SEATTLE – Shaun Alexander doesn’t mind thinking and talking about the fact that this might be his last season with the Seattle Seahawks. If it is, he wants to make sure it’s special.
Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
Darrell Jackson isn’t going anywhere, so it must be something else that is driving him.
Whatever the reason, the two are teaming up to give the Seahawks as good a run-pass combination as there is in the NFL after three weeks.
On Sunday, they each topped 100 yards against a highly touted opponent for the second week in a row as the Seahawks dismantled the Arizona Cardinals 37-12 at Qwest Field.
“They’re making huge plays every game,” Seattle tight end Jerramy Stevens said of Alexander and Jackson. “We feel like we’ve got one of the most talented teams in the league. With (quarterback) Matt (Hasselbeck) spreading the ball around, with Shaun moving the ball, things are looking real good right now.”
Alexander, a running back, ran the ball 22 times for 140 yards and four touchdowns on Sunday. Jackson, a wide receiver, had eight receptions for 125 yards.
Alexander more or less put Sunday’s game away with a brilliant 45-yard run in which he completely reversed his field from right to left and took the ball to the Arizona 6-yard line. He scored his fourth touchdown three plays later to make the score 31-12 early in the fourth quarter.
“That was beautiful,” Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said of the long run, during which Alexander spun out of a tackler’s grasp near the right sideline then came all the way back across the field before turning upfield.
“The play was supposed to go to the right, and then I lost him in the pile and I thought it didn’t look too good,” Holmgren said. “Then he started running out and back toward me, and then I thought, ‘Good call.’”
Alexander had a simple explanation for it.
“I was probably breaking all the rules of everything I’ve been taught,” he said.
Last week, in a 21-18 victory over Atlanta, Alexander ran for 144 yards and a touchdown, and Jackson had eight catches for 131 yards.
After Sunday’s games, Alexander was second in the NFL with 357 rushing yards and first in touchdowns with five, and Jackson was third in the league with 22 receptions.
This after games against Atlanta, picked by many to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl, and Arizona, which was the trendy preseason pick to take the NFC West Division.
On top of that, Arizona’s Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald may have led the league in preseason hype for receiver packages, but put together they barely equaled Jackson’s output Sunday.
“Let me tell you something. We have the best receivers in the NFL, period,” Seattle fullback Mack Strong said of Jackson and running mates Bobby Engram, Joe Jurevicious and Peter Warrick. “I know that a lot of ink gets written about other players on other teams, and rightly so, but I feel like as a whole, the guys that we have here are the reason why we’re 2-1.”
Jackson is in his sixth NFL season, all with Seattle, and has topped 70 catches and 1,000 yards in three of his first five seasons. Nonetheless, he has managed to avoid rising to national visibility and has not been selected to the Pro Bowl.
“Darrell is a great player, and he doesn’t get the respect that he probably deserves,” said Hasselbeck, who completed 20 of 31 passes for 242 yards with no interceptions. “He’s a great player for us and always has been since I’ve been here.”
Alexander, on the other hand, has been anything but invisible.
A two-time Pro Bowl selection, he missed the NFL rushing title by one yard last season and groused about it openly. Also a sixth-year player, he reported late to training camp this season and has not been shy about the fact that he may not be a Seahawk after his contract expires at the end of the season.
The good news for the Seahawks is that rather than letting that be a source of bitterness, he is treating the season like it might be a celebratory farewell tour.
“Everybody knows that this could be my last year here,” said Alexander, whose contract forbids the Seahawks from restricting his free agent rights after this season. “Everybody is just really excited. People really feel like this could be a great year for us.”
Alexander’s four rushing touchdowns Sunday moved him past Larry Csonka and Thurman Thomas into 25th place on the NFL’s all-time list with 67, and his 24th 100-yard game tied Chris Warren for the Seahawks team record.
If it takes a last-chance mentality to spark him and his team, that’s fine with him.
“People really feel there is something good with this team, and everybody is starting to pay attention to the little things from everybody,” Alexander said. “We don’t mind being under this backs-to-the-wall kind of thing because we know that our goal is to get to the Super Bowl and do big things.”
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