RYAN'S (td gives us) HOPE

In terms of Moonlight, this game was a total eclipse for 3-and-a-half quarters.

Instead of a player or two stepping out of obscurity, the league's number one offense seemed to be slipping into it, and the Seahawks seemed poised to once again give away an important game, at home, and with the national media finally getting behind them again.

With the heavy cloud coverage and rain falling at Qwest for the first time since it was built, it appeared there might not be any Moonlight tonight, especially when Jimmy Williams turned the ball over deep in Seahawks territory trying to make something out of nothing on a punt return. But the Seahawks Defense really rose to the challenge set before them, and twice stuffed Dallas holding them to only 3 points, when Dallas could have salted the victory away with a TD.

But this year's team is anything but the "same old Seahawks", and it was the home team who was standing and cheering the unbelievable comeback as the final seconds ticked off the clock. For this reason alone, the entire Seahawks franchise could be awarded this week's Moonlight Graham Award, but that would be too easy!

All candidates for this week's Moonlight Graham Award were selected during the final 2:01 of the game.

Jerhemey Urban started it off with a 22 yard interception, the longest of his three catches for the day.

D.J. Hackett, seemed to be open all day, and would be a hands down winner of this award if Matt hadn't floated a couple of passes to him, also stepped up big on the final drive. His drew a pass interference call and grabbed a critical sidelines pass at the one to set up our third MGA nominee.

While the announcers incorrectly stated that it was the first TD of Ryan Hannam's career, it was a HUGE one nonetheless, and the type of play that gets a third-string tight end who is counted on more for his blocking ability, some notice.

Jordan Babineaux, who two weeks ago had to share the MGA with J.P. Darche for salting away the Rams game, once again stepped up big time, intercepting Bledsoe and then returning it 25 yards into the realm of Josh browns beautiful right leg.

And last but not least, there's Josh Brown, he of left upright doing fame and a tough loss to another NFC East opponent. But that wasn't to be today. I still remember the graphic from the Redskins game: "Josh Brown has yet to hit a game winning field goal."

Well in this cloud covered, rain soaked afternoon in Seattle, a little Moonlight did poke through, as his game winning kick sailed 50 yards straight through the uprights, and then his helmet sailed about another 30 after he ripped it off and threw it in exuberant celebration.

The Award could easily go to all of these guys, but his isn't community soccer, so without minimizing their accomplishments, I gotta whittle down the contestants.

Babineaux and Urban already have won, and Josh Brown can't be considered an "obscure" kicker (Washington game excluded) and D.J. Hackett should have made a few catches that he didn't earlier in the game.


So, whether it was his first or second TD of his career, this week's MEGA goes to Ryan Hannam, because without it the Seahawks don't win this game, or even have a chance for overtime.

Put on some sunscreen Mr. Hannam, because with the bye week coming up, you'll have two weeks to bask in the glow of your Moonlight Graham Award!


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Midnight Cowboy!

Given the current hour in the Eastern Time Zone, I arrived at the title of this week's Moonlight Graham Award, which should make it no surprise that it is going to Jerheme Urban this week.

He was he the leading receiver for most of the game, but he really won the award on his first catch, a beautiful rainbow pass from Matt that he made a great adjustment to and caught before stepping out of bounds.

Granted, it was a run oreinted game, and Matt finished with less than 150 yards total passing, and our Urban Cowboy finished with only two catches for 37 yards, but the way this guy kept focused, and battled back onto the team, is enough to bestow this award on him every week.

He's also a GREAT downfield blocker, and given the way our RBs were burning up the yardage, I won't be surprised to see him throwing key blocks on a lot of those running plays.

Honorable mention goes to Leonard Weaver who threw a MONSTER straight-arm on a late 4th quarter run, and to Jordan Babineaux, who finished second in tackles and seem to be involved in every play of the game on defense.

The entire Seahawks Team was also considered for the award this week, because the way that the ESPN announcers were fawning over our greatness by the end of the game, it seems that we may have finally stepped out of obscurity as a franchise this evening!

But no, this week's award belongs solely to Jeheme Urban, who danced his way back into the hearts of the Seattle faithful, and hopefully solidified his position on this team.

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Who says McDonald's not good for you?

This edition of the Moonlight Graham award is late due to the holiday...no not Columbus Day...the first observance of the twice annual "Seahawks Kick Ram Ass" Holiday!

My only disappointments of the game are that Tory "Big Lame" Holt caught a TD pass against us, and that the failing health of Mad Martz will hang over this victory as a potential excuse. However, I loved EVERYTHING else about the game, which provided many great moments, and with so many of our starters out, or knocked out, many good choices for this award.

I'd love to give it to Joe Jurevicius, as dude stepped up HUGE when needed, with a career day in admittedly the hardest place of any for him to play. From the day he signed, I figured Joe and Matt would become close, and then after learning that he too lost a son, there seems to be an eerie similarity between he and the departed Trent Dilfer, Matt's previous confidante. However, JJ already received every accolade and honorable mention available for his performance on Sunday, and unfortunately, guys with Super Bowl rings are ineligeable for Moonlight Graham Awards!

If I hadn't seen the game, my boy Kelly Herndon might be a good candidate for this week's MGA, as he tied Lofa Tatupu for the team lead with 9 tackles. However, as anyone who did see the game would tell you, that's now knows as an "Antrel Rolle" stat, which means that Herndon picked up all those tackles because his guy was open all day, or he was caught out of position. Now if he had CAUGHT that sure interception in the endzone (like his fellow 9-tackle performer did) it may have been a different story.

I really wanted to give the award to Jerheme Urban this week, because a dude who had his bags packed and was ready to leave town on the very day he gets called back up by the Seahawks seems to embody everything about the Moonlight Graham Award. However, even though he did make a key downfield block on Shaun Alexander's second TD scamper, you got to catch the balls thrown your way and get into the official stat sheet for the game to walk home with contributor iron.

No, the co-winners of this week's Moonlight Graham award are none other than Jordan Babineaux and J.P. Darche, because these are two guys who NOBODY would be talking about, if it weren't for the forced fumble and recovery on the final punt, which allowed us to ice the game.

Let's face it, as Seahawks fans, we've seen it too many times before. The offense plays well enough for the game to be a blowout, but it's not. Then the offense gets too conservative, and has to give the ball back to the opponent, and ANYTIME left on the clock seems to be too much time to preserve the victory. And then even when the defense may step up and force a fumble or snag an interception, something bad seems to happen, like a 47 yard field goal doinking off the left upright. And that's even BEFORE taking into account that we were playing THE RAMS...IN ST. LOSER...where they have a 40-9 home winning record.

But not this week. Not this game. And not this Year!

Babineaux raced down and in making the tackle, forced the pivotal fumble, and then long snapper J.P. Darche had the presence of mind to drop on the ball and cover it up. Two first downs later we all were treated to the glorious site of seeing our offense taking the knee to salt away the victory, instead of scrambling in an all out red-alert in attempt to drive the length of the field with no timeouts in hopes of scoring to tie! (as it seems we're always trying to do in these big road games)

So enjoy your time in the moonlight this week Jordan and J.P., and tell the rest of your mates on Special Teams, that they too could be basking in the glow of an MGA, except for giving up that opening game kick return!

That's Using Your Head!

It's so much harder to do these after a loss, but the show must go on!

When the announcers said that Josh Brown had never kicked a game winning field goal, I thought that as he lined up for the 47 yard attempt with 1 second left in regulation, coupled with his second half touch backs, he was about to ice the victory and pick up his first MGA. But as the ball drifted left, and doinked off the upright, not only was the game in jeopardy, but his chances of picking up an MGA were wide left as well.

Kelly Herndon stepped up with a late game interception, which set up the final drive and 47-yard miss in regulation, but since he actually LOST yardage on the attempted return, instead of getting down and letting the offense take over, even though he's my boy, I couldn't give him the iron this week.

My other boy "12:30" once again did a decent job returning kicks and making tackles on kick offs, but Josh Scobey didn't do anything outstanding, which you'd have to do to pick up an MGA in back to back weeks. Maybe next week in St. Louis when he adds punt returner to his resume!

No, this week's Moonlight Graham Award goes to Special Teams player and back up D-Tackle Craig Terrill for the blocked field goal in the first quarter which kept the game from getting out of hand early, and gave us a chance to tie it up at the end.

"I got in there and got a hand on it," Terrill said. "I came through from the side and then it hit off my facemask. It’s very hard to get through. It’s pretty exciting when it happens. Too bad we didn’t get the last one at the end (of the game)."

Terrill, who was also credited with a tackle on defense is the first special teams player to step up and actually do something special.

Even though it was a tough loss, you can bask in the Moonlight for a week Mr. Terrill, and we'll look for more "heady" play from you next week in St. Loser.