Published: Monday, October 12, 2009
Seahawks’ one-two punch
Seattle wide receivers T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Nate Burleson combine to catch 11 passes for 175 yards and four touchdowns
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Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
Seattle wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh (right) catches a 13-yard touchdown pass, beating Jacksonville cornerback Rashean Mathis on the third-quarter play in Sunday’s game at Qwest Field.
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Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
Seattle wide receiver Nate Burleson (81) breaks away from Jacksonville’s Gerald Alexander on a 44-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter.
SEATTLE — There was no frustration this time around for T.J. Houshmandzadeh.
No postgame press conference remarks about how he should be getting the ball more. About how he is frustrated that he isn’t contributing more, especially as his team loses games.
Nope. On this Sunday Houshmandzadeh was all smiles following the Seahawks’ 41-0 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Houshmandzadeh, the Seahawks’ marquee offseason signing, caught five passes for 77 yards and his first two touchdowns as a Seahawk. Combined with the six-catch, 98-yard day turned in by Nate Burleson, it was just the kind of receiver production the Seahawks were hoping for when they signed Houshmandzadeh away from Cincinnati.
“Obviously winning solves a lot of problems, cures a lot of emotions you might have that aren’t right,” Houshmandzadeh said.
Houshmandzadeh scored his first touchdown in the second quarter to give the Seahawks a 13-0 lead in what had up to that point been a tight defensive struggle. A player who has frequently said he can always get open in one-on-one coverage, Houshmandzadeh did just that with the help of a convincing pump fake from Matt Hasselbeck, and scored on a 34-yard pass.
Houshmandzadeh added another touchdown, this time from 13 yards out in the third quarter, to help Seattle put the game away. As he jogged off the field to cheers of “Hoooosh” Houshmandzadeh was all smiles, a stark contrast to his mood after the last three losses.
“I was frustrated,” he admitted. “It’s just frustrating when you lose games and you feel like you could do more to help. When you win games, you might be frustrated at the way you played, but you’re happy because the team won. But when you lose games and as an individual you feel like you could have done more, it’s a little frustrating. I had to look at myself too. I wasn’t running routes the way I normally run routes, and I’ve got to get back to running routes how I run routes. So you’ve got to examine yourself a little bit too.”
Houshmandzadeh said one of the two touchdown balls will go to his youngest daughter, whose birthday was Sunday.
“That’s my first touchdown here and she turned 7 today,” he said. “That can’t happen any better.”
Burleson was equally impressive, giving Hasselbeck a solid one-two punch in his first game back from a fracture rib. Burleson, who is barely a year removed from surgery to repair a torn ACL, had a pair of touchdowns.
He punctuated his first touchdown, a 44-yard catch and run in the second quarter, by heaving what might have been the longest-thrown pass of the day deep into the stands behind the south end zone.
“Jim [Mora] before the game kind of pulled me aside,” Burleson said, “and was like, ‘Look man, just go out there and let it loose and have fun. Be who you are. Don’t be conservative because that’s not you. You’re a high energy guy and you get guys going on this team. Just kind of do whatever comes to mind.’ And that was the first thing I was thinking about, just kind of heaving that thing up in the end zone.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
No postgame press conference remarks about how he should be getting the ball more. About how he is frustrated that he isn’t contributing more, especially as his team loses games.
Nope. On this Sunday Houshmandzadeh was all smiles following the Seahawks’ 41-0 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Houshmandzadeh, the Seahawks’ marquee offseason signing, caught five passes for 77 yards and his first two touchdowns as a Seahawk. Combined with the six-catch, 98-yard day turned in by Nate Burleson, it was just the kind of receiver production the Seahawks were hoping for when they signed Houshmandzadeh away from Cincinnati.
“Obviously winning solves a lot of problems, cures a lot of emotions you might have that aren’t right,” Houshmandzadeh said.
Houshmandzadeh scored his first touchdown in the second quarter to give the Seahawks a 13-0 lead in what had up to that point been a tight defensive struggle. A player who has frequently said he can always get open in one-on-one coverage, Houshmandzadeh did just that with the help of a convincing pump fake from Matt Hasselbeck, and scored on a 34-yard pass.
Houshmandzadeh added another touchdown, this time from 13 yards out in the third quarter, to help Seattle put the game away. As he jogged off the field to cheers of “Hoooosh” Houshmandzadeh was all smiles, a stark contrast to his mood after the last three losses.
“I was frustrated,” he admitted. “It’s just frustrating when you lose games and you feel like you could do more to help. When you win games, you might be frustrated at the way you played, but you’re happy because the team won. But when you lose games and as an individual you feel like you could have done more, it’s a little frustrating. I had to look at myself too. I wasn’t running routes the way I normally run routes, and I’ve got to get back to running routes how I run routes. So you’ve got to examine yourself a little bit too.”
Houshmandzadeh said one of the two touchdown balls will go to his youngest daughter, whose birthday was Sunday.
“That’s my first touchdown here and she turned 7 today,” he said. “That can’t happen any better.”
Burleson was equally impressive, giving Hasselbeck a solid one-two punch in his first game back from a fracture rib. Burleson, who is barely a year removed from surgery to repair a torn ACL, had a pair of touchdowns.
He punctuated his first touchdown, a 44-yard catch and run in the second quarter, by heaving what might have been the longest-thrown pass of the day deep into the stands behind the south end zone.
“Jim [Mora] before the game kind of pulled me aside,” Burleson said, “and was like, ‘Look man, just go out there and let it loose and have fun. Be who you are. Don’t be conservative because that’s not you. You’re a high energy guy and you get guys going on this team. Just kind of do whatever comes to mind.’ And that was the first thing I was thinking about, just kind of heaving that thing up in the end zone.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
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