Bizarro World at Qwest

Even before we got drunk during last night's game, we felt like we were in some substance-induced hysteria. Just a weird, weird game.

We don't think people are grasping just how unusual the weather at Qwest Field was. Not only was it the coldest ever for a Hawks home game (obviously, the years in the Kingdome weren't much competition), the 34-degree temp would've been the 2nd coldest recorded game temperature ever at Husky Stadium. It was 26 for the 1985 Apple Cup--other than that, the next coldest is 37, the 1961 Apple Cup.

As for the snow--remember, until last year, it had never even rained during a game at Qwest. And we couldn't find any record of snow falling during a game at Husky Stadium. That 1985 game was cold but dry.

That's it for the weather. What about the game? The whole game, we were begging Mike Holmgren to run more. It wasn't just us. Our roommates, our friends texting us, even Dan Savage's brother thought we needed to run it more.

And then at the end of the game Alexander has 40 carries, a career-high.

But we're still going to argue that the Hawks should've run the ball more. Alexander wouldn't have needed to get 40 carries if the Hawks had been calling clock-eating running plays instead of clock-stopping passes. The Hawks ran an absurd 85 plays--20 more than they'd been averaging. With Alexander dominating (100 yards in the first half), he should have been option one, especially in the inclement weather.

At the end of the first half, after three Alexander runs got the Hawks to the 10, Holmgren called three straight passes. The last, a slant to Nate Burleson, probably should've been caught, but in weather like that it ain't easy.

And then--Jerramy Stevens. We've made our position on Stevens clear--of all the drops in his career, the worst was by Norm Maleng--and we apparently aren't alone, as boos swept down at Stevens after the third of his drops in last night's game. Then there was the potential touchdown pass that hit him in the thigh, causing MNF's Joe Theismann to chide him for "giving up on his quarterback."

Yet Holmgren kept going back to Stevens, who ended up with a two-point conversation and a fantastic touchdown catch. Question: does Holmgren's coddling of Stevens wring whatever production can be wrung out of the guy, or is that what's responsible for Stevens' continued bullshit play? Would having the notorious screamer Bill Parcells as a coach cause Stevens to completely shut down, or would he shape up and play better?

As Shrug over at the increasingly indispensable Field Gulls concludes after musing on Stevens:

I'm still shaking my head at the guy, and the game's been over for three hours. Now I'm the one with issues.

Photo detail courtesy Flickr user roscoedebosco