Even if Dallas magically blows this 21 point lead as I type this I have gained a ton of respect for Tony Romo tonight. Sure the Cowboys could easily stoop to their opponent's level and lose to Washington but tonight the defense and ESPECIALLY Tony Romo have been sensational.

I applaud him for stepping up in the clutch and now consider him an elite NFL QB. He needs one more hurdle to clear and that is to actually win a playoff game.

I'm on here a lot and made comments about Romo in the past both great and awful but this has been a special performance by a talented QB.

Oh and when do the Cowboys cut Flozell? Man is a train wreck to watch.

Good luck the rest of the season.

Sit back, grab a beer (or two or a keg) and enjoy a potential shootout in New Orleans. Steve Mariucci is very close to losing his voice so enjoy listening to him talk at halftime. Drew Brees is phenomenal. Matt Millen believes Dallas has to score more points than the Saints if they want to have a shot at winning.

DeMarcus Ware is active for the Cowboys tonight while Sedrick Ellis is not for New Orleans. We'll see how that works out. I'm not sure Ware will be a factor at all.

Enjoy watching a beautiful offense at work under Sean Peyton.

In lieu of What the Losers Are Saying I decided to put up a rant (Ed Note: First written on my blog. Enjoy.

I’ve been very reserved for such a maddening Seahawks season. We’re 5-8, the playoffs have long been out of the question, and the GM resigned in the middle of this. After yesterday’s debacle in Houston I’m done. Heads have to start rolling in this organization. Even though I predicted a 9-7 division winning season back in September I wouldn’t have been surprised if we had missed the playoffs again.

Well there will be no playoffs and initially I was fine with that. What is pissing me off is how the Seahawks have completely fallen apart. When you can, at a minimum, ruin another team’s playoff hopes once and for all then show you can do it.

On the first play from scrimmage Marcus Trufant gets beat one-on-one against Andre Johnson, Jordan Babineaux takes an awful angle in safety support and we’re 7-0 down in a few seconds. I think you know how the rest of the game went.

With Tim Ruskell out and new management coming, no one has a guaranteed spot on next year’s roster and no one has guaranteed job security on the coaching staff. Not Aaron Curry, not TJ Houshmandzadeh, not Brandon Mebane, not Jim Mora, not Greg Knapp, not Gus Bradley, and FIRE BRUCE DEHAVEN PLEASE!!!!

That’s why it’s befuddling that the Seahawks putforth a crappy effort and got annihilated by a team with a 4 game losing streak and Chris Brown as an integral part of their offense.

If the Seahawks had lost 24-17 in a hard-fought, close game in which the better team (admittedly it’s Houston) prevailed at home, I wouldn’t be writing this. Instead they went out and sucked for 3 hours.

I don’t even know where to begin so I guess I’ll divide my time ripping into this "football team".

Offensive Line

If there is anything Tim Ruskell failed in during his tenure as GM, it was rebuilding the offensive line. Forget losing Steve Hutchinson because when you look at the big picture keeping him was impossible (unless you like having no money for free agency), because that was the least of their problems. The offensive line that gave Matt Hasselbeck a Pro Bowl season and Shaun Alexander running lanes during the Super Bowl run was aging. Chris Gray, Robbie Tobeck, and Walter Jones were all in their 30s. Tobeck retired a year later, Chris Gray followed suit the year after Tobeck, and now Walter Jones is essentially "done" after going on IR this season.

Ruskell banked on Walt, Floyd Womack, Chris Spencer, Chris Gray, and late-round draft talent to protect Hasselbeck and give Alexander running room. That failed miserably and in a way it helped speed up the process of Shaun Alexander’s road to unbelievable suck.

This current rotation of Sean Locklear (LT), Rob Sims (LG), Chris Spencer (C), Max Unger (RG, rookie), and Ray Willis (RT) is not 2002 Houston Texans bad, but they aren’t good either. Not even close. They are inconsistent and cannot handle a blitz to save their lives. They carry plenty, but not all of the blame for Seattle’s inept offense (we’ll get to that later). It would not surprise me if only Locklear and Unger remain as starters from this season heading into next season. For Locklear he may be moved back to RT if he doesn’t show that he’s the answer to adequately replacing Walter Jones at left tackle.

There needs to be a revamp here and it’s been long overdue.

Matt Hasselbeck

Best Seahawks QB in franchise history….but you’re done now. It’s become painful to watch you turn into a QB slightly better than Jake Delhomme. Statistically you’re on pace potentially for a 3,000 yard season despite missing 2 games with injury.

Peel the onion back and it’s disgusting. There is no zip in your throws. Instead of trusting your receiving corp to make a play without being open you choose to pick Justin Griffith to stumble his way for 4 yards on a checkdown. The passes you make, all of them, take weeks to get to their final destination. By the way, that final destination tends to be either an interception or an incomplete pass.

The decision making is terrible. On a 4th and 7 you fire a 4 yard crossing route to Housh when he has no shot of making the first. It’s something I’d expect Seneca Wallace to do.

As much crap as the offensive line is given, you’ve been adding the fuel to the fire by holding onto the ball for too long, panicking under pressure, and not throwing it away. This has been a recurring problem with you and at this point I’d rather start Mike Teel then continue to see this garbage.

Seahawks fans should come to grips that stats for the most part don’t account for  stupidity and mental mistakes. Sure Hasselbeck is on his way to a 3,000 yard season but how often have we seen him get garbage yards in the middle of a blowout? The offensive line is supposedly the culprit for Hasselbeck’s struggles. It’s not the reason that his 5 yard passes float through the air when there is plenty of speed needed on the throw. He has shown physical and mental decline much like Shaun Alexander did. You can’t just blame the line the entire time for the QB and RB struggles. When you’re physically and mentally beat up then chances are you’re done. Brett Favre and Kurt Warner are anomalies. Statistically they would be an outlier in a set of data for QBs of their age performing at an exceptional level after periods of mediocrity. I hope Seattle looks into trading Hasselbeck or possibly cutting him in the offseason. It’s not worth 11 million dollars in cap space to retain him.

Seneca Wallace

Incompetent. Please don’t be on the roster next season. Sacking yourself, refusing to throw the ball away, and fumbling the snaps tell me you aren’t fit to play QB and never will be. He’s the type of player that would know that it’s 4th down and spike the ball during the 2 minute drill. Yeah I know he hasn’t done that but I wouldn’t put it past him to have a massive mental brain cramp.

Defense

Colin Cole and Craig Terrill are lousy defensive tackles who are equally useless stuffing the run as they are rushing the passer. Patrick Kerney is slow and over-the-hill.

I don’t have much criticism for this unit outside of their sometimes ghastly starts to road games. A defense can only hold out for so long when their offensive counterparts can’t score in a brothel filled with dead hookers.

Coaching Staff

It’s your job to have this team prepared every week. They fell behind 17-0 to the Lions. The Lions. THE Lions. LIONS! AT HOME! The early deficits that aren’t against the Lions turn into wipeout losses and leave the fans scratching their heads in bewilderment.

Jim Mora blamed Olindo Mare for the loss to the Bears. Mare missed 2 FGs and the Seahawks lost by 6. That’s idiotic leadership considering he made 4 and the Seahawks weren’t bothered to score TDs in the red zone. Something like that I expect from…me when I’m angry and not thinking clearly.

Yesterday he decided to call out the offensive line for their awful performance but then said Chris Spencer, who has been wearing a cast on his right hand due to a thumb injury, should’ve had the cast off by now and was wondering why he was still wearing it.

Those sheets of paper he's holding could be pink-colored if he keeps this up. (Photo from AP.)

It’s obnoxious, immature, and idiotic. I’m not sure he’s said once in any of his press conferences that the coaching staff is part of the problem come gameday. If he is throwing everyone under the bus on the players side instead of admitting "Hey I didn’t have us ready." then he should be fired.

I didn’t mind Mora much of this season but he is unraveling and it’s ugly to see it. He has 3 weeks to prove to me he’s worth keeping during this rebuilding process.

For as much flak as he gets I don’t mind Greg Knapp but at times he makes stupid playcalls (3rd and 1 = Endaround with Branch). However if Mora goes then so does Knapp. Sadly. Knapp cannot possibly make this offense work. Actually no one can unless there’s a total rebuild of the offensive roster.

I like Gus Bradley, our defensive coordinator. However he has to understand that you can’t run a 3 man pass-rush with Patrick Kerney as one of your men, and ZONE DEFENSE DOES NOT WORK!!!! I HATE ZONE DEFENSE SO MUCH!!!!!! He has to identify the strengths and weaknesses of this defense and his insistence on using quarters coverage with THAT secondary is preposterous.

Please fire Bruce DeHaven.

That’s just about it. Three games guys. Have the heart and gumption not to embarrass yourselves and avoid the potential chopping block when new management comes.

The Seahawks have now won more games than all of last season. Seattle once again did not play poorly but they weren't exactly fantastic. They did enough to win after falling behind at home again. But this segment doesn't talk about winners. Whenever the Seahawks pull out a win, we take a scope at how the other half copes with defeat. This week's victim is the San Francisco 49ers. They absolutely had to win this game and decided not to. The 49ers fans are none too happy about that. If any Niners supporters are perusing this neck of the woods I just want to say that this is by no means meant to disrespect the fanbase. The point of WTLAS has always been to see what the defeated team thinks.

Before I begin this I just want to get the whole Jones/Forsett thing off my chest. It's not meant to slight any individual but it is a collective statement towards anyone who was pissed that Forsett barely got any carries yesterday while Julius Jones got the majority of the touches.

If you honestly believe Knapp is at fault (or Mora) for the lack of carries from Forsett yesterday then you're thinking irrationally. Forsett was injured a mere two days before gameday and Jones was coming off an injury in which he had 2 weeks to heal.  Jones was a lock to play while Forsett was questionable.The argument that Force didn't look hurt is invalid because with each play he is out on the field the body is forced to work harder and make the legs work even more, thus increasing the chance of reaggravating his quad injury. If Forsett gets injured then either you give Jones even more carries or watch Louis Rankin slowly make his way to the line of scrimmage for a 1 yard gain.

What happens from here on out we will have to wait and see, but the criticism of how the Jones/Forsett issue was handled in regards to last Sunday is insane.

Now onto the losers...(normally I censor the language but I'm lazy so I'll forgo that idea. I hope you like swearing).

Continue reading this post »

Seattle won a game it was supposed to win. They are 4-7 and with 3 winnable home games they can finish 7-9 (although the Titans and Bucs are looking a lot better). Now we end our 4 day weekend watching our next opponent play the Jaguars and Favre tear up Chicago's sorry franchise.

In some places you'll be lucky enough to see Arizona play Tennessee.

Oh, and Fire Bruce DeHaven. Yes, it has to be said...we cannot go a week without a special teams screw-up.

Our future starting QB potentially vaulted himself to top spot in the Heisman Trophy race on Thursday night. Colt McCoy stepped up when he needed to and I expect the same when the Seahawks do draft him in the 1st round. A 6000 yard throwing, 2000 yard rushing, 85% completion rate (the other 15% are from Nate Burleson drops) rookie season should be reasonable expectations.

On Friday future Seahawk N'damukong Suh recorded 5 tackles and a sack against Colorado. Suh and Mebane. Can anyone create a nickname for this duo?

This morning future Seahawk CJ Spiller returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown against South Carolina. Our route to Spiller is trading Seneca to the Raiders for a first round draft pick. Al Davis accepts the trade after Tim Ruskell successfully convinces him that Seneca runs a 3.6 40 and can play the receiver position well.

This afternoon the Huskies will crush the Cou**rs in the Apple Cup in a showcase of what Jake Locker can do against one of the worst teams in collegiate history.

GO HUSKIES!