SPORTS: Bumpy roller coaster ride of the Seattle Seahawks may be over

THE GOOD NEWS is the roller coaster ride known as the Seattle Seachickens is finally over.

The bad news: The roller coaster crashed, is crumpled on the ground and is on fire.

Pretty much your typical Seachickens season of late.

I guess Seattle got tired of teasing us by pulling out a few games by the skin of its teeth. Now the Seachickens just aren’t showing up.

How else do you explain losses by 33-3 at Oakland two weeks ago and 41-7 at home to the New York Giants last Sunday?

We all knew that the Seachickens’ chances of upsetting the red-hot and streaking Giants were extremely slim, but still, you let a visiting team go up 41-0 on you.

I guess we should be grateful that the Seachickens scored more than a field goal at all since it had been nine quarters, going back to the second quarter against Arizona in Week 7, that Seattle had actually scored a touchdown.

Not what you would call a powerhouse offense.

In the past two weeks, the Seachickens have been outscored 74-10 while during the same time Buffalo — 0-8 and our favorite whipping boy — has been outscored by only 35-29.

And one of those Buffalo games was a 13-10 overtime affair at Kansas City.

Speaking of Arizona, guess who the Seachickens get to play this week?

Yup, even though they just played three weeks ago, Seattle travels to Arizona today.

After losing 22-10 in Seattle on Oct. 24, I have a feeling coach Ken Whisenhunt will have the Cardinals ready.

Results for the past two weeks shows that the Seachickens just aren’t very deep. Seattle has a lot of injuries but the reserves just aren’t stepping up.

And boy, how about Charlie Whitehurst’s debut at quarterback? Impressed? Of course not.

He connected on only 12 of 23 passes for 113 yards with just one touchdown and two interceptions.

That means, among other things, that he’s not exactly a waiver wire pickup for your fantasy team.

Whitehurst opened his NFL career with a 44.3 quarterback rating. At least he beat out Matt Hasselbeck’s 43.8 rating against Oakland.

The irony of ironies is that Whitehurst’s passer rating had nothing to do with the Giants’ all-world pass-rushing ability.

The Giants, who have been killing quarterbacks this year, earned zero sacks against the Seachickens.

Seattle’s make-shift offensive line gave Whitehurst plenty of time throw.

And throw he did . . . just not on target.

My question is: Didn’t the coaches let him throw during practice? What’s he been doing all these weeks?

OK, enough about the Seachickens. Let’s talk about some good teams.

Top Six

1. New York Giants (6-2) — My top three teams from last week all lost and the Giants are on a roll.

2. Baltimore Ravens (6-3) — They dominated Miami 26-10 last week then lost at Atlanta on Thursday.

3. Pittsburgh Steelers (6-2) — The Steelers don’t seem as dominating as they did a couple of weeks ago.

4. Atlanta Falcons (7-2) — Tampa Bay gave them all they could handle at home (27-21) last week. So did the Ravens (26-21).

5. New England Patriots (6-2) — They looked pretty shabby against Cleveland last week. Don’t expect that to continue.

6. Indianapolis Colts (5-3) — They’re not quite the 14-0 team they were last year, but they still have Peyton Manning.

Bottom Six

27. Arizona Cardinals (3-5) — The only reason they’re here is because they blew a 21-10 lead against Brett Favre and the Vikings and they let gimpy beat them by throwing two touchdowns in the final minutes of regulation to send the game to OT. I so wanted to put the Favre Vikings here.

28. Cincinnati Bengals (2-6) — Another team with high expectations that isn’t getting it done.

29. Denver Broncos (2-6) — Why can’t Seattle play them now?

30. Dallas Cowboys (1-7) — And to think they were a popular preseason Super Bowl pick.

31. Carolina Panthers (1-7) — Carolina played three quarterbacks last week with passer ratings of 28.5 (Jimmy Clausen), 56.2 (Matt Moore) and 60.1 (Tony Pike). Add them up and you have a good rating.

32. Buffalo Bills (0-8) — They are the only winless team even though they could beat a few teams right now, including Seattle. They haven’t yet, so they stay here.

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Brad LaBrie is the sports editor for the Peninsula Daily News. He can be reached at brad.labrie@peninsuladailynews.com.

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