SEATTLE – In all likelihood, the Super Bowl hopes of the Seattle Seahawks now rest on a quarterback who has barely played in four years, let alone won anything.
To be sure, there will be an examination of Matt Hasselbeck’s right knee today, but the way he left the field and the sideline on Sunday there is little doubt that he has an injury of some significance.
If so, it means the spotlight moves to Seneca Wallace, who threw almost as many passes Sunday (25) as he had in his first three-plus years in the NFL (27).
Though his athletic talent is beyond question, Wallace’s mettle as a big-time quarterback has yet to be tested, and the Seahawks are a team with championship aspirations.
His team, his coach and his city expect to win – starting six days from today, when the Seahawks go to Kansas City, where they are 2-18 since 1980.
“I’ve got to be mentally prepared now. I have no other choice,” Wallace said.
Wallace said all the right things after Sunday’s NFL game at Qwest Field, which Seattle lost 31-13 to Minnesota. He was reasonably poised behind the microphone, looked his questioners in the eye, and spoke in a calm, fluid manner.
He talked about playing one game at a time, about working real hard in practice, about how this could be a great opportunity, about how football is a team sport.
But there was still something that betrayed the fact that he’s never been there before, not when it means this much, light years removed from Iowa State, Sacramento City Junior College and Sacramento’s Rancho Cordova High School.
He didn’t exactly deny it.
“The biggest challenge is adjusting,” Wallace said. “You’re going to see a lot of different things. When you go a whole season without playing, and the next season you step in and you have to play games and win eight or nine ballgames, I think the biggest challenge is adjusting, and adjusting quick.”
Of course, NFL history is littered with stories of quarterbacks who came out of nowhere and led their teams to glory. In fact, the Seahawks have one of their own in Dave Krieg, who took over as the full-time starter for the first time in 1983 and guided the Seahawks to the AFC Championship game.
But for every story like that, there are dozens of teams whose realistic title hopes went up in smoke when the quarterback went down. For just one recent example, see Philadelphia Eagles, 2005, Donovan McNabb.
One thing Wallace has going for him is the confidence of his coach.
Because of Wallace’s athleticism, coach Mike Holmgren has been peppered with a million suggestions from the adoring public about how to use him, including everything from wide receiver to punt returner.
That is not surprising given the fact that Wallace was recruited out of high school as a defensive back and ran for 15 touchdowns and almost 1,000 yards in two seasons as Iowa State’s quarterback.
Holmgren used Wallace for one gadget play in the 2005 playoffs, in which Wallace lined up as wide receiver and caught a 28-yard pass to set up a touchdown in the NFC Championship game.
But ever since the Seahawks selected Wallace in the fourth round of the 2003 draft, Holmgren has steadfastly groomed and referred to Wallace as a quarterback.
“I’m not nervous,” Holmgren said of the possibility of Wallace starting at quarterback. “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 didn’t get to practice very much last week – with a week of practice he’s expected to go in and play the position as well. It is what it is.”
Wallace was neither brilliant nor atrocious on Sunday. He entered the game in the third quarter with his team behind 17-10 and a running game that remained AWOL. It was a tough spot, and he completed 14 of 25 passes for 134 yards and two interceptions.
Hold your judgment. It’s never fair at this level to anoint or crucify a backup based on how he does during the game in which the starter got hurt. It is hard enough to get one quarterback ready for the dozens of situations he might face against an NFL defense, and the No. 2 guy gets almost no game-situation practice during the week.
However, if Hasselbeck is out, Wallace will get all the reps this week in practice, and the game plan will be built around his talents.
Then we’ll see, although the Seahawks have a lot of other things to fix in addition to the quarterback position. If the running game and the pass defense don’t improve, for example, it won’t make a lick of difference how well Wallace plays, and the Seahawks understand that.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” center Robbie Tobeck said. “The best thing we can do for Seneca coming in and being the guy right now is to do our jobs and do it at a high level and do it the best we can do it.
“What Seneca needs from me is to make the right calls and block my guy, and that will allow him to do his job. And we didn’t do that today.”
And yet, the quarterback will reap the glory or take the heat. So even though Wallace has played in all of eight games in four years, none as a starter and none as a key part of a victory, he will be expected to lift this team if Hasselbeck is out for any length of time.
It has been said that the most popular person in an NFL city is the backup quarterback – until he becomes the starter.
Wallace may be about to test that, and there will be no grace period.
“Yes, you have to have a different role,” Wallace said of the change in how he will be viewed. “The role is to win ballgames.”
“It’s the toughest job.”
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