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Monday, November 22, 2004

EGGZAUST'D 

What an odd Sunday it was.

Before I go on, I'm about to bring to you something the Sun lost in Saturday's edition amidst all the Apple Cup hype, and didn't report in the Sunday edition either (or they hid it really well). Bremerton 2002 grad Dana Kirk won the 100-meter butterfly on Friday at the Speedo Cup in Long Beach last Friday with a final time of 54.51 seconds. The Stanford team won the tournament on Saturday. Congrats to Dana and the Cardinal.

Here come the headlines, with a ton of Seahawk infotainment...

MARINERS
I've used this bailout before, but I guess no news is good news here.

FOOTBALL
Before I get to the Seahawks here, the BC Lions lost the Grey Cup to the Toronto Argonauts, 27-19. BC went with Dave Dickenson instead of the CFL MVP Casey Printers at quarterback. They didn't pull it off. Also, you may know that the Seahawks used ageless wonder Jerry Rice to score a touchdown, which is one thing. But to get beat by a 41-year-old quarterback is quite another. Damon Allen was the Grey Cup MVP yesterday.

Now for the normal Seahawkage...
It's a win. This we know. Michael Boulware got the Seahawks back into sole possession of first place. I don't want to curse anything, and it's stupid to look this far ahead, but if the Seahawks manage to win this division despite losing twice to the Rams, it'll be hilarious. As was my suspicion in my game post, it sure did seem like the Dolphins started having their way with Shaun Alexander; they tackled him six times for minus yardage. But as Clare Farnsworth says, an ugly win against the Miami Dolphins is way better than a loss. Farnsworth also gives some ink to Jerry Rice, who got in the end zone for the 206th time (195th through the air) and to Marcus Tubbs, who forced a fumble from AJ Feeley.

Yes, Boulware saved the day. Of course, it did help that the Bills throttled the Rams at Rich Stadium (going nostalgic here). Greg Bishop also reminds me of the horribly ill-timed Mack Strong fumble. Bishop also gives us the horrific stat that the Seahawks converted on exactly zero third downs in the second half. That means extra work for Donnie Jones. Oh yeah, Koren Robinson and Chris Terry didn't play because they missed a team meeting. Way to be, guys.

The inevitable Trent Dilfer article. The first half was decent for Seattle, but let's not kid ourserlves here. This team needs a healthy Matt Hasselbeck back if they want to get to where they want to be. Dilfer was pretty decent in the first half, but his second half was God-awful. In addition to the passes that didn't connect, he had a propensity to take idiotic sacks on third down. Let's not forget the delay of game when the Seahawks were going for it on fourth-and-1, which drove them out of field-goal range and had me cursing at the television.

The Times notebook says that Rice still has something left in the tank, Donnie Jones was crap in the punting department yesterday, there were lineup changes, Grant Wistrom feels great and plays well, and Dilfer admits his delay of game penalty on 4th-and-1 was "bush league."

Rice started in place of Koren Robinson, benched for missing a team meeting, something that happened to him last year at Arizona as well. Jeremy had a great line when he said Nicolette Sheridan was lucky she didn't jump into Koren Robinson's arms. We try here at Sports and Bremertonians. At Avis, they try harder. That means we're the guy doing the Robot in the one commercial.

Let's hope Hasselbeck/the receivers can get his/their groove back when he/they play(s) again, because if other teams do what Miami did and run eight-man fronts, Shaun Alexander is going to have some trouble (35 second-half yards) and the air game is going to have to step up. Buffalo's going to get the game tape for this game and they'll probably be licking their chops; the scary thing is that their defense is leaps and bounds better than this Miami defense.

Art Thiel cranks up the blooper reel, bringing up the delay of game penalty on 4th-and-1, as well as Kris Richard plowing Wes Walker after a fair catch was called. As with all Thiel articles, odd metaphors/cliches are used.

Steve Kelley places importance on the message Mike Holmgren sent with all the benchings he handed out. He also says that the Seahawks need to take more chances down the field, similar to the 56-yard run after the catch by Rice. I think one of the earlier columns brought this up, but only two NFC teams have a better record than the Seahawks, and the Seahawks are atop their division. Does this not seem like the worst 6-4 team you've ever seen in your life?

Les Carpenter reminds about the gamble the Seahawks took in drafting Michael Boulware and trying to convert him into a safety. I'd have to say it's turned out well so far, even though Boulware is the fifth defensive back. He's just making the big plays for whatever reason, and he doesn't even know why. It just happens, and dang it, you need a couple players like that.

BASKETBALL
Bremerton's Marvin Williams will play tonight at 6 in the Maui Invitational against BYU, televised on ESPN. The Marvin Watch printed in the Sun today otherwise is not associated with our Marvin Williams Watch from two days ago.

For my take on the Sonic game, scroll down to the post below this one or click here.

Combine the bad shooting with playing horrible defense, and it's no wonder why the Sonics lost. They'd been able to pull out a win or two during the streak when their shooting wasn't completely there (not to the degree of last night though), and their rebounding and defense would give them a chance to win the game. Neither was present against the Celtics, as Paul Pierce and Gary Payton had okay games, but Ricky Davis went nuts to the tune of 25 points.

See also this article by Danny O'Neil on the new mellow Gary Payton.

In the bevy of reasons as to why the Sonics lost, Danny Fortson said "...somehow, some kind of way, all the calls went one direction real fast." Come on, Danny. You know you're a marked man already in the officials' eyes. Don't make it worse. Overall, though, it's pretty apparent; the defense and the rebounding have got to show up for the Sonics to have a chance if the shooting goes cold. Simple.

HOCKEY
Well, I tried here. There were no games on Sunday night, and there aren't any games until Wednesday. I looked at the CBC page to see if there were any new NHL-related headlines, and there was not a thing. Hence, I have nothing here for tonight. Tomorrow, I'll probably do a standings post, and the day after it'll probably be leading scorers.

Upcoming...
Wednesday: Calgary at Seattle, Medicine Hat at Portland
Friday: Medicine Hat at Everett, Tri-City at Portland, Regina at Vancouver
Saturday: Medicine Hat at Seattle, Calgary at Portland, Milwaukee at Manitoba
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Enjoy your Monday, everyone, if that's possible. A Seahawk loss would have made that a lot less possible, I'm sure.

[Edit ~8:53a -- Added Marvin Williams part.]

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