Seahawks’ ride was great, but who were those guys Sunday

DETROIT – It’s customary at this time to look at the season as a body of work and glow.

It’s the time to recall training camp, to remember the feeling many had about the Seahawks and that many of us based our predictions of the 2005 season on a disappointing end to 2004. We all had the lasting image of Bobby Engram desperately trying to hold on to a short pass in the end zone from Matt Hasselbeck against the St. Louis Rams in the playoffs, only to see the ball bounce on the turf and watch Hasselbeck, facedown, his fists pounding the turf.

A reasonable goal, many said, is to make some noise in the playoffs – to win a game in the playoffs, something the Seahawks hadn’t done since 1984.

The Super Bowl? Get real.

And that’s what we all should take from this season: A year of unprecedented success from a team that joined the NFL 30 years ago.

We should remember the 11-game win streak.

We should remember Shaun Alexander’s MVP season and that marvelously dominant offensive line that helped get him there.

We should remember the maturation of Matt Hasselbeck.

We should remember the thrilling victories against the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants. The comeback against the Tennessee Titans. The sweep against the hated Rams.

We should remember the greatest day in the history of the franchise: The 34-14 dismantling of the Carolina Panthers in the NFC Championship Game. The ground-shaking detonation of the capacity crowd that calmed only when Hasselbeck was trying to call signals. Paul Allen raising the 12th Man flag. The brilliant defensive scheme that shut down Panthers receiver extraordinaire Steve Smith.

For the first time since the Mariners went on their miracle run in 1995, the region felt the bonding effect an exciting, successful team can have on a city, a state, a region.

Who wasn’t talking Seahawks these past two weeks?

Pretty exhilarating ride, wasn’t it?

Then why is the pain so searing, the grief so profound, when we think of Sunday?

With apologies to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, who were those guys?

Sometime between the victory against Carolina and Super Bowl XL, the Houston Texans kidnapped the entire Seahawks roster and dressed against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Best guess: It happened on the bus en route to Ford Field. Keep checking CNN.

That wasn’t the Seahawks Sunday. That wasn’t the fun, daring team that grabbed opponents by the neck from the opening kickoff and never let go. Those weren’t the real Seahawks out there, that wreck that tripped over itself with torturous holding penalties, the one that dropped passes, the one that couldn’t run over the Steelers.

This wasn’t the team we saw all season chip away at foes with short out passes to Engram, Jackson and Jerramy Stevens, then hit on a big play. This wasn’t the devastating running game in which a 150-yard day by Alexander was nearly a lock. This wasn’t a defense that improved so much each week, one that peaked toward the end of the season, flying around, causing havoc and making plays.

This was a blundering, timid lot that, had it even approached the level of intelligence, intensity and confidence that it had against the Panthers, we’d be hailing it today as a World Champion.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

They didn’t. They couldn’t.

Motown? This was No Mo’ Town.

It was shocking, really, the contrast of what we’d gotten accustomed to seeing all fall and winter against what we saw Sunday.

The day will come, and it will be soon, when we can look back on this marvelous season and conjure up the feeling inside of the past two weeks – of the anticipation that the Seahawks, for Gawdsakes, were going to play for all the marbles. We’ll remember our hearts pounding as we counted down the days until Super Bowl Sunday. We’ll come to the day when we can’t wait for the 2006 training camp to start, when we can re-live what happened this season, grin and boldly predict a repeat of this past season.

With one exception: A victory in Super Bowl XLI in Miami. Against, we hope, the same Steelers. Bring ‘em on, we’ll say. Roethlisberger. Ward. Parker. Porter.

Especially Porter.

But it’s too soon to do that now. The wound is still fresh and the shock is too new.

Who were those guys?