Matt Hasselbeck sold play-action well but showed off his square wheels attempting to roll out. He was barely through his curve before he had to target Deion Branch because of pressure. The pass had all the mustard of a Coney Island sand crab. Branch dropped it before being blown up.
Max Unger was beat back but Hasselbeck found John Carlson for five to put Seattle back into manageable third down. The play was filthy with Greg Knapp.
With that we get to the infamous instant sack by Bobby Carpenter. No breakdown necessary, but in short order, this is what I blame for the play:
1. Hasselbeck for not audibling into shotgun.
2. Knapp for making no attempt to disrupt timing the Cowboy's timing. Seattle has made little use of hard counts and Dallas and Arizona have timed the Seahawks snaps to perfection.
3. Chris Spencer, who doubled down on the nose tackle, and Unger, who needed Spencer to help him with Jay Ratliff.
The real culprit, by my estimate anyway, is the new coaching staff and lack of continuity on the line. Hasselbeck should have audibled into shotgun regardless, but each of the above can be attributed to an offense learning a new playbook and an offensive line that hasn't played together very much.