SEATTLE – Their 12-game home winning streak snapped, their pride temporarily damaged, the Seattle Seahawks moved around the Qwest Field locker room in typical fashion late Sunday afternoon.
They had just suffered a humbling, 31-13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, and yet the members of a team that hadn’t lost a regular-season home game since Dec. 6, 2004, resisted the urge to sulk.
“We’re not going to let it get us down,” cornerback Marcus Trufant said. “We know the game of football is up and down, so we’ve just got to come in next week and try to get it done again.”
Even when quarterback Matt Hasselbeck emerged from the training room on crutches and moped toward the exit, none of his teammates gave any hint of despair.
“We’ve got confidence in (backup quarterback Seneca Wallace), and so to go out there and just go, ‘Ahhhh,’ that would be a little bit of an overreaction,” center Robbie Tobeck said. “You still have to go out and do your job.”
While it was just one loss, Sunday’s defeat probably felt like more than that to most of the fans who witnessed it – many of whom were long gone by the time the final gun went off.
The Seahawks lost a game, a home winning streak and a quarterback. The extent of Hasselbeck’s injury was not known immediately after the game, but it appears significant enough that Wallace could make his first NFL start this Sunday at Kansas City.
The initial diagnosis was that Hasselbeck suffered a sprained right knee, but coach Mike Holmgren would not confirm or deny anything after the loss.
“I’m not saying anything about what it is,” Holmgren responded tersely when asked about Hasselbeck’s status.
The Seahawks were involved in a 10-10 tie when Hasselbeck suffered the injury on the third play of the third quarter, and Minnesota then scored touchdowns on each of its next two drives to pull away. A defensive touchdown that resulted from a Wallace fumble in the end zone accounted for the final score.
“You can’t win every game,” Trufant said. “We didn’t play our best ball (Sunday). You always want to win in front of your home fans. … We didn’t get it done.”
The Seahawks (4-2) struggled even before Hasselbeck’s injury, but they did enough good things to stay in the game.
A 72-yard pass from Hasselbeck to Darrell Jackson and a Josh Brown field goal helped send the Seahawks into halftime in a 10-10 tie.
The second half didn’t start well for Seattle, as Hasselbeck threw an incomplete pass and got sacked to set up a long third down at the Seattle 28. As Hasselbeck released a pass that would fall incomplete, Vikings linebacker E.J. Henderson rolled off a Mack Strong block and hit the side of Hasselbeck’s right knee. Hasselbeck fell to the turf in obvious pain, at one point rolling over and slamming his hand to the ground several times.
Trainers helped him off the field as Seattle’s punt team came on, then the quarterback was seated on a bench and surrounded by nine members of the team’s medical staff. A few minutes later, he walked to the locker room without assistance and underwent a preliminary series of tests.
“At that point, we were just hoping he was all right and he was going to pull through,” Strong said. “But it changes the dynamic of the game a little bit because you’ve got a guy who hasn’t played a lot.”
Coach Mike Holmgren offered: “When you lose your quarterback, that’s a fairly substantial thing.”
By the time Wallace entered the game for his first series, the Vikings had scored on a halfback-option pass to take a 17-10 lead. Wallace, who had thrown just two passes all season coming into the game, misfired on his first four passes before he got into a groove.
But it was too little too late. The Seahawks fell behind 24-10 on Chester Taylor’s 95-yard touchdown run before Wallace got the ball again, and although he led the team on a long drive, Seattle had to settle for a field goal.
A few minutes later, Wallace was blindsided by linebacker Ben Leber on a blitz and dropped the football in the Seahawks’ end zone. Minnesota defensive lineman Kevin Williams fell on the ball for a touchdown and a 31-13 lead with 7:48 left on the clock, and the game was effectively over.
“It was a tough one,” Holmgren said. “Give Minnesota credit; they played a fine football game.”
Holmgren did not sound overly concerned with the possibility that the Seahawks might have to play a game without Hasselbeck, even though Wallace would be making his first NFL start.
“I’m not nervous,” Holmgren said. “If we would have to play without Matt, it will probably change some things, yes. But I’m not nervous. Seneca’s a good player, and with a week of practice under his belt, he’s expected to go in and play the position as well.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
