While much of this weekend’s football buzz figured to be sucked up by the “Miracle on Montlake” Saturday night, an arguably more important contest took place at Qwest Sunday, as the Hawks routed the Jacksonville Jaguars 41-0 with star QB Matt Hasselbeck returning from injury to lead his team to a comfortable victory in what was a must-win game for Seattle.
While Seneca Wallace did an admirable job backing up the injured star QB, as coach Jim Mora put it on his weekly King5 show, Hasselbeck is the “point guard” and the “emotional leader of this team.” And lead he did. The roar from the crowd as #8 came out of the tunnel was deafening, and Hawks fans knew all was well when Hasselbeck scrambled for 9 yards on an early first quarter play, was decked out of bounds, and immediately got back up and sprinted to the huddle.
Hasselbeck was tremendous all day, ending the game with 241 yards on 18-for-30 passing, throwing 4 touchdowns and no interceptions. On the receiving end of those touchdowns, both TJ Houshmandzadeh and Nate Burleson had stellar games that should give fans confidence these two key offensive weapons are hitting their stride.
The win was impressive, with the key question going forward being: Is this the turning point in what looked to be a season that might be slipping away? As I wrote after the mind-bogglingly frustrating home loss to Chicago (the Hawks outplayed the Bears for most of the game and blew it anyway), execution and turnovers are what separate the good NFL teams from the bad. Yesterday, the Hawks executed like we haven’t seen all year, and were on the right side of the turnover battle after an aggressive defensive effort that ultimately ended in a shutout.
Looking at where we are in the season, especially with the injuries this team has suffered, a 2-3 mark is not that bad. Think about the schedule thus far – the Hawks routed the worst team in football in Week 1, had a tough loss on the road to a division rival where they lost their star QB in Week 2, blew the Chicago game with poor play (this being the one they’d really like to have back), lost convincingly on the road to perhaps the best team in football Week 4 (Indianapolis), and routed a decent (2-2) Jacksonville team that Vegas only had us beating by 1 point.
We’re still a pretty banged up team, and we will need to continue to get healthier on both sides of the ball going forward, but the boost from this win could spark the turnaround. The team’s emotional leader came out behind a dilapidated offensive line and showed why he’s paid the big bucks, and a banged up defense played their hearts out for 60 minutes and pitched a shutout against a better-than-average NFL offense.
Division rival Arizona visits Qwest next week, in what is sure to be a pivotal weekend for the whole season. In addition to the Hawks’ match-up vs. Arizona, current NFC West leader San Francisco is on the road against 5-0 Indianapolis, a game they are likely to lose, putting a tie for the division lead well within reach.
Vegas has installed the Hawks as 3 point favorites, and on paper the Hawks look to have a slight advantage. But the Arizona game is the type of win—at home vs. a tough division rival—this Hawks team simply has to have.
