Thursday, January 26, 2006

NFC Championship: Moonlight Graham Award

[Continued]

But an entire team cannot win this award, so how about a single unit? Consideration had been given to the Special Teams unit. Seriously. I'm not kidding. Really!

While they did give up a TD on a punt return, everyone agrees that it should have been called back, if for no other reason than the ticky-tack block in the back call on Seattle that stood, earlier in the game. But apart from this one gaff, the unit made no major mistakes and did not turn the ball over, which is to say it was SUPERB!

Peter Warrick didn't do anything special, except hold on to every punt, which when you're filling in for Jimmy "Jittery" Williams, that in itself is pretty special. The punt team kept pinning the Panthers deep in their own end with good coverage on kicks, even if the refs did put another screw job on us, originally calling one punt out at the 4 yard line, only to come back from commercial break and seeing the Panthers starting at their own 20.

Admittedly, Josh Brown did miss a 47-yard attempt, but he was money on his other tries, was kicking the ball off nice and deep, and the one pooch-punt earlier in thegame was a thing of beauty. On the other side of the kicking game, Josh Scobey once again provided adequate return yardage, and he did break one long return which set up our opening scoring drive in the 3rd quarter, the same drive that was awarded the prestigious "Corney Bronze Race Car."

But the award really needs to go to an idividual players, so let's get down to those who stepped up during the actual game.

The first person who comes to mind is Sean "the anti-Heather" Locklear, who earlier in the week dubiously stepped out of obscurity by being arrested for an altercation outside a nightclub with his live-in girlfriend, and spent the long weekend in jail. Talk about a potentially distracting situation going into the biggest game in the history of the franchise! Thankfully, the media, the organization, and Sean himself handled things well and appropriately, and he turned in an outstanding performance against one of the league's fiercest pass rushers. However, even though all the facts of the case are not public, being an East Coast liberal "hippie", this award cannot go to someone facing a domestic violence charge. Sorry Sean.

On the defensive side of the ball you've got Craig Terrill, one of the Ruskell "high motor" free agents who seemed to be everywhere the ball was when it was his turn to be in the game. Most notably, Craig "the Terrible" (meant in an Ivan wreaking havoc complimentary way) was the one who forced the Jimmy Smith fumble late in the game, which not only put the exclamation point on how thoroughly and completely we shut down the hottest receiver in the playoffs, but it allowed Matt Hasselbeck and the offense to come in and rightfully and proper end this game in the "Victory V" formation.

But while Craig's efforts were appreciated, they were only good to make him a runner-up for the MGA this week.

In terms of someone truely stepping up when called upon, and in terms of stepping out of obscurity, there is only one member of the 2005 Seattle Seahawks deserving of the MGA this week, and it's none other than backup quarterback Seneca Wallace. Never before has a backup quarter back received such accolades and attention in a close game where the starting quarterback remained healthy!

It was just one play, but that one play spoke volumes about the man, the team, and this organization. Statistically, it was a 28-yard completion from the quarterback to a wide receiver for a first down. Upon further review, it was our backup-quarterback lining up opposite one of the leagues' young shutdown cornerbacks, who incidentally left the Seahawks last year in free agency, executing a picture perfect double-move, and then making a spectacular over the should catch. Metaphorically, it was the organization thanking every selfless player on the team for being prepared week after week, understanding the possibilities of getting quality playing time were "slim and none", yet performing at a very high level when their number was called.

The list of these players is endless, but it has to start with guys like Marquand Manuel, DD Lewis, Leroy Hill, Jerheme Urban, D.J. Hackett, Jordan Babineaux, Joe Jurevicius, Sean Locklear, Jerramy Stevens, Ryan Hannam, Jimmy Williams, Mo Morris, Isiah Kacyvenski, Niko Koutouvides, as well as Pork Chop Womack and Itula Mili. Sure this seems like the entire team, but the reason why we're playing in the Super Bowl next week is that every guy on that list either stepped up in a big way when called upon, or understood and accepted that some other guy be playing his position for whatever reason.

So when "AVIS" cradled that pass from Matt on his shoulders, he was also shouldering the load for all of the guys on the depth chart, and cradling a bundle of admiration and gratitude from the coaches, the organization and all of the fans, proving that when you are number two, you definitely try harder!




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Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Dark Angel Trophy Options

Ties in with the Moonlight Graham Award nicely, but not really a "Dark Angel"












Very Goth so it fits the Dark Angel motif really well, and just hot enough to remind you of Jessica

















Two words: TITTIES!!! Very appropriate for an award, she's naked which is definitely hot, but would she fly over at SeahawkBlue??!!
















Politically incorrect as hell, but certainly fits the Dark Angel motif. Pluse, odds are good that the recipient will be black.
















Somewhat trailer-trashy, but I could put the photo of each recipient in the frame!








Not exactly Dark, but good Seahawk colors

















Cornball enough to rival the EXTREMELY Corney Bronze Racecar

Monday, January 16, 2006

DIVISIONAL ROUND: Moonlight Graham Award

[Continued]

Sadly, two of this author's fan favorites got great notice and attention during this game, but unfortunately it was due to mental errors (Jimmy Williams) and turnovers (Josh Scobey), rather than outstanding play. In their defense, each did have some credible returns during the game, and each contributed on special teams coverage, so it wasn't all bad. Clean it up for next week though boys, or you may be looking for another team to suit up for next season.

On to the game makers, and we have to start with Maurice Morris. We all know what happened to Shaun Alexander, and MoMo was called into action. He came in and picked up some critical first downs, got good yardage on first and second downs, and DID NOT PUT THE FOOTBALL ON THE GROUND. It showed that MoMo is a true professional, was prepared and knowledgeable of the gameplan, and the rest of the team has faith and comfort in his abilities.

So often you see the backup come in and run the wrong way, or miss handoffs, or just play tentatively, and MoMo did none of these things. While resting the starters seemed to make Indy rusty and off their game, it seemed to really give our backups some quality game-speed reps, which I believe helped MoMo step into this situation without being nervous or cold.

Other offensive honorable mentions have to go to "Pork Chop" Womack, who also was called into action when Big Walt went down, Ryan Hannam for one drive sustaining catch and his usual outstanding blocking, like he was 20 yards down field helping Mack Strong pick up those 32 yards, and Joe Jurivicius for his punishing yards after his one ad-lib catch, and for breaking up a sure interception on Matt's ill advised "whirly-bird" prayer.

On the defensive side of the ball, you'd like to give it to the entire squad, John Marshall and Ray Rhodes, who was back in the booth in an "observation" role. The defense seemed to be in the right place at the right time all game long, except for those two HUGE 3rd-and-forever pickups late in the game, and they were flying around hitting everything that moved, like they did in Philadelphia.

In addition to Lofa, mentioned above, Grant Wistrom was like a man on fire, and completely blew up Clinton Portis whose feable attempt to block Grant only seemed to inspire him more. If this were a regular season game, strong relief efforts from Joe Tafoya and Craig Terrill may have been enough to win them some iron.

And while most people will fault Joe Tafoya for the off sides penalty which negated the sack by Craig Terrill, upon reviewing the game tape it's obvious that Joe asked the refs to make that call to take attention away from the lame Denny Terrio/Arthur Fonzerelli "two thumbs up" sack dance that Craig broke out with after the play.

Other defenders worth noting were Kelly Herndon, Andre Dyson, Marquand Manuel and Jordan Babineux, not so much for what they did, but for what they didn't do, which was get costly penalties, get burnt, or leave the field injured. A healthy secondary is going to be a huge asset against the Pussys, err, I mean Panthers next week.

So if you're still reading this somewhat rambling post at this point, you're probably going through the roster and asking yourself, "hey Alba, who is left to give this freaking award to?", and when you read the answer below, you'll see that there is still a player or two on our roster toiling in relative obscurity.

After Shaun fumbled away our best scoring opportunity, and then left the game with a concussion, the rest of the first half became a close-to-the-vest chess match between the two coaches, and an intense battle for field position. Our best weapon throughout this skirmish was none other than punter Tom Rouen, the Divisional Round Playoff MGA winner.

I'm ashamed to admit that my source and inspiration for this award was none other than Peter King of SI, who pointed out the following in naming Tom Rouen his Special Teams Player of the Week in his MMQB article:

Seattle P Tom Rouen, whose first four punts of the NFC divisional game at Qwest Field (48, 42, 53 and a poochy 29 yards) had Washington drives start at its 12-, 15-, 8- and 15-yard lines. You saw the game. You know in a game like this one that field position is everything. Rouen was Seattle's biggest weapon in the first half.

So in a day when most people are pointing to our special teams as a unit that very nearly cost us this victory, we're reminded that we have a very solid kicking game, led by Josh "Money" Brown and the latest recipient of the East Coast Bias Blogger Award, MGA winner Tom Rouen.

We've got our proverbial foot in the hypothetical door to Superbowl XL, and with the help of these two guys, we should kick the damned thing down next week.

EDIT: I forgot to give an honorable mention to a sometimes contributor and Knock Out pool participate Ghost of Knox aka Ghost Rider aka GOX, who deserves MGA mention for redeeming himself by attending this game. He was at the opener in Jacksonville and couldn't muster the karma to reverse the poor play by the offense, but in true Seahawks style, he got redemption when the opportunity presented itself and shed that monkey off his back.

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Monday, January 02, 2006

W17: Moonlight Graham Awarld

[Continued...]

Once Matt handed the ball over to Seneca, after the first team finally wrapped up the Rushing and TD titles for Shaun, it look as though he was going to run away with the ugliest trophy on the blog. He lead the team on an 8-play, 71-yard drive culminating in the first TD pass of his career, a 5-yard pass to free-agent pick-up extrodinaire, Joe Jurivicius. As if it was possible to like and respect the "unlucky hooker" any more, he once again proved his tremendous character by giving the ball to Seneca to commemorate the moment.

However, I didn't get to witness that drive personally, as I was playing Madden on my son's new GameCube during halftime, and Seneca looked dazed and confused for the remainder of the game, so that left me looking for other MGA candidates.

The two other pre-game favorites for this award didn't do much better. MoMo managed just 25 yards on 9 carries, 16 yards coming on a single run. Most of this was due to most of the starting offense line also resting, but some has to do with the eratic play calling of Gil Haskell. Both better hope the Seahawks have room for them next season, because neither did themselves a big favor to showcase their talents.

I didn't pay too close attention to how Chris Spencer played while in the game, but a first round selection is probably automatically excluded from this award. I was also surprised that Leonard "Stiffy" Weaver did not get much playing time in this exhibition, which ruled him out as well, so on to the defensive side of the ball we go.

Craig Terrill seemed to be everywhere on the field, and recovered a fumble for the second week in a row, but didn't really show up in the stat sheet, and let's face it, he's no Joe Tafoya! Kaz and Koots got quality playing time, but didn't really make the most of it, but Rodney Bailey proved to be another good Ruskell pick up.

No, this week's Moonlight Graham award goes to Jimmy Williams, who continued the good work filling in for our injury depleted secondary. Sure, the second teamers got torched enough to make the Packers look like contenders, and Brett Favre an MVP candidate, but Williams was second on the team with 8 tackles, and picked off a pass at a critical point in the game. Actually, it's that interception that locked up the award for him, since it seemed to be the first ball he's pulled in this season without first calling for a fair catch!

So, to the man with an old soul, who started the season on the 49-ers, a team just barely good enough to lose out on Reggie Bush, and ended it on the team with the best record in NFC, enjoy two weeks in the glow of the Moonlight Jimmy Williams!


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