I’m sorry,” Hasselbeck said at one point, a very unHasselbeck-like reply.
When he was asked if would be able to play again next Sunday, when the Seahawks host the Washington Redskins, he said, “I think so. I will find out tomorrow.”
Observers are left to wonder if it any longer is worth it for Hasselbeck to endure so much in order for him to play, particularly since coach Mike Holmgren essentially conceded the season after the game.
The Seahawks still are not mathematically eliminated, but Holmgren said on Friday that this was a must-win game.
Now that they have fallen five games behind the Cardinals (7-3) with six games left to play, Holmgren talked like a man with a new mission.
“Now our goals have changed,” Holmgren said. “We came into the season with very high expectations. It has been a difficult season. I will talk to them at length about it tomorrow, and we’ll establish some new goals. How they approach it is going to be very important.”
Because Holmgren has not yet revealed what the new goals are going to be, his players did not seem to know how to react to such a sweeping statement.
Most said they would continue to prepare the same way and focus on winning as many of their remaining games as they could.
“They won the division, that is plain and simple,” Julian Peterson said. “That is something we have to deal with. We had a good run with it.
“But we are not going to sit there and be like, ‘OK, this is the end of the season.’ We still got six more games to go out there and improve on and then focus on next year and winning the West again.”
The Seahawks lost this game first and foremost because they could not stop Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner, who completed 19 of his first 21 passes and threw for 395 yards. Receivers Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald combined for 23 receptions and 337 yards.
The Seahawks lost because, despite the return of Hasselbeck and receiver Deion Branch, the offense continued to struggle, totaling just 196 yards, including 43 on the ground.
And they lost because, when they absolutely needed a score, Hasselbeck could not make the play.
Trailing 26-7, the Seahawks scored two consecutive touchdowns – both on T.J. Duckett runs – to produce an exciting ending.
The first touchdown was set up by Josh Wilson’s 56-yard kickoff return, and the second was set up by a Warner fumble after he was sacked by Brandon Mebane.
Cheered on by a vocal – if diminished – crowd, the defense got two consecutive stops in the fourth quarter to give the Seahawks an opportunity to pull out an improbable victory.
But Hasselbeck ended the first drive with an incomplete pass to Branch that was almost intercepted by Ralph Brown.
And the Seahawks’ final possession, with two minutes remaining, was quickly extinguished when Hasselbeck tried to go Branch again and was intercepted by rookie Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Hasselbeck’s third interception of the game.
“I wish I could have finished the game stronger,” Hasselbeck said. “I feel like I let my teammates down that way.”
blogs.thenewstribune.com/seahawks
BY THE NUMBERS
2-8
Seahawks’ record, their worst after 10 games since 1992, when they finished 2-14
19
Completions for Arizona’s Kurt Warner in his first 21 attempts (90.5 percent)
395
Passing yards by Warner, the most Seattle has given up since Dec. 6, 1998 (418, Vinny Testaverde, Jets) and seventh-most allowed in franchise history
337
Combined receiving yards for Arizona’s Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald (on 23 catches)
1.9
Rushing yards per carry for the Seahawks (22 carries, 43 yards)
5
Consecutive games Arizona lost in Seattle before Sunday
33
Seasons since the Cardinals won a division title (1975, NFC East)
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