By Todd Fredrickson
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – Shaun Alexander told his teammates before the game that anybody who wasn’t up to the task needn’t show his face on the field.
So he had to chuckle Sunday when he found himself back in the locker room after his first carry.
“I was laughing to myself,” Alexander said, “because I was over there telling those guys to stay in the locker room if you’re scared, and I was the first one in here.”
Alexander twisted his right ankle badly enough on his first carry that the Seattle Seahawks’ medical staff decided to X-ray it for a possible fracture. But when the X-rays showed no serious damage, Alexander came back out to lead the Seahawks to a 21-18 victory over Kansas City and cap off his own breakout season.
Alexander finished the game at Husky Stadium with 127 yards on 20 carries – a 6.4-yard average – and his 44-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter put Seattle back in control after Kansas City had clawed its way into it.
The Seahawks have to wait for the results of tonight’s Minnesota-Baltimore game to find out whether they’ve made the playoffs, but one thing they definitely accomplished this season is finding their featured running back for the future.
Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren confirmed after the game that that mantle has passed from 11-year veteran Ricky Watters, who finished the season on injured reserve with a broken ankle, to Alexander, a second-year player who was Seattle’s first-round draft choice in 2000.
“I believe so,” Holmgren said. “I think we knew what we had when we drafted him, but he hadn’t show it. Now the baton will be passed officially, and Shaun will be our guy.”
Alexander finished the season with 309 rushing attempts for 1,318 yards and 14 touchdowns, the fifth-highest yardage total in franchise history. He also was Seattle’s second-leading receiver with 44 catches good for 343 yards and two more touchdowns.
But it isn’t just about gaudy statistics as Alexander did much of his best work this season when the team needed it most.
In big games against division rivals, he ran for 142 yards against Denver and a club-record 266 yards against Oakland, and he took over Sundays’ must-win game against Kansas City just when it seemed the confidence factor might be leaking toward the visitors.
Sparked by a blocked punt, Kansas City scored 10 quick points to chop Seattle’s 14-0 halftime lead down to 14-10 before Alexander accounted for every inch of a 76-yard touchdown drive that swung momentum back to Seattle.
He reeled off 17 yards on a short dump off pass from quarterback Trent Dilfer and earned the other 59 yards on just three carries, including the 44-yard touchdown romp over right tackle.
“We needed something after that blocked punt and it was really slipping away,” Seattle tight end Christian Fauria said. “They were kind of holding on a little bit, trying to convince themselves that they were still in it, and that helped our offense really get confidence.”
Then, when everybody in the stadium knew the Seahawks would be trying to run the ball and work the clock, Alexander added 52 tough yards in the fourth quarter, the kind of game-clinching effort that marks great NFL backs.
While it would still be premature to put Alexander in that class, there’s no question it’s within his reach.
“He’s one of those guys that played a lot this year and had some success, a fair amount of success. He gained a lot of yards,” Holmgren said in summarizing Alexander’s season. “He also knows a couple of areas that he must continue to improve on to be someone very special in this league, and that’s what his goals are.”
Sunday was Alexander’s first game of more than 100 yards since his rampage against Oakland, which was on Nov. 11, but he said he didn’t need another big game to feel good about his progress this season.
“I’m going to feel good either way,” he said. “Whether I’d have scored one touchdown or five touchdowns wouldn’t have decided how I felt about myself. But I think it was big how we played.”
That was a common theme in the Seahawks locker room after the game, that they could feel good about a lot of things both Sunday and overall this season.
To a man, the feeling was that even if a playoff berth doesn’t materialize tonight there will be more bright spots than question marks heading into next season.
Especially at running back.
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