News

MINNEAPOLIS – The Seahawks thought they had a plan to run the ball on the ball on the Minnesota Vikings, and another to disrupt future Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre.

But after Favre had thrown for four touchdowns while completing a franchise-record 88 percent of his passes and the Vikings had held the Seahawks to a club-record low 4 rushing yards in slapping them with a 35-9 loss at the Metrodome, it was time to think again.

Yes, the Vikings are now 9-1 – and the Seahawks 3-7. Yes, the Vikings are what coach Jim Mora called “as complete a team as we’ve played.”

But it was still as difficult to swallow as it was to digest.

The Seahawks thought they had turned a corner last week against the Arizona Cardinals, especially in the running game. Instead, they ran smack into a nasty defense led by the tackle tandem of Pat and Kevin Williams and a quick, aggressive linebacking crew headed by E.J. Henderson.

“We certainly struggled, we certainly did,” Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. “I think some if it is how good they are and some of it is just us not playing our best.”

The Seahawks did play the Vikings to a scoreless draw in the first quarter, but then Favre went off for a three-TD pass second quarter. You get down 21-0 at halftime, it changes everything.

“It’s a broken record, but when you get down 21-nothing it’s hard to be balanced,” said Hasselbeck, who completed 19 of 25 passes for 231 yards.

Favre, meanwhile, threw TD passes to four different receivers – rookie Percy Harvin (23 yards), tight end Vinsanthe Shiancoe (8), Bernard Berrian (3) and Sidney Rice (7).

The Seahawks threw everything they had at him. Man-to-man coverage. Zone coverage. Three-deep safety looks. Dropping linemen into coverage. After the first quarter, none of it worked – and Favre finally called it a record-setting day at the end of the third quarter.

“He’s a Hall of Fame quarterback in the making,” said middle linebacker David Hawthorne, who again led the Seahawks defense with 15 tackles – 11 in the first half. “He’s seen everything that you can throw at him.”

Favre’s numbers almost said it all on this day: 22 of 25 for 213 yards and the four TDs for a passer rating of 141.7. But there was more, too much so. The Vikings had almost twice as many yards as the Seahawks, 431-212, and had the ball for more than 42 minutes. They had TD drives of 89, 84, 80 and 70 yards. The Seahawks, on the other hand, had 10 penalties for 64 yards. And, of course, the 4 yards on 13 rushes.

By the time Justin Forsett scored on a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter, the Vikings had put up their 35 points – and Favre was watching from the sideline.

“We’re just not used to this,” Hasselbeck said. “We worked too hard to learn how to win. It’s a tough thing. It’s a test.”

The question now is not so much what went wrong Sunday, but where this team goes from here – other than to St. Louis, where the Seahawks face the Rams next Sunday.

“What I told the team is this, there’s only one thing that I know that we can do at this point in time and that is to continue to work hard, to continue to believe in each other, have a good attitude, hold each other and ourselves accountable for the way we’re playing, the way we’re preparing, the way we’re practicing,” Mora said.

“We are preparing well, but we’re not playing well enough to win games.”

Especially against this team, and this quarterback, and this defense, on this day.


“We’re going to continue to work hard,” Mora said. “That’s the one thing I can promise you. We’re going to get over the hump.”