Charlie Whitehurst had two touchdown passes to help the Seahawks defeat the Titans 20-18 in both squads preseason opener.
Whitehurst went 14 out of 22, passing for 214 yards and had one interception. Starter Matt Hasselbeck went 4 for 10, passing for 26 yards. Anthony McCoy and Mike Williams each caught a touchdown pass in Seattle’s win. The Seahawks last season went 5-11 and finished as the NFC West’s third place team.
It was Pete Carroll’s debut as Seattle’s new head coach.
For the Titans, Chris Johnson, who last season rushed for 2,006 yards to lead the league, had seven yards rushing on five carries and scored one touchdown and Vince Young passed for 78 yards and went 5 out of 6. The Titans last season bounced back from their 0-6 start and ended the season with an 8-8 record and finished as the AFC South’s third place team.
Reportedly Harvey Unga, running back from BYU, today worked out in front of 20 teams in Provo Utah. On Thursday July 15 the supplemental NFL draft will take place. Four players, with one being Unga, are expected to come available. Unga, at 224 pounds and 6-1, could serve as a short yard running back the Seahawks are searching for to finish off their rotation at running back. In three seasons in a row at BYU Unga rushed for more than 1,000 yards, averaging 5 yards a carry for his college career.
Don’t let his bald head fool you, or his declining production, recent injury history, or the off season acquisition of a potential future quarterback by Seattle. Matt Hasselbeck doesn’t want to be put out to pasture quite yet. Following a mini camp practice recently from Seahawks headquarters Hasselbeck said, it’s kind of annoying have everybody treat me as if I am 40years old. I am not 40, seriously. The clock, however, is ticking. The season for Hasselbeck in Seattle this year is make or break. In late September, he will turn 35 and is coming off the worst statistical season of his career since 2001 when he became the Seahawks starting quarterback. Over the last two years he had had to miss 11 games and taken a beating with the Seahawks porous offensive line in front of him.
The Seattle Seahawks are the NFL version of houses that you drive by that are always being remodeled. One day you see men hauling new carpet in. Then a couple months later, there is scaffolding by the front porch. However, you aren’t sure what they are fixing. Later on the house’s left side gets painted. However then winter sets in and so painting the house’s right side gets put off and eventually is forgotten. There gets to be a point where you realize that whoever owns this house doesn’t seem to have a plan that they stick to.
Scot McCloughan, former general manager of the San Francisco 49ers, didn’t need to look too far to get his next job in the NFL. The 39 year old McCloughan will stay in the NFC West and become part of the personnel team for the Seattle Seahawks. On Tuesday, it was made official that he will be the team’s senior personnel executive. On Monday, John Schneider, Seahawks general manager said, this is big for us. Scot is one of the league’s more respected personnel individuals. He played a crucial role in assisting the Seahawks in 2005 in becoming a Super Bowl contender. Over the last couple years he’s done a great job helping to rebuild the 49ers.
Featured | On June 22, 2010
While the Packers were piling up points versus the hapless Seahawks, Green Bay’s quarterback Aaron Rodgers had more than a slight interest with the out of town scores on the scoreboard. With their blowout defeat of Seattle secure, Green Bay needed for Carolina to defeat the Giants in order to clinch a spot in the playoffs with just a week remaining in the season.
When Josh Freeman threw his ninth interception after only playing a little over two games, the rookie went over to the Buccaneers sideline and told Tampa Bay’s coach Raheem Morris, while looking him straight in the eyes, I got it. Then go get it, replied Morris. The rookie did. During the second half Freeman had two touchdown passes and the battered Buccaneers defense forced five turnovers from a reckless Matt Hasselbeck, as Tampa Bay rallied on Sunday to defeat the Seahawks 24-7.
Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson were able to show just how good the offense of Gary Kubiak can be when Houston doesn’t make any silly mistakes. They are hoping they can keep things up to help Kubiak keep his job. Andre Johnson had 193 receiving yards, his season high, along with two touchdowns leading Houston (6-7) on Sunday to a 34-7 victory over Seattle (5-8) to break their losing streak of four games that had led to some clamoring for Kubiak to be fired.
Seattle was bracing for another Frank Gore rampage. What they got instead was an Alex Smith career passing day with the new spread offense of the 49ers and a win that was a gift. Aaron Curry, rookie outside linebacker for the Seahawks said, when they just take care of a problem for us it’s a big load off. It was beautiful. Curry was beaming over the fact that Gore only ran nine times on Sunday after three months ago romping for 202 yards versus the Seahawks. That and the fact that the 49ers had an avalanche of mistakes is what kept the Seahawks in the game. Olindo Mare then kicked a field goal of 30 yards as the game clock expired to give Seattle a 20-17 win over the 49ers.
