SEATTLE – The blackout comes 81/2 months too late.
This is the one the Seattle Seahawks wanted their fans to see, the game where they unveil an overhauled roster to a Qwest Field crowd. This is the one where the starters make a cameo, the rookies show their stuff and the final outcome doesn’t matter.
This one should be a little easier for the fans to take.
Tonight, in a preseason game that will be blacked out locally because it did not sell out, the Seahawks play host to the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football. If the matchup sounds familiar, it’s because the two teams did battle on Dec. 6 in one of the most memorable prime-time finishes in recent memory.
The preseason rematch – the regular-season opener is still 20 days away – won’t have another 198-yard rushing performance from the Cowboys’ Julius Jones or any controversial, fourth-quarter touchdown receptions from Keyshawn Johnson. It will have a lot of unfamiliar names fighting for roster spots.
And it won’t be available locally to anyone who doesn’t happen to be at Qwest Field.
“That’s too bad,” coach Mike Holmgren said. “… We’ve sold a bunch of season tickets, I know that (team officials estimated 40,000). It’s too bad the people who can’t come to the game can’t see it on TV, but those are the rules.”
At some point tonight, Holmgren might wish that he couldn’t watch. Qwest Field is, after all, the same venue that hosted the Monday Night Meltdown. And the Cowboys were the team to take advantage.
To recap, the game saw Seattle go ahead 39-29 with 2:46 remaining before Dallas put together an incredible comeback. In the final 1:45, the Cowboys scored on Johnson’s end zone reception and Jones’ third touchdown of the game. Replays showed that Johnson only had one foot in bounds, but game officials never went to the videotape, securing the Cowboys’ 43-39 victory.
Holmgren was critical of the replay officials for not giving the play a second look – in the final two minutes, coaches cannot formally request a replay – and spent plenty of sleepless nights shortly thereafter.
“I will probably never forget that game,” Holmgren said last Thursday, “regardless of who I’m playing, when I’m playing, where I live. That was a tough one.”
As if adding insult to injury, a group of NFL officials who recently visited the Seahawks at the team’s Cheney training camp confirmed that the referees erred in the game. During a question-and-answer session with the Seattle media, NFL official Bill Vinovich said that the play “should have been reviewed” and added that Johnson appeared to only have one foot in bounds.
Of course, none of that means anything after the fact.
“It proves you can’t rely on everyone doing the right thing. There’s human error,” offensive lineman Robbie Tobeck said last week. “(But) we probably should’ve had that game put away earlier.”
Because many of the starters won’t play past the second quarter, tonight’s game is not about revenge. It’s simply an occasion for the Seahawks, and the fans in attendance, to re-live a nightmare that never seems to go away.
“Last year was last year,” Tobeck said. “This is a new team, and I think a better team than we had last year. Obviously, we’re going to hold something back because we play them during the (regular season, on Oct. 23).”
Regardless of the implications this time of year, tonight’s game should bring some attention to the Monday Night Meltdown. Fortunately for the Seahawks, most of their fans won’t get to watch the replays.
And the players and coaches will try to avoid them too.
“It is a new season,” Holmgren said. “The comparison between what is going to happen Monday night and that game won’t be much.”
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