Pretty solid victory for the Hawks last night. The Vikings have some serious quarterback issues. Seneca Wallace is way better than either Tavaris Jackson or Brooks Bollinger. Did anybody find it strange that the Vikings used two trick plays in a preseason game. The reverse receiver pass was the first offensive touchdown the Viks have scored in three preseason games — ouch.

Here's Frank's game story and Dave's column. My story was about E.J. Henderson and Matt Hasselbeck's brief conversation on the field. Here's the game notebook with notes about Marcus Tubbs, Steve Hutchinson and others.

Minneapolis Star Tribune Coverage
Here's the game story addressing the quarterback issue. There is still some young talent out there for the Vikings to rely on. A scary moment at the end when a Vikings player was loaded into an ambulance on a stretcher.

St. Paul Pioneer Press coverage
Here's the game story calling the Viks play, solid and shaky.Here's the game notebook that leads with receiver Bobby Wade's play. As they showed on Saturday, the Viks plan on using both Chester Taylor and Adrian Peterson (who looks like he's going to be great) in a platoon system this season. I can hear fantasy football owners grumbling. Both runners looked pretty solid at times last night.

Arizona Cardinals
This columnist thinks the preseason football schedule is stupid. Arizona's defense was not so good in a 33-31 loss to the Chargers. The Cardinals are spicing up their play calling. The Arizona Republic has a guy nicknamed "fanboy" do a running blog during the game with thoughts and comments. Maybe the TNT should do that, I'm sure we could find someone on this blog to do that.

Here's the East Valley Trib's game story. This columnist believes the CArds are in for plenty of high-scoring games this season. Despite the loss, Ken Whisenhunt thinks the team is a getting a winning mentality.

San Francisco 49ers
Frank Gore will not play in the preseason — no big shocker.

St. Louis Rams
The Rams lost to the Raiders, 20-10. The Raiders? Of course, Steven Jackson only played one play in the game. QB Marc Bulger said there's no reason to panic yet because the offense is sputtering. But a bunch of penalties certainly don't help.

Other stuff:
Here's kind of an interesting story on teams phasing out contact drills in fall camps.

This was a relatively short interview today. I have read through the transcription and the quotes look accurate.

Coach Mike Holmgren
August 23, 2007

(On breaking camp…) “We have practice this afternoon. It will be like our ten-ten situational practice but technically we are breaking camp today. No more double sessions and we go into a normal season schedule next week as far as practice goes. The players are happy about that.”

“Whether you’re here or in Cheney your practice planning and your schedule for your practices are the same. We’ve installed, pretty much, what we’re going to install. Now I want them, next week, to get used to the regular season schedule as far as practice and meals. The young players haven’t been through it yet so they have to understand how we do that. Then, of course, the following week you’re getting ready to play Tampa.”

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Training camp is finally over. Not that there seemed to be a great deal of excitement after a 75-minute afternoon session under the hot sun. It was uneventful, in shorts and shells, mostly running through different plays for both sides of the ball, as well as special teams.

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The overall package for the Seneca Wallace contract is a four-year deal worth a total of $6.2 million. Wallace got a $1.6 million signing bonus that makes his contract this year worth $2.2 million, and he gets a $400,000 roster bonus next year that kicks in on March 15. His total salary for next season is $1 million.

The contract breaks down like this:

2007 Base Salary $595,000 Signing Bonus $1.6 million
2008 Base Salary $605,000 Roster Bonus $400,000
2009 Base Salary $1.5 million
2010 Base Salary $1.5 million

I forgot to mention this in an earlier post, but for those of you who have been wondering about Leonard Stephens, he was walking around the practice fields today. He was wearing shorts, his jersey and some high top basketball shoes, and I did not see a noticeable limp when he was walking, so my guess is that, like Will Heller, Stephens is probably close to returning. The team's next full practice is on Monday afternoon.

KIRKLAND, WASH. - The Seattle Seahawks and Communities In Schools invite all fans to participate in ‘Stuff the Bus’ to help fill a school bus with backpacks and school supplies at Qwest Field during the Oakland Raiders game on August 30.

“I feel blessed to be a part of an organization like Communities In Schools that does so much for young people,” said CIS National Spokesman Shaun Alexander. “As a father of young children, I understand how important it is to give them the tools they need to
succeed in school and in life. By bringing school supplies to the game, fans can help many students and their families.”

The goal is to help more than 4,000 needy kids in Seattle and Tacoma get ready for school. A school bus will be parked in front of the Qwest Field Event Center or fans can drop off school supplies at any stadium entrance.

If fans are unable to attend the game, the Seahawks Pro Shop will also be collecting school supplies from August 26 – 30.

This is a link to a Matt Hasselbeck camp diary video done for the NFL Network that is a pretty humorous piece of viewing. I highly recommend it. You can watch if off here because it is linked through NFL Network. Go figure.

In light of Tim Ruskell's comments the other day following the contract extension for Seneca Wallace, I called D.J. Hackett's agent to inquire whether they were close to anything. Ruskell said he is having conversations with the agents for other players and would like to get something done, but once the regular season begins the window will close because he doesn't want negotiations to be a distraction. Hackett's agent said he had conversations with Ruskell earlier in the summer but has not had any talks for a while and doesn't see anything coming together in the next 10 days.

"The discussions didn’t progress that far," Kevin Robinson said. "But we are open to discussions for a new contract for D.J. and we’d love to talk to them. Earlier in the summer we had talks but nothing really since then."

It was a two-hour practice in shorts, shells and helmets that primarily went through plays and schemes. Offense and defense was interspersed with special teams.

TE Will Heller was back at work, as was Leroy Hill.

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Mike Holmgren must be feeling frisky on this, the last day of training camp, because his Harley was resting in his parking space this morning. Not a bad day for a ride.

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These were transcribed by Seahawks. I have read through them and they look good -- though Shaun cuts himself off in the middle of thoughts sometimes and his responses don't always make sense. Be aware of that.

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A very long Mike Holmgren file. I have read through them and they look fine, with a few changes. Some of the most interesting stuff, besides what he said about this weekend's game, is about Darryl Tapp, basically insinuating I think that while he is working with the first unit he needs to do more things to stay there.

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