Scooter Chapman

So the Seattle Seahawks used Charlie Whitehurst to beat the St. Louis Rams and get the Hawks into the NFL playoffs with a 7-9 record, the worst record ever for a division cham-pionship team going into the playoffs.

 

Then, after much bally-hoo, coach Pete Carroll named Matt Hasselbeck as his starter for the first playoff game against the defending NFL champion New Orleans Saints.

 

It was the old saying: “An injured starter never loses his job because of injury.”

 

Hasselbeck returned to the starting lineup and led the team with four touchdown tosses in a 41-36 nail-biter over the Saints, who, it seemed, took the Seahawks a little on the light side after getting a 10-0 lead, then a 17-7 lead.

 

How many of you picked the Seahawks over the Saints? I do not see any hands out there although I know there were a few. I did not. I was sort of shocked at how the Seattle offense and defense came through and the score would’ve been 41-29 had Seattle not gone into a “prevent defense” after putting the 41st point on the board.

 

Then it was on to Chicago. How many of you picked the Seahawks over the Bears? I, quite frankly, did not choose Seattle. The Hawks are a terrible road team, even though they beat the Bears earlier this year in Chicago.

Game day

I was at a loss … a 10 a.m. start. You have to realize that skipping church for a Seahawk game is not high on the list of things to do as my football and basketball stat guru Pastor Ted Mattie might bolt his nonpaying job if I were to do this very often.

 

I thought about taking a tiny radio with an almost invisible earpiece and listening between singing my tenor notes in the choir and the Mattie sermon, but, alas, Mrs. Chapman nixed that idea.

 

Videotaping the game seemed a good answer but I hate knowing who won while watching, so, I bit the old bullet and said to myself, “Self, pick up the game when you get out of church and deal with it.”

 

I exited church and turned on the car radio just in time to hear that Marcus Trufant was being carried off the field, the score was 21-0 Bears at halftime and tight end John Carlson had been carted off earlier.

 

Then it was 28-0. Seattle put points on the board and made it look respectable, but the cold weather, the fact that the Bears were well-rested and Seattle could not put pressure on Jay Cutler like they did in October, spelled end of the season for a Seattle team that gave it all they had in two very gutsy performances even to reach the game against the Bears.

 

Chicago’s 14 first-period points set the Seahawks back and they did not recover.

 

Seattle shortened the score to 35-24 late in the last period but as Chicago dominated, it was over going into the last 15 minutes.

 

Now the off-season — maybe a good draft pick or two and playoffs could be in the picture again next year but the burning question … who will be the quarterback?
By the way, I like Green Bay over the Bears this weekend.

NCAA bowling

How did you do on your college bowl predictions? Your old neighbor wound up with 18 wins and 17 losses, but I did take six of the last eight wins to the bank, as it were.

 

I thought the Oregon Ducks outsmarted themselves. Instead of polishing up the offense and defense that got them into the final game of the season, they opened the game with some different formations that really didn’t fool the Auburn Tigers.

 

I would’ve had a better prediction record, but the Big Ten teams really let me down, with Michigan State, Michigan and Wisconsin falling.

 

OK, so 18-17 isn’t very good … but there is always next year.

Wednesday wrap

Great basketball game between the Roughriders and Wolves boys last week … paying fans got their six bucks worth, that’s for sure.

 

Now it will probably come down to a Feb. 8 battle in P.A. to see which boys team finishes second to Kingston in the Olympic League chase.

 

Many hoop fans were wondering why the basketball games last week were on Thursday. It was because the league’s wrestling coaches lobbied for a Friday night feature event for their sport.

 

The grapplers got the Friday night spotlight and they have earned that right.

 

Received several nice comments on last week’s column and maybe I will send a copy to the Seattle Mariners. All they can do is say no to doing a game or two this coming season.

Columns by KONP 1450 AM sports announcer Scooter Chapman appear weekly in the

Sequim Gazette. He can be reached via e-mail at scooter@olypen.com.