SEATTLE – The 11-yard run that made Shaun Alexander the Seattle Seahawks’ all-time leading rusher was such a critical part of the Seahawks’ 13-10 victory on Sunday that the record, by then, was an afterthought.
Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
What mattered at the time was that it moved the ball to the Dallas Cowboys’ 14-yard line with a minute and a half left in the game, and three plays later the Seahawks scored a touchdown to tie the score.
Four plays after that, Seattle won the NFL game at Qwest Field with a field goal as time expired, and Alexander’s milestone was the farthest thing from anybody’s mind.
Even his.
“This game is about getting better every week and getting into the playoffs and having this city win its first Super Bowl,” Alexander said. “I wasn’t going to allow myself to think about just that one thing.
“My goals are much bigger than that,” he said. “The biggest thing was that no matter what happened in this game was for us to get the W. That is what it is always about.”
OK, then, but just for the record, that 11-yard run leapfrogged Alexander past both Curt Warner and Chris Warren at the top of Seattle’s all-time rushing list.
His 21st and final carry of the game, it gave him 61 yards for the day and 6,713 for his career. Warren had held the team record with 6,706 yards, one yard ahead of Warner, who set the record before him at 6,705.
“I’ve been on the field for a lot of those yards, and that’s a record that offensive linemen will share with him,” said Seattle center Robbie Tobeck, who became a full-time starter here the same year Alexander did, in 2001.
“We talked about that this week. We wanted to get that for him. I’m just glad that he was able to get it,” Tobeck said. “It’s great for him.”
Fullback Mack Strong, a 13-year veteran, has paved the way for many of those yards as well.
“There’s a lot of yards out there that I feel I’ve had an opportunity to be a part of,” said Strong, who also blocked for Warren. “I consider it to be an accomplishment for all of us, offensive line, tight ends, myself, because it definitely takes all of us working together for Shaun to be able to get those yards.
“But he’s very deserving of it at the same time,” Strong said. “He’s worked extremely hard, and he’s very talented, and he uses his talent to the best of his ability.”
For the first 59 minutes of the game, it seemed Alexander wouldn’t get the record – or the victory.
With Seattle’s top two wide receivers out with injuries and Alexander leading the NFL in rushing coming into the game, Dallas sold out to stop the run. On almost every play the Cowboys had eight defenders “in the box.” That is, they had a safety come up to become, in effect, a fifth linebacker in Dallas’ 3-4 defense.
On several plays they had nine players at the point of attack, and on at least two occasions the Cowboys had 10 defenders within four yards of the line of scrimmage.
“It was like a family reunion,” Alexander said.
“They were not going to let us run the ball,” Seattle Pro Bowl guard Steve Hutchinson said. “They made us one-dimensional, and it was tough sledding.
“But this team is different since I’ve been here the last four years,” Hutchinson said. “At the end, I don’t know if we’d have mustered up whatever it was going to take to do that in past years. We just found a way to win.”
When Seattle’s offense took the field with 2:01 left in the game, the Seahawks trailed 10-3 and had only 220 yards in total offense. Alexander had 20 carries for 50 yards. Seattle’s young backup receivers who were forced into action had looked, well, young. They were 81 yards from the goal line.
Yet, there was confidence, or at least inspiration.
“Even quiet Walter said something,” said Alexander, referring to All-Pro tackle Walter Jones. “He said, ‘Y’all score or I’m going to kill you.’ ”
Properly motivated, quarterback Matt Hasselbeck completed back-to-back passes of 22 yards each to wide receiver Jerheme Urban and tight end Jeremy Stevens. A pass interference call took the ball to the Dallas 25.
Alexander’s 11-yard run, his longest of the day by five yards, got it to the 14, wide receiver D.J. Hackett made a spectacular catch at the 1 on the next play. Two plays later, Alexander again proved useful, faking a run while Hasselbeck found tight end Ryan Hannam for the tying touchdown with 40 seconds left.
“Down there at the goal line, obviously Shaun is our go-to guy,” Hannam said of Alexander, who has 12 rushing touchdowns this season. “Teams are really going to be keying on him. We just ran a play-action pass and Matt put the ball in the perfect spot where I was the only one who could get it.”
It surely wasn’t a pretty victory, certainly not from an offensive standpoint, even less so in the running game.
“They are a very well-coached team,” Alexander said of the Cowboys, whose 3-4 defensive front was something Seattle hadn’t seen yet this season. “Dallas really did well. It was exciting playing a game like this, where we are fighting tooth and nail for everything.”
So to heck with style points and all-time club records.
“I don’t care. I’m just excited we won,” said Alexander, who had his lowest output of the season. “We’re going to come up with some big wins, and today was awesome.”
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