ARLINGTON, Texas — New venue, same old story for the Seahawks.
Perhaps the same could be said for Seattle’s 2009 season.
Eleven months after suffering one of their worst losses of the 2008 season 20 miles away at Texas Stadium, a new stadium didn’t alter the outcome in 2009.
Playing in the Cowboys’ new, $1.2-billion, state-of-the-art Cowboys Stadium, the Seahawks were again blown out in the Big D, this time by a score of 38-17.
And just as this game felt a lot like the one in Dallas last season, this season is starting to reek of 2008 as well. The Seahawks are now 2-5 following Sunday’s loss, and still have to play three of their next four on the road.
In their past four games, the Seahawks have lost three games by 17, 24, and now 21 points. The other game in that stretch, oddly enough, was a 41-0 victory over Jacksonville. Overall the Seahawks have lost five of six since a shutout win in their season opener, and they are 0-5 when their opponent scores points.
After their latest loss, the Seahawks are a team searching for answers.
“Right now at a time like this, I know I feel physically drained, emotionally drained, a bit frustrated and probably searching for answers too,” quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said.
The Seahawks don’t know the solution for all of their problems, but if they don’t find some answers soon, it will be a long rest of the season
“If we just keep doing what we’re doing, we’ll get the same results,” said Hasselbeck, who completed 22 of 39 pass attempts for 249 yards and two touchdowns. “We’ve got to pick it up, big time. All of us … We’re just not on track right now, we’ve got to do that.”
On one hand, Hasselbeck thinks his team is close to turning things around. On the other hand, some of the mistakes that were happening Sunday would indicate that a solution is not all that close.
“I don’t think we’re that far off, really,” Hasselbeck said. “As strange as that may sound, we’re not that far off. We’ve just got to be better. We’ve got to be better on third down. There were just some errors out there that were juvenile errors. Things you would expect in a preseason game. You just can’t do that, this is professional football.
Adding to the frustration for the Seahawks was the fact that they actually got off to a decent start, which was hardly the case in their last loss.
After giving up a pair of first downs on the first two plays of the game, the Seattle defense forced a punt. And even with a long field — the drive started at the Seattle 6-yard line — the Seahawks managed to get three points out of the drive to take an early lead.
The Cowboys answered with a pair of quick touchdowns, the second of which was set up by a Justin Forsett fumble, but rather than let the game get away from them, the Seahawks bounced right back with a score of their own. Following Dallas’ second touchdown, the Seahawks drove 80 yards and made it 14-10 on a Deion Branch 23-yard touchdown reception.
Dallas added a touchdown on its final possession of the half, then extended the lead in the third quarter with a pair of touchdowns, the second coming on an 82-yard punt return by Patrick Crayton that blew the game wide open at 35-10.
The Seahawks capitalized on a Tony Romo fumble to score a fourth-quarter touchdown, but the 4-yard touchdown pass from Hasselbeck to Justin Griffith was too little too late.
Now sitting at 2-5 after their latest loss, the Seahawks are miles from where they figured they would be at the start of the season when the focus was a return to the playoffs.
“Any time you lose it’s frustrating,” said receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh. “I look at our team and I didn’t think we would be in this situation, and we are, so there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t change it. We have nine games left, let’s see what we can do with the nine remaining.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
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