SEATTLE – More than the 32 times he carried the football or the 195 yards he gained, Shaun Alexander gave thanks Sunday for something he hadn’t experienced in a while.
Fatigue.
“It’s a good feeling to be tired like this,” he said. “That’s cool.”
It was cool to the Seahawks, too, who decided the best way to attack the Carolina Panthers’ porous run defense was to – surprise! – run. Alexander, who got the ball just 28 times combined in the previous two games (including 12 rushes last week at Arizona), had all but nine of the Seahawks’ carries Sunday in their 23-17 victory over the Panthers, who entered the game ranked 28th in the NFL in run defense.
Alexander broke long runs twice, a 38-yarder in the second quarter and a 44-yard romp in the fourth quarter that set up a field goal that gave the Seahawks a 13-point lead.
Last week during practice, Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren had more than hinted that he would run the ball more, even though he’d used Alexander sparingly in the previous two games.
The Seahawks ran on six of their first nine plays Sunday and Alexander got the ball on five of those.
While Alexander might have been shouting “Finally!” to himself, he wouldn’t dispute Holmgren’s strategy in the previous games.
“I believe in Coach Holmgren and that’s just the bottom line for me,” Alexander said. “I have decided to live like that and believe in it and not be a person who is going to second-guess somebody. I think this team has the talent to win the Super Bowl and I think the two ways for us to lose that is to start second-guessing people – that usually kills people – and to give up when you’re going through some tough times.
“Today, my number was called and I had to take advantage of it.”
His Seahawks teammates, starved for their first victory since Sept. 26, have been waiting for such a performance.
”He knows that every game he could carry this team if they want him too. He’s just been what this team has needed him to do, and that’s be a team player,” fullback Heath Evans said. “We’ve all seen it before, and we were waiting to see when it would happen again.”
Besides the long runs – the 44-yarder was his longest this season – Alexander also had gains of 15 and 23 yards, plus a 3-yard pass reception for a touchdown in the first quarter and a 4-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.
“We knew if he got in the open he could make guys miss,” Carolina safety Mike Minter said. “He’s a deceptive guy. He really isn’t a powerful runner, but he’s a guy who finds a crease and can take off. He’s got great vision. He’s got great balance. He made some great plays.”
Alexander got even more carries than the Seahawks had planned after his backup, Maurice Morris, suffered a concussion on the opening kickoff and missed the rest of the game. With Alexander having settled into a rhythm early, the Hawks kept handing him the ball.
“You start the game and if you have some success, or if you’re at least not getting stuffed, then you will stay with things,” Holmgren said. “We were able to pop a couple of runs and he was running hard, I thought.”
Hasselbeck credited the running game with his own effectiveness in the air, where he completed 21 of 30 passes, including his first nine before an incompletion early in the second quarter.
“Our running game helps everything,” Hasselbeck said. “The key for us in the running game was to slow down their pass rush. That’s one of the things that has been a strength for them, and a good way to slow them down is to run right at them.”
The Panthers were expecting it, having heard during the week about Holmgren’s intention to run the ball more, especially defensive tackle Kindal Moorehead. He played college ball with Alexander at Alabama, and he was waiting for his buddy Sunday with open arms and a little trash talk across the line of scrimmage.
“Some of my little brothers were asking, ‘Are they really going to give you the ball like that?’ ” Alexander said. “It was good to play against somebody that is so close to me and go out there and make them not have a good day.”
Better than that, it was good to feel exhausted.
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