If you gave Adrian Peterson this o-line, he would've had 29.6 yards yesterday as opposed to the single-game record one decimal place over. If you gave Barry Sanders in his prime this o-line, he would've danced and spun his way into an anonymous career as opposed to a Hall of Fame one. Heck, if you would've given this o-line to Jim Brown ... well, he'd still be the best running back this game ever saw, because that guy's a bad motherfucker.
Look, Shaun Alexander drives me crazy. He drives EVERY Seahawks fan crazy. The guy stutter-steps after catching a swing pass when there's no defender within ten yards of him. But, he's a patient runner, same as Terrell Davis was back when the Broncos were winning Super Bowls. He'll juke and jive in that backfield for what seems like five thousand eternities before finding the hole he likes and then ambles through it for what used to be modest-to-lengthy gains.
Now, we're thanking our stars if he doesn't lose yardage. We're ecstatic when he falls forward for a couple.
You can't be a consistent winner when your offense is one-dimensional. You can win SOME games (as Minnesota is showing us) and you can even lead your division (as Green Bay is showing us). But, come playoff time, you will fall. And for a team like the Seahawks - who've had their share of losing in the playoffs - that's really all that matters right now.
Winning the NFC West this year is like winning a Paper/Scissors/Rock contest when the other participants have amputated hands.
There's nothing we can do about this confounding o-line nine weeks into the season. I say confounding because Matt Hasselbeck, for the most part, could set up patio chairs and have a relaxing picnic in the pocket they're providing on passing plays. But, try picking up 18 inches on fourth down in overtime against the Cleveland Browns and they make their meager d-line look like the '85 Bears (only if the '85 Bears had eleven Refrigerator Perrys made of solid cement). Inserting Pork Chop Womack into one of the guard slots isn't going to make Walter Jones three years younger (or Chris Gray 8 years younger). It's not going to help Chris Spencer's slow transition from hiking the ball to blocking the man in front of him. It's not going to disprove what I've been saying all along about right tackle Heather Locklear: people thought he was good in 2005 because the other four guys and the tight end all picked up his slack. Now, we're getting the reality that is Ms. Locklear: be glad he's not protecting Hasselbeck's blind side.
Week in and week out I read these quotes from Mike Holmgren: We've Got To Do Something About The Running Game; It's Not Shaun Alexander's Fault; We're Tinkering With Some Blocking Schemes; etc. Well, we're nine weeks in and nothing's worked. It's time to try something else.
How about this: since our o-line sucks, why not THROW on 4th and Inches? Why not a little play-action pass? Two years ago we could line up and man-for-man beat you on 4th and Inches; now we've got to use the asset that's brought us this far. We've got to put the ball in Hasselbeck's capable hands and let him do the winning for us. It's what Denver used to do before they got Terrell Davis. It's what all playoff teams do when they can't run the ball.
We're only going as far as Matt Hasselbeck takes us. So give him the ball and let him score