Matt Hasselbeck
August, 4, 2007

(On progress during training cam…) “It’s getting better as we go. We talk through everything. I think Coach Holmgren gets nervous when he sees us talking all the time, but we are talking about splits, running hard in your motion, getting your depth, not slipping, catching the ball first. He’s doing a great job. We never talk about the same thing twice. We’re growing. We’ve been in our system a long time. All of our guys, all of our wide receivers, they’ve been doing a great job.”

(On D.J. Hackett…) “He’s going to be relied upon but it’s not going to be one guy. It’s not going to be just Deion Branch. It’s not going to be just Bobby Engram. We’re counting on Nate (Burleson). We’re definitely counting on Hack (D.J. Hackett). Those guys have to come through and I think they will.”

(On replacing Darrell Jackson…) “The obvious guy would be Bobby Engram. We’ve spent so much time together. I had all the confidence in the world in Bobby (Engram) and that hasn’t changed. I still feel that way about Bobby.”

(On playing time in exhibition games…) “I don’t know. I know what my surgeon said in Alabama. I know what our team doctors have said here but I don’t know that that is something that can’t change depending on how I do. I’m working hard. When we’re not practicing I’m trying to get better, trying to get stronger. Hopefully we can push the envelope on that a little bit.”

(On the influence of a live crowd…) “There is a lot going on in Seattle today. It’s a beautiful day. There is a lot of other places people could have been. To have them out there was great. It was loud. It is loud right now. It was fun. It was definitely an adrenaline boost for us. We appreciate it.”

(On the offense progressing slower than the defense…) “There ahead of us right now but the defense is always ahead of us a little bit this year. We have a big fat playbook. Their playbook says man or zone. What else is there? So its okay.”

(On his own scrimmage performance…) “It was okay. It was just okay. I accomplished a lot of what I set out to accomplish today. I didn’t get hurt. I didn’t get anybody hurt. Those are two big things right there.”

(On the post-Super Bowl off season…) “I wasn’t tired necessarily. It was a short off season though. I felt the extra attention and the extra conversation about the Super Bowl loss and that streak where the teams who had loss hadn’t been to the playoffs. It’s a drain on you, talking about it day after day after day. I guess we had a taste of what some teams deal with; talking about T.O. (Terrell Owens) or Tiki (Barber) or whatever.”

“We’re talking about little stuff. It’s nice. With it being in Kirkland it’s all business, all about football. I know our fans our disappointed they can’t be there but there are no distractions. It’s just football. It’s just training camp and it’s been good that way.”

(On Deion Branch…) “I have a lot of confidence in Deion. He’s learning a new position so there are things that we’re going to need to continue to work on, continue to rep, but I love him. I think he’s great and, like I said, it’s not just one guy. It’s not going to be one guy replacing Darrell Jackson. I think we have four guys that can step up, that will step up, and I’ll spread it around.”

(On personal improvements…) “When we run our offense we run the same basically the same plays that have many personnel groupings, many formations, and we’ll have a play that Darrell Jackson has repped in practice or a game hundreds of times. In fairness to Deion, he has run them a few times. To expect it to be the same is unfair but we’re getting there and our coaches are smart. They know what they’re doing. We’re getting that work right now. We’re getting a lot of work.”

(On wide receivers…) “That’s up to the coaches, how they decide to do it but we definitely put certain people in the game for certain things.”

“I am just going to read the plays. The coaches are going to put in there who they think is the best. If we are running a post, they’re going to put in the best post runner. If we’re running a corner, they’re going to put in the best corner runner. Maybe that’ll be the same guy both times. I don’t know. That’s what these guys are out here competing for. There is a lot of competition. Those guys are getting after it. They’re tough on each other. They are good friends. Nate (Burleson) and Hack (D.J. Hackett) are playing great right now. I think the competition has a lot to do with it.”

Coach Mike Holmgren
August 4, 2007

(On the Saturday scrimmage…) “A scrimmage is a scrimmage. We have some good things that happened and some things that we know we have to correct. All in all I think that it was a good day. It was a good day for the fans. We had to bang around a little bit before our first game. ”

(On D.J. Hackett …) “I thought that he had a good day. He caught the ball well, moved well and we need that from him. Matt (Hasselbeck) went to him and he moved very well.”

(On David Greene) “Dave (David Greene) did alright. When his group was in there, they moved the ball against a pretty good defense so I was encouraged by that.”

(On the depth of the team…) “ I am not amazed yet but I am hopeful that we have good depth.”

(On the injuries…) “We have a couple injuries but do not have all the details on them yet. (Ben) Joppru hurt his hip, Ben (Obomanu) hurt his neck a little, Courtney (Taylor) tweaked his knee and a couple other hamstring things that I think will be ok. The ones we have to watch for are (Ben) Obomanu and (Ben) Joppru.”

(On Craig Terrill and Walter Jones…) “He (Craig Terrill) banged up his knee a little the other day. It was pretty sore so we held him out. Walt (Walter Jones) is still sore, his shoulder is a little bit sore. He could have practiced today, but he didn’t have to.”

(On Kelly Jennings’ red zone defense…) “It was good. I think he had an advantage because everyone stopped, so that helped. I like the effort by the quarterback trying to chase him down, normally we would blow that. They are so used to having that play blown dead in practices so that is hard. Everyone stopped and Kelly (Jennings) kept going and it was good, that is what he is supposed to do. It was exciting for everybody. I liked it”

(On Seneca Wallace chasing Kelly Jennings…) “Seneca (Wallace) is supposed to do that. He is our last line of defense in an interception like that. With my experience I felt that if you throw an interception, then you are going to be the one to make the tackle. You don’t like it when you throw interceptions.”

(On the fans …) “Yea it is really something. These folks were great today and we appreciate them very much and now they are going to get some autographs from the guys. Then we go back to the rigors of training camp.”

(On Leonard Weaver…) “He will have an expanded role he has to play. We’ve talked about Mack (Strong) not getting as many reps, Mack knows that. Leonard (Weaver), you will see him a lot in the preseason.”

Tackles

Niko Koutouvides - 6 (4 solo)
Gerard Ross – 4 (3 solo)
C.J. Wallace – 4 (2 solo)
Lance Laury – 3 (1 solo)
11 players with 2 tackles

Sacks
Russell Davis – 1 for 5 yards
Will Herring – 1 for 12 yards
Patrick Kerney – 1 for 8 yards
Lance Laury – 1 for 9 yards
Darryl Tapp – 1 for 7 yards
Lofa Tatupu – 1 for 5 yards

Interceptions
Kelly Jennings – 1 for 99t

Forced Fumbles
Niko Koutouvides – 1

Fumble Recoveries
Darryl Tapp – 1

Passes Defensed
Josh Wilson – 2
Dennis Davis – 1
Deon Grant – 1
Kelly Jennings – 1

I am going to try to post the play-by-play at some point tomorrow, but for now I'll summarize:

The scrimmage started out with some special teams work, and as Dave mentioned one of Plackemeier's first punts was blocked. Neither of us saw who got the block. Plackemeier did have a beautiful 60-yard (approximately) punt that landed inside the 10 and bounced sideways out of bounds. The crowd was vocal after that.

Then the first team offense started from the 30 and went against the second team defense. Those are very fluid terms because players were shuttling in and out, so it was never really the same players going against each other, but more of a concept. The first possession ended with a 39-yard field goal by Josh Brown. Second possession ended in an eight-yard screen pass touchdown to the left to Leonard Weaver behind Sims and Spencer.

Third possession was second team O vs. first team D, though the wrinkle was that David Greene ran the offense instead of Seneca. Holmgren said he wanted Greene and Wallace to have the same number of reps and for that to work out in the end, Greene ran the second unit at first. That ended with a 48-yard FG by Josh. Fourth possession ended when Greene completed a pass to Marquis Weeks but it was ripped by Niko Koutouvides and recovered by Darryl Tapp. Holmgren let them kick a FG after that but Kurt Smith missed left on a 43-yarder.

Then they went into red zone drills, though they got only one possession on each play and did not advance the ball. It was two downs from the 20, two from the 15, two from the 10, two from the 5. With Hasselbeck in they only scored once, from the 5, a pass in the front corner of the end zone to Nate Burleson.

With the second team, Seneca connected on a TD from the 15 to Logan Payne. Later, he threw an interception to Kelly Jennings that Boling detailed in his earlier post. It was very impressive and fun to watch.

After red zone offense they went back to regular scrimmage conditions. Most of the regulars were done for the day and it got sloppier. More sacks, less crisp plays, though Seneca did complete a 39-yard TD pass to Hackett, a soft lob over his shoulder that beat rookie Josh Wilson. Derek Devine was tentative, missing all four attempts.

That's it for now, I have to write my daily stuff, but I will follow up with more stuff either later tonight or tomorrow at some point. They have only one practice tomorrow, in the afternoon, and I'll also file after that.

Walter Jones did not play; Holmgren said he has a sore shoulder though he could have practiced if they needed him to.

Will Heller did not go due to sore ankle that kept him out of practice two days ago.

Ben Obomanu had a neck injury that forced him to be carted off in an ambulance. Holmgren did not have the latest word on him.

Ben Joppru injured his hip and was walking off the field after the scrimmage with a noticeable limp. I'll have an update on him Sunday afternoon.

Courtney Taylor tweaked his knee.

Craig Terrill banged up his knee in practice the other day so they held him out.

OK, I just got over to the Key because the players had an autograph session afterwards and Hasselbeck was delayed for a long time.

Here are stats from the scrimmage (it should be noted that none of these stats include the red zone offense):

Passing

Hasselbeck 7-10, 56 yards, 1 TD of yards to Weaver
David Greene 8-9, 61 yards
Seneca Wallace 3-5, 65 yards, 1 TD, 1 int.
Derek Devine 0-4

Rushing

Shaun Alexander 1-4
Maurice Morris 5-20
Leonard Weaver 2-10
Marquis Weeks 4-12
A.J. Harris 3-8

Receiving

Weaver 1-4
Deion Branch 2-20
D.J. Hackett 5-65 1 TD
Weeks 2-10
Courtney Taylor 1-13
Ben Obomanu 3-29
Josh Parry 1-6

I'll crank something real quick because I got up to KeyArena before Frank did. Most importantly, from the scrimmage at Memorial Stadium, receiver Ben Obomanu left with a neck injury. He walked off on his own and got in the ambulance, and it drove away without sirens on. I was interviewing elsewhere so I didn't hear Holmgren's report on it. Also, tight end Ben Joppru suffered a hip injury. Frank will have more details.

It was hot on the artificial turf, and the angle of the sun caused some problems, most notably when Josh Wilson muffed a kickoff before gaining control and making a return.

Walter Jones again had the day off (second day in a row). Holmgren said Friday he's just resting him. He knows what he can do, after all. With Walt out, Locklear went to left tackle and Tom Ashworth stepped in at RT. THe middle three were Sims, Spencer and Gray.

During early special teams drills, Ryan Plackemeier got a punt blocked, but it was with the ball on the 1, so he didn't have much room to step into it. Burleson, Seneca and Engram were returning punts.

In the scrimmage portion, on the first play, the Hawks went four wide with Leonard Weaver at running back. That ring your bell, you Weaver fans out there?

Frank will have some more detailed play by play stuff coming later, I'm sure. Other quick highlights, though ...

Former Husky safety C.J. Wallace had a number of big hits.
Weaver scored a 8-yard TD on a screen pass from Hasselbeck behind the blocking of Sims and Spencer.

Russell Davis had some nice stops in the middle against the backup O line.

The dramatic Kurt Smith-Josh Brown battle for the kicker position lost a little heat when Smith missed a 43-yard attempt.

As was the case last year, Seneca had a good scrimmage, giving a convincing performance for the argument that he needs to stay at backup quarterback. He had a nice touchdown pass to Logan Payne and another to Hackett.

The play of the day probably was a Kelly Jennings pick of Seneca. Jennings jumped up and returned it 98 yards, slaloming through the defense, including two impressive tackle attempts by Wallace, who got blocked once, and then kept fighting his way back at Jennings, who just outran him to the end zone. Great effort on both of their parts ... that will be part of my column for the morning, which I need to get writing right now if I'm going to make deadline.

The Hawks do not have any availability today. Their only team function is tonight's scrimmage at Memorial Stadium. As I understand it, there is not even a press box at the stadium so it will be difficult to blog from there. But here is what Boling and I have worked out: A Seattle Storm game is being played at KeyArena at 7, so after the scrimmage and after interviews, Boling and I will trundle across the Seattle Center campus to the Key and work from the press room there. I will blog as soon as I get to the Key to relate developments during the scrimmage. I'm sure Brother Boling also will give his impressions, or at the very least I can relay them from his mouth to your eyes. I am now off to the Y with Frankkid1 and Frankkid2 to regulate in some Saturday morning hoops.