EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Charlie Whitehurst finished Seattle’s impressive win over the New York Giants on Sunday.
But will he start for the Seahawks when they travel to Cleveland to take on Mike Holmgren’s Browns in two weeks?
Seattle coach Pete Carroll still has some time to answer that question.
For now, he’s more concerned about getting starting quarterback Tarvaris Jackson healthy. Jackson helped Seattle get out to a 14-7 lead in the first quarter and finished 15-for-22 passing for 166 yards, with a touchdown and an interception.
However, Jackson had to leave the game midway through the third quarter after suffering a strained pectoral muscle while being tackled at the end of an 11-yard run on a quarterback option. Jackson appeared to grab the inside of his right arm in pain as he left the field.
“We’re thinking he’s got a strained pec, and we don’t know what that means,” Carroll said. “So we’ve got to do the MRI stuff and all of that. Fortunately, it’s bye time. And we can take advantage of a whole extra week to get him back.”
Whitehurst was solid filling in for Jackson, finishing 11-for-19 passing for 149 yards, including a 27-yard touchdown pass to Doug Baldwin that put Seattle ahead for good, 29-25, with a little over two minutes remaining to play.
“I don’t think Charlie did anything phenomenal today,” Carroll said. “I thought he did what he does. He’s a good football player. And he knows our system and he handled himself well. He did a beautiful job of getting rid of the football and not taking sacks when he could avoid it. And he made a couple great throws.”
Whitehurst said he was helped by coming into games last year against Atlanta and Tampa Bay in similar situations when Matt Hasselbeck got injured.
“Experience is kind of the No. 1 thing for quarterbacks,” Whitehurst said. “I felt pretty comfortable coming in. It took us a while to get going there, really until the last drive when we went the length of the field and scored. But sometimes it takes a while, and luckily we made the play when we had to.”
Even though Jackson did not finish the game, Carroll praised his toughness, and said his play continues to show improvement.
“There’s been a lot of people that have talked about Tarvaris and had a lot of opinions about him, but this guy’s a baller,” Carroll said. “He’s a football player. He’s tough as can be, and he can make plays and make things happen.”
No matter who starts at quarterback in two weeks, fullback Michael Robinson said the Seahawks should be thankful that both know the system and can move the offense.
“That’s why you have two quarterbacks,” Robinson said. “When T-Jack (Jackson) was struggling, everybody wanted Charlie. And last year when Charlie was struggling, everybody wanted somebody else.
“You know what? You’ve got two guys who can play. And really we have three (Josh Portis). And that’s a great problem to have.”
Robinson, a former quarterback at Penn State, would have been the next guy up if Whitehurst was injured because Portis was not on the active roster.
“I was ready if they called on me,” Robinson joked.
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