Individual Liberty — Individual Responsibility 

Merry Christmas!

I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas, or at the very least happy holidays. My family and I are going to have a quiet celebration at home.

We just watched A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott. It was a great film, and it always brings a tear to my eye.

I don't plan to be online much on Christmas day. I'm going to hang out with the family and enjoy the day. I hope that you all enjoy the day with your families.

Merry Christmas! If you're online on Christmas day, this is your Open Trackbacks post for Monday, December 25, 2006. If you post something interesting you'd like to share feel free to link to this post and ping for a trackback.

For the best exposure, go to the blogger's oasis and use the linkfest chooser to choose the posts you'd like to hook up with.

Hawk - Ptooie? NO! Hawk Persistence! No Wait! :-(

The Seahawks didn't start out very well in the second half. San Diego managed to march down-field and get a field goal almost right away. 10-0 San Diego.

On the kickoff return Nate Burleson ran the ball back over 90 yards for what would have been a touchdown if it weren't for a rather weak holding call that brought the ball back. Then things went from bad to bad. Hasselbeck was sacked, and Deion Branch dropped his third pass of the day.

These are the same Seahawks that have been playing this way all year. Dropped passes, missed tackles and bone-headed penalties. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Things weren't that bad though. On the next exchange, Lofa Tatupu finally managed to sack Rivers. A three and out for San Diego.

Shaun Alexander managed to remind me why we love having him though with a twenty-plus yard run for touchdown to bring the Seahawks within three. It was a thing of beauty! 10-7 San Diego.

A decent special teams play on the kickoff return left the Chargers shy of the twenty. The crowd started to get into the game too. Maybe things aren't going to be that bad.

Of course the Seahawks shoot themselves in the foot too many times. On first down, a penalty for being offside's made it first and five. Thank God for the crowd though, on the next play the Chargers false start brought the ball back so it was first and ten again.

It's good when the Seahawks get fired up. On the next two play Rivers threw a bad pass under pressure, and it went nowhere. Of course Rivers had a horrible first half except for one pass.

Sadly, he managed to get it together on third and ten and threw a good one past mid-field and into Seahawks territory. A few more passes, about half of them incomplete, and the Chargers were close enough for another field goal. 13 - 7 San Diego.

After a three-and-out, the Chargers also had problems. The punt was horrible and the Seahawks took over on the Chargers 45. On third and ten, a pass interference call gave the Seahawks the ball on the nine yard line and Shaun Alexander ran in for a touchdown!!! 12-14 Seattle! The Seahawks finally took the lead early in the fourth quarter! There was a personal foul against the Chargers on the play, leaving a 15 yard penalty on the kick.

The Chargers ended up punting, but on the punt it looked like the Seahawks touched the ball and then the Chargers recovered. That was the ruling on the field.  Holmgren threw the red flag, and the call was overturned. The ball touched #33 on the kicking team, so the Seahawks got the ball at about the 36 yard line.

Right at about that time, Arizona polished off the 49ers, so Seattle managed to clench the NFC West and will be going to the playoffs.

Right after that Matt Hasselbeck ran for a first down inside San Diego territory. One thing the Hawks have going for them is persistence. That was certainly the story of the season for the Seahawks, as well as the story of this game. Their persistence has made the second half of this game worth watching. Hopefully they can carry it into the playoffs and go back to the Super Bowl. They're going to really need it.

After four dropped passes, Deion Branch managed to finally catch one for another first down. The Seahawks managed to move the ball down the field and Shaun Alexander had another huge run, bringing the ball to the 19. The drive seemed to stall, but Josh Brown made it 17-13 Seahawks with 5:07 left to play.

The Chargers had to punt on fourth and twenty, but the Seahawks went three and out. With two minutes left to play the score was still 17-13 and the Chargers had used up their timeouts. On the first play from scrimmage they took the ball to the 50. The next play was a false start and stopped the clock.

After a few wasted opportunities the clock was down to 36 seconds and on second and ten they went deep. Jackson caught the ball in the end zone, leaving the score at 17-19. Bad clock management or not, the Seahawks would get the ball back with less than a half a minute to make up the deficit. 20-17 San Diego.

On the exchange, there were 23 seconds left. Incomplete pass to Mack Strong, 18 seconds left, second and ten. After a false start, it was second and 15. After some ugliness, a first down with about 4 seconds left, and the game looked over. A long pass, and the Chargers won with that last minute touchdown.

San Diego will have home-field advantage in the playoffs.

Seattle Loses yet again.

But at least this time, it wasn't a big disappointment. They played well against one of the best teams in the league, and it was a close game, when I was expecting a blowout.

Cross Posted at NWBloggers.com

An astoundingly bad first half

The first half isn't quite over, but so far it's been astoundingly bad. I can't believe that Matt Hasselbeck has been sacked as many times as he has. The first play from scrimmage was a sack.

The Seahawks front line has been missing in action. ElsBritt said she thought they had left to go to the bathroom or something, since they didn't seem to be providing any protection.

San Diego doesn't seem to be able to get it together today. The amazing thing is that as I write this, the Seahawks have 61 yards passing and San Diego has 0.

There have been some incredibly bad "almost" plays too. A Seattle punt was nearly blocked, but it turned into the longest punt for Seattle in since 1973. The receiver fumbled it too. San Diego was lucky though. They recovered the fumble.

There's still a little more than 6 minutes to go in the half, and Seattle has punted again. For the first time in the game there was a decent run. It could have been a touchdown, but it was 62 yards from the 14 yard line.

Seattle's Defense still doesn't know how to make tackles. But at least an incredibly dull game has at least one highlight now. Unfortunately for Seattle, it looks like San Diego is going to score first.

Well, they did. On second and eight at the nine, the Seahawks gave San Diego what seemed like a week in the pocket. Nobody even seemed to know that the quarterback had the ball and bam - a touchdown pass.

Yuck!

I wonder if the Seahawks will wake up now and figure out how to come back with a score, or if now that San Diego appears to have their rhythm the game will turn into the blowout that was predicted.

Update: Well the Seahawks still can't get it together. Matt Hasselbeck threw yet another interception. The bright spot is that Shaun Alexander finally broke through for a decent run. The defense also somehow managed to stop the Chargers, but it's been a pretty bad half.

At the end of the half, the Chargers had 9 yards of passing to the Seahawks' 92 yards. The thing that mattered though is that the Chargers' 9 yards was on a single touchdown pass. The Seahawks go into the locker room 7 points behind.

Cross posted at NWBloggers.com

Seahawks vs. Chargers

One of my favorite football games of the year is about to start. The San Diego Chargers are in Seattle to play against the Seahawks. In years past Betty and I have gone down to San Diego to watch the games with a good friend of ours. We haven't done that in a while, but it's still fun to watch the game.

Today we have some friends over to watch the game and we're going to eat steak and king crab for dinner at halftime. It should be a lot of fun, no matter who wins the game.

Sadly, the way they've been playing, it looks like the Seahawks are going to get blown out of the water. Tim's going to have a lot to gloat about, not that he's ever been one to gloat. It's too bad he's still down in San Diego instead of here to watch the game with us.

My friends are here, so the fun's about to start. Look for my report after the game.