The Top 10 Regular Season Games in Seahawks History

First of all, a hat-tip to Enjoy the Enjoyment for giving DKSB some exposure. ETE is a great spot for anyone who follows Seattle sports, y'all... If you haven't yet, check it out.

If you're going to make a list of the greatest games in Seahawks history, playoff games HAVE TO top the list... From the '83 miracle in Miami to the Tony Romo game, the absolute greatest games in Seahawks history have been post-season affairs.

So I decided to up the ante: What are the best REGULAR SEASON games in Seahawks history? A couple of initial observations:

-I started following the Seahawks in 1983 at age 8.. so you won't see any games on the list before that. I invite grizzled Hawk vets to suggest games from 76-82.

-No losses. Frankly, it was bad enough to experience any loss the first time, so you won't see any Seattle losses on this list. For example, you could argue that the Testaverde "phantom touchdown" game was "great" in that it led to the hiring of Mike Holmgren... But I'm not going in that direction.

Just to get the torment out of the way, here are the 5 most painful regular season losses in Seahawks history:

5. Jets 41, Seahawks 3 (1997)
4. Cowboys 43, Seahawks 39 (2004)
3. Ravens 44, Seahawks 41 (2003)
2. Rams 33, Seahawks 27 (2004)
1. Jets 32, Seahawks 31 (1998)

Man, 2004 SUCKED.

OK.. Here we go:

10. Seahawks 27, Packers 7 (1999)
The '99 season spiraled out of control a few weeks later, but on one glorious Monday Night it looked like Seattle was headed for XXXIV. In Holmgren's return to Lambeau, the Hawks dominated the Packers in front of a national audience, inspiring me to look into how long the drive from Columbus, Ohio to Atlanta would be. Yeah... We all know how that turned out...

9. Seahawks 30, Rams 28 (2006)
I considered putting Seattle's 2005 win at STL here, but the 2006 victory was even more satisfying. The Hawks came back from a halftime deficit, overcame a back-breakingly spectacular TD catch by Torry Holt, won on a 54 yard FG at the gun, and made Scott Linehan look like a jabbering idiot.

8. Seahawks 24, 49ers 17 (2003)
The Seahawks needed a win on the road to keep their wild-card hopes alive on the last weekend of the 2003 season, and quickly fell into a 14-0 hole. Seattle got it together, and held off a later SF rally to stay alive. The right teams won/lost the next day to put Seattle in the playoffs, which they haven't missed in any season since.

7. Seahawks 34, Bears 21 (1987)
In the great Walter Payton's final regular season game at Soldier Field, the Seahawks were an afterthought, barely a notch above Homer Simpson stepping into the ring with "opponent" on his robe before his fight with Drederick Tatum.

The Hawks were playing for their playoff lives, and it showed in a rousing win punctuated by a 75-yard catch-and-run TD by John L. Williams.

6. Seahawks 45, Chiefs 0 (1984)
5. Seahawks 51, Chiefs 48 (1983)
Two home games against KC, and two classics in Seahawk legend. In 1983, Seattle won what was probably the CRAZIEST game in Kingdome history behind 207 yards and 3 TDs from Curt Warner. In '84, Seattle DBs ran back an NFL record FOUR interceptions for touchdowns in a 45-0 route of the Chefs.

4. Seahawks 24, Patriots 6 (1983)
In 1983's regular season finale, the winner would grab a Wild-Card playoff berth. The Seahawks stomped the Pats and took a famous post-game curtain call to thank the rabid Kingdome crowd (an honor that would return after Seattle clinched the #1 seed in 2005).

This game gets extra points because it was also the first Seahawks game I attended in person.

3. Seahawks 43, Raiders 37 (1988)
Another regular season finale where the winner would make the playoffs. In this case, the Seahawks were playing for their first AFC West title. On a damp, dreary day at the LA Coliseum, the Hawks pulled ahead in the 4th and held on for the biggest regular-season road win in team history (Once again keyed by a spectacular John L. Williams TD on a perfectly executed "middle screen").

2. Seahawks 24, Giants 21 (2005)
1. Seahawks 13, Cowboys 10 (2005)
The two biggest wins from our Super Bowl year had to top this list. The win over NYG was the (unofficial) rebirth of the 12th Man, and the Hawks have never received the proper credit for the resilience they showed that day.

A few weeks earlier we got the first real glimpse of where that 2005 squad was headed... So many images are seared into my brain from that day:

-Bledsoe being stopped cold on 3rd down...
-Ryan Hannam's sliding TD catch to tie the game...
-Big Play Babs picking off Bledsoe and streaking down the sideline into FG range...
-JB's tossing his helmet and being mobbed after hitting the game winner...

What do you think, sirs?

Top Ten Single Season Performances in Seahawks History

My previous post about Stan Gelbaugh in 1992 got me thinking: What were the 10 best single-season performances in team history? I'm not going to go all PFR and crunch all the numbers, but here's what I came up with off the top of my head:

10. Josh Brown (2006)
Yeah, we hate the guy now, but that little bald fucker was the difference back in 2006.

9. Patrick Kerney (2007)
Hopefully Kerney can at least come close to repeating his dominant performance from last season.

8. Steve Largent (1985)
Which Largent season to choose? The team only went 8-8 in 1985, but it was #80's best individual season.

7. Curt Warner (1983)
Who knows where Warner's career could have gone without that blown ACL in the '84 opener? We got a glimpse in 1983, where he showed flashes of Barry Sanders level brilliance.

6. Dave Krieg (1984)
5. Matt Hasselbeck (2007)
In '84 and '07, major injuries in the running game put the burden on the QB to carry the team. In these seasons Krieg and Hasselbeck delivered with career-best Pro Bowl performances.

4. Kenny Easley (1984)
The first Seahawk to be named defensive player of the year, and it was well deserved. Like Roy Batty, Easley was a light that burned twice as bright and half as long.

3. Cortez Kennedy (1992)
The only performance worth remembering from that lost 1992 season. Wearing #99 to honor fallen friend Jerome Brown, Tez annihilated the opposition and was named NFL defensive player of the year.

1. Shaun Alexander & Walter Jones (2005)
It's impossible to separate these two performances, so they share the top spot. Alexander delivered the (fleeting) single-season TD record and NFL MVP honors, but Big Walt not only blasted open holes for SA... He also kept Hass upright and slinging the bean around.

Both career-best performances were essential to our trip to XL.

What do you think, sirs?

Your memory is correct. Stan Gelbaugh WAS that bad in 1992.

Oh Stan... While you were tearing up the World League of American Football, abusing teams like the Orlando Thunder, little did you know that soon you'd turn in one of the worst seasons for a QB in NFL history.

According to Pro Football Reference, you were the worst QB in the NFL in 1992. Considering you led your team to its worst season ever, had a rating of 52.9, and inspired the team to draft a franchise QB the next spring... Let's just say I'm not surprised by PFR's findings.

But at least you gave us one awesome, majestic, memorable moment.

Fuzzy Seahawks Memories: The Husky Stadium Days

Back in 2000-2001, I went to four Seahawks games at Husky Stadium. They went 3-1 in those games, and my future wife Amy passed a big early-in-the-relationship test by going to a Seahawks game with me and enjoying it. Even so, I think about these days as the absolute dark ages of Seahawks football.

First of all, to the extent that I care about college football (which isn't that much), I'm a Wazzu fan. Being an Eastern Washington native, any time spent in Husky Stadium was too much for me. On top of that, it felt like every time I went to a game there the weather was 39 degrees with 40 mph winds and sideways needle rain. This wasn't true of course, but I'll never shake how miserably wet and cold it could get at Husky Stadium.

My season ticket seats were down near ground level in the closed end of the horseshoe, with awful sightlines and total exposure to the elements... which meant that by the end of the 1st quarter I always moved up to one of the nearly empty upper deck sections under the roof.

We think of the Kingdome and Qwest Field as giving the Hawks an amazing home field advantage, but in 00-01 the Hawks only went 9-7 at home. Of course, that was partly because the team was mediocre, but it was also because Husky Stadium never came close to capacity during this era. Overall, Husky Stadium provided one of the blandest, most depressing fan experiences I've ever witnessed, and I praise the ghost of Pete Rozelle that I'll never have to go to a game there again.

Here's my specific memories of those four games:

9/10/00: Rams 37, Seahawks 34

A nice day out and an exciting game against the defending World Champion Rams (who we didn't all hate yet)... I've rarely felt better about a loss; My girlfriend Amy seemed to have fun (thank god the game was exciting), and a three point loss to the mighty Rams gave us SOME reason to be optimistic after an embarassing shutout loss at Miami the week before

9/17/00: Seahawks 20, Saints 10

A boring, forgettable affair. At least it was nice out, and I got to kick it with my friend Kris.. Other than that, my mind's a blank about this one.

12/16/00: Seahawks 27, Raiders 24

The peak of the Husky Stadium days. Despite a 5-9 record at the time, we gave the AFC West Champion Raiders all they could handle. Y'all might remember this: trailing 24-17 in the 4th quarter, Ricky Watters broke off a huge run, but was caught near the goal line and fumbled. However, the Raiders rolled back into the end zone with the ball and it was ruled a safety! The legions of Oakland fans in attendance bitched and moaned like Dino Rossi, but the Hawks had the ball down by 5... Jon Kitna had his last memorable moment as a Seahawk when he drove Seattle the length of the field for the winning score and 2-point conversion.

It was a rare moment of joy in a lost season, and the sweet lamentations of all those Raider rooting assfucks still echo in my brainpan. :-]

1/6/02: Seahawks 21, Chiefs 18

A pretty damn somber win.

A) This game was rescheduled from right after the 9/11 attacks, so that was on everyone's minds of course

B) It was the most intolerable weather I've ever sat through at an NFL game. Heavy rain, wind gusts, temps in the 30s... WAY worse than simple cold or snow. brrrrrr!

C) Late in a fairly boring Seattle win, we found out that John Hall had hit a 50+ yard FG to beat the Raiders and almost certainly kill Seattle's playoff hopes.

D) We decided to do the park & ride thing to and from the game. Big mistake that day.... Wet, cold and depressed, it took almost two hours on the bus to get back to the parking lot.

In conclusion... Good riddance, Husky Stadium.

Humiliation

My wife likes to say that I have more toys than books in my office, and she's probably right. I loves me some McFarlane Figures, and for a long time I've wanted a Seahawk to sit on my desk alongside Carlton Fisk and Jonathan Papelbon.

My choices? Shaun Alexander (ugh) and Matt Hasselbeck (yay!)

However, to get my Hass, I had to buy Troy Fucking Polamalu. Why don't you twist the XL knife some more, you assbags? Jesus Christ... Come on.

So I'm gonna get this extraneous figure, and I welcome creative suggestions about how to dispose of it. :-]

(or, I might just sell it on eBay.. I haven't decided.)