SEATTLE – Help could be on the way this week, when the Seattle Seahawks expect star wide receiver Darrell Jackson to start easing back into practice after missing seven games with a knee injury.
Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
But once again on Sunday, the Seahawks’ receivers proved just how productive they can be without him.
There was Joe Jurevicius, catching a team-high eight passes, scoring two touchdowns and matching his career high of 137 receiving yards.
There was Bobby Engram, quietly doing the dirty work underneath with six receptions for 34 yards.
And then there was D.J. Hackett, making the most important catch of the game with a 38-yard catch in overtime.
“Obviously we’ll be excited to get (Jackson) back,” running back Shaun Alexander said after Seattle’s receiving corps rose to the occasion in a 24-21 overtime win over the New York Giants, “but what Joe and Hack have done while he’s been gone has been amazing.”
Jurevicius was the key cog in Seattle’s offense for most of regulation, carrying the load on a rare afternoon when Alexander got off to a slow start. Jurevicius caught almost half of Matt Hasselbeck’s 17 completions through four quarters of play, including Seattle’s first two touchdowns.
If he seemed to be playing with extra emotional incentive, it might be because Jurevicius played his first four NFL seasons with the Giants before the team made very little effort to re-sign him in free agency in 2002. But Jurevicius, who celebrated Sunday’s first touchdown by heaving the ball high into the air toward the New York sideline, said he holds no ill will against his former team.
“That’s where I got my start, and I’m always going to be thankful to the New York Giants for giving me my first opportunity to play,” Jurevicius said Sunday. “But I’m not there anymore. I’m a Seattle Seahawk.
“Maybe some of that (emotion) rode over, but it’s a first-class organization.”
Jurevicus has been the main recipient of whatever receiving touchdowns the Seahawks have scored this season, catching seven of Hasselbeck’s 14 touchdown passes. And Engram has led the team with 48 receptions despite missing three games with cracked ribs.
But Hackett has been the surprising one, emerging into the kind of deep threat the Seahawks seemed to lack after the offseason release of Koren Robinson and the Week 4 knee injury to Jackson. A second-year player from Colorado, Hackett has counted three receptions of more than 30 yards this season.
His most important may have come Sunday, when the 38-yard catch-and-run helped get Seattle out of a second-and-21 situation late in the overtime session. That play moved the ball to the Giants’ 38-yard line and led to Josh Brown’s game-winning field goal.
“We’d been waiting to throw a deep one on them all game,” he said. “So it was there. … It always feels good to make plays that help your team win.”
With their go-to receiver sidelined for seven games, the Seahawks have kept right on winning due in large part to those who took his place.
“Collectively, between Bobby, Hack, Peter Warrick and myself, I think we’re still doing a pretty good job, considering that we’re still missing a key part of our offense,” Jurevicius said, referring to Jackson. “I’m not going to talk about myself. I’ll talk about these other guys. There are going to be times when Shaun’s not going to be able to get his customary 200 yards, but we’ve got some guys on that offense that probably don’t get enough credit.”
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