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More exciting NFC sloppiness!

A 40 yard Josh Brown field goal opened up scoring in the second half.

The first flag of the game (the first actual penalty anyway) was thrown on a bogus pass-interference call. There was contact, but it looked to me like it was just incidental contact within the first five yards. Bad call. Either that or I'm a partisan hack for the Seahawks :-)

Grant Wistrom made up for the penalty with a sack of Grossman on the very next play. Then on third and 16, they Seahawks sacked him again.

The next flag thrown was a fifteen yard penalty against Chicago for "interference with the opportunity to make the catch" on the Chicago punt.

I guess the yellow cloth really did want to play in this game. The very next play was marred by yet another yellow hankie as Mack Strong moved too early.

Deion Branch and Shaun Alexander proved to be key players in the Seahawks drive. Branch managed to catch two good passes to get the Seahawks out of second and fifteen, and then Jerramy Stevens continued his catchless streak, leaving the Seahawks at third and ten on the thirteen. Shaun Alexander ran the ball in for a touchdown on the next play though, and the score moved to 24-21, Seattle. The Seahawks finally took the lead!

The color yellow made several more appearances, including one to end the third quarter. A "defensive" false start? On fourth and four? Leroy Hill gave away another set of downs to the Bears just as they were going for a 31 yard field goal attempt. The third quarter was certainly a comedy of errors. Ouch.

The fourth quarter opened with a false start, so the Seahawks got the yards back, but it was now second and goal from the 14. After a short run it was third and goal at the ten. On the next play, Pete Hunter intercepted the ball!

The Seahawks went from holding the Bears to a tie to possibly losing the lead again to having a former loan officer repossess the ball. Then Hasselbeck threw an interception!

My wife and I were baking cookies during the game. That was just about enough to make me want to toss them. NFC football, especially Seahawks football can be exciting, but sometimes it's just painful to watch.

Bernard Berrian dropped the ball, pretty much ending the Bears drive. Then on a 49 yard field goal attempt for the Bears yet another penalty forced the Bears to punt. Instead of tying the game, the Bears remained three points down.

On second and 11 at the 6, Jerramy Stevens finally caught a ball to bring the Hawks out of their own end zone. Unfortunately Hasselbeck was sacked on the next play.

On the punt, Hester ran the ball back for a touchdown from the Chicago 40. The yellow hankie flew again! Ricky Manning Jr. threw an illegal block in the back for ten yards and the touchdown was called back.

The field appeared to tilt in the Bears favor. After what looked like a solid stop of the Bears with the ball about a foot and a half shy of the first down marker the chains came out as Fox went to commercial. While we were away watching advertisements the ground tilted and the ball rolled forward enough to change a foot and a half deficit into first down yardage! Ok, maybe the ground didn't tilt, but even so that was strange!

The Seahawks managed to stop the Bears yet again. On fourth and eight the Bears had to settle for a field goal, tying the game 24-24.

Shaun Alexander and Deion Branch helped move the ball downfield for the Seahawks. Even so, the the clock wound down to the two minute warning with Seattle just shy of a first down inside the Bears 45. After the break the Seahawks went for it on fourth and one and Shaun Alexander lost a yard, because Matt Hasselbeck bobbled the snap!

The Bears went three and out and punted into the end-zone, giving the Seahawks the ball on the 20. Three runs by Shaun Alexander brought the ball to mid-field with 54 seconds to play as the Seahawks used their second time-out. On second and nine, Jerramy Stevens caught the ball again, to make it third and one, then another first down by Shaun Alexander to bring the ball to the Chicago 45.

Hasselbeck then nearly threw another interception going to Deion Branch, but it was incomplete. On the next play, Hasselbeck was sacked, and the Seahawks were out of timeouts. Chicago took a timeout, preventing the game from going into immediate overtime. With two seconds left, it was fourth and nineteen for Seattle.

Hasselbeck threw the ball away, and the game went into overtime. Seattle won the toss, and elected to receive.

Overtime!

Nate Burleson ran the kickoff back to the 30. Shaun Alexander ran for 10 on first down. On the next play, Seattle gave the ball to Maurice Morris, but the Bears stopped him for a loss of two. On second and twelve, Hasselbeck threw to Will Heller, for ten yards, third and two.

On third down, Ian Scott chased Hasselbeck down, and he threw the ball away. Plackemeir's punt was short, and the ball changed hands with the Bears taking possession at their 34 yard line.

On third and ten, Grossman threw a bullet to Rashied Davis for thirty yards, moving the ball into Seahawks territory. The Seahawks managed to stop the Bears on third and 5, so the Bears tried for a 49 yard field goal. Robbie Gould's kick was good, ending the Seahawk's post-season run the same way that so many Seahawk victories during the regular season came... with a field goal to end the game.

The Saints will be playing the Bears in Chicago next week. It's the Bears first playoff win since 1994!

The Seahawks go home. But wow! What a game.

Cross Posted to NWBloggers.com

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Is It Just Me?, Right Truth, Big Dog's Weblog, Shadowscope, Stuck On Stupid, The Amboy Times, Leaning Straight Up, Pursuing Holiness, 123 Beta, Rightwing Guy, third world county, The HILL Chronicles, Woman Honor Thyself, , The Uncooperative Blogger ®, stikNstein... has no mercy, Pirate's Cove, Renaissance Blogger, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox News, Right Voices, The Random Yak, Adam's Blog, basil's blog, Phastidio.net, Conservative Cat, Wake Up America, Faultline USA, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, OTB Sports, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Inconsistent Football, consistently

The first half of the Seahawks - Bears game went pretty much like most Seahawks games. Missed tackles and dropped passes were the story.

On the first drive, the Seahawks just couldn't stop the run. The Bears went up 7-0 early.

It wasn't until the opening play of the second quarter that the Seahawks managed to score. The Bears came right back though on one play with a 63 yard touchdown pass.

A few plays later, and it was a dropped pass that wasn't. Instead of dropping the ball, Darrell Jackson bobbled it, and bobbled it, and bobbled it, until finally as he was out of bounds, coming up with it looking like a waiter's platter.

The field had a lot to do with the play too. The sod was soft, and there were a lot of stumbles, and more than a few divots and turned ankles, one of which took Mark Bradley out of the game, at least for the remainder of the first half as he was driven into the locker room on a cart.

Grossman gave up the first turnover of the game with a fumble, forced by Julian Peterson. Shaun Alexander proved to be the key player in the Seahawks followup drive. A bad spot left it fourth and inches at the three, but Shaun ran it in for the touchdown. With the extra point, it was tied, 14-14.

The first flag of the day was thrown within a minute and a half, but the refs took it back. As far as penalties go this was pretty clean, but on the next play another flag was thrown. The refs took that one back. The flag fell out of the umpires pocket. I guess the yellow cloth wanted to play too.

On fourth and inches, the Bears took a timeout. When they came back on the field it looked like they were going to go for it, so the Seahawks took a timeout. The Bears came back with a running play for a touchdown, and went into the locker room 21-14.

This was typical Seahawks, and in fact NFC football. An inconsistent slugfest that was both fun and painful to watch.

Cross posted to NWBloggers.com

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Is It Just Me?, Right Truth, Big Dog's Weblog, Shadowscope, Stuck On Stupid, The Amboy Times, Leaning Straight Up, Pursuing Holiness, Rightwing Guy, third world county, The HILL Chronicles, Woman Honor Thyself, , The Uncooperative Blogger ®, stikNstein... has no mercy, Pirate's Cove, Renaissance Blogger, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox News, Right Voices, The Random Yak, Adam's Blog, basil's blog, Phastidio.net, Conservative Cat, Wake Up America, Faultline USA, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, OTB Sports, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

On-and-on-and-on it goes

The North Carolina attorney general has agreed to take over from Mike Nifong. From CBS News:

(CBS/AP) The state attorney general's office agreed Saturday to take over the sexual assault case against three Duke University lacrosse players at the request of the embattled district attorney.

Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, hamstrung by a flip-flopping witness and dogged by allegations that he made inflammatory statements to the media, asked Attorney General Roy Cooper's office Friday to appoint a special prosecutor.

“I wish I could tell you this case would be resolved quickly,” Cooper said at a news conference Saturday. “Since we have not been involved in the investigation and prosecution, all of the information will be new to our office. Any case with such serious criminal charges will require careful review.”

Careful review indeed. Now that Nifong is out of the picture, maybe we'll all learn the truth of things. Maybe.

He [Nifong] faces penalties ranging from admonishment to removal from the bar; a hearing in that case is scheduled for May 11.

...

Cooper said Jim Coman, a former director of the State Bureau of Investigation and head of the attorney general's Special Prosecution Section; and Mary D. Winstead, a prosecutor in that division, would now oversee the case.

“Agreeing to accept the prosecution of these cases doesn't guarantee a trial, nor does it guarantee a dismissal,” Cooper said.

He said his office would take possession of the case files and documents next week, but declined to comment on how quickly their review would progress.

Some observers are asking why Nifong waited until Friday to ask to be pulled from the case.

"He's doing it now because he's in trouble," Cohen said. He has finally realized that he has become the story here, which is not where a prosecutor wants to be."

It sure took him long enough. Mike Nifong has been the story for the past nine months. That is, he has been, together with the accuser who can't keep her story straight.

As things stand, there's physical evidence that tears holes in the case. There's documented telephone records that bring the timing of events into question. And there's the word of a liar as the primary evidence against the accused.

Previous:

• Deluded DA quits case
• Ch-ch-ch-changes!
• Mike Nifong's Fourth Victim
• Tawana Lite - Mike Nifong's Prosecutorial Misconduct
• Remember Tawana Brawley?

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