This Week in Seahawks History: Marcus Trufant’s first career interception

This will be a weekly article series throughout the season looking back on what happened for the Seattle Seahawks 40, 30, 20, and 10 years ago this week. We’ve got two losses to look at first this week against teams with kickers early in their eventual long-lived careers, followed by two wins with 2003 rookie first-round pick Marcus Trufant picking up his first NFL interception.

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40 Years Ago

Sunday, October 23, 1983

Game Log

Here’s some Chuck-on-Chuck action to start off the article this week as Chuck Knox’s Seattle Seahawks hosted Chuck Noll’s Pittsburgh Steelers in the Seattle Kingdome. The first half was not great for Seattle. Pittsburgh struck first in the opening quarter with a 9-yard rushing TD from future Seahawks Legend Franco Harris. The Steelers kept it on the ground in the 2nd Quarter, scoring on consecutive 1-yard runs by Cliff Stoudt and Frank Pollard. Gary Anderson, in just the 2nd season of his 23-year career, tacked on a 20-yard FG to put Pittsburgh up 24-0 at halftime. The Seahawks woke up a bit after halftime with a 1-yard rushing TD from Curt Warner in the 3rd Quarter to break the seal. Dave Krieg hit Steve Largent for a 21-yard passing TD in the 4th Quarter to pull within 10 points at 24-14. The Steelers added 3 points on another Anderson FG, this one from 32 yards away. Krieg found Paul Johns for a 26-yard passing TD to cut the deficit to 27-21, but that’s as close as Seattle would get as they took the home loss to fall to 4-4 on the season.

The score probably shouldn’t have been this close just looking at the box score. Seattle turned the ball over 4 times compared to Pittsburgh’s 2 turnovers and Seattle only possessed the ball for 18 of the 60 minutes. Hard to win with those numbers.

Dave Krieg was 13/20 for 214 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT. At least he had 36 yards rushing and 1 TD on the ground. Curt Warner had 12 carries for 48 yards and 1 TD. Paul Johns was the leading receiver with 6 catches for 118 yards and 1 TD. Steve Largent had 2 catches for 67 yards and 1 TD.

Jeff Bryant and Greg Gaines led the Seahawks defense in sacks with 1.0 each. Shelton Robinson and Manu Tuiasosopo both had 0.5 sack in the loss.

30 Years Ago

Sunday, October 17, 1993

Game Log

Let’s head over to Detroit as the Seahawks took on the Motor City Kitties in the Pontiac Silverdome. Seattle scored first when Kelvin Martin caught a 6-yard TD pass from Rick Mirer for the 7-0 lead. That’s good! Then, the game got very bad as the Lions had the Seahawks seeing double in the 2nd Quarter when Rodney Peete hooked up with Herman Moore for 2 TDs from 13 and 11 yards out for the 14-7 halftime lead. The Seahawks fought back in the 3rd Quarter with a John Kasay 19-yard FG to put the score at 14-10. Then, the Seahawks stopped fighting when Mel Gray returned the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for the TD as Detroit stretched the lead to 21-10. Jason Hanson got a leg workout with three field goals over the remainder of the game from 34, 32, and 35 yards to give the Lions a 30-10 win. In another case of weird coincidence between the decades, Hanson was also in the 2nd season of a long kicking career, but he only made it 21 years compared to Anderson’s 23 years. However, he did play the entirety of his career with the Lions, so he deserves some sort of lifetime of service award for grinding through all of those rough years.

Rick Mirer was 23/39 for 189 yards, 1 TD, 3 INT, and was sacked 3 times – one of which was the only career sack for Harry Colon who has one of the all-time great NFL names that I will commit to memory for future Immaculate Grid purposes. Chris Warren led the Seahawks with just 37 yards on 15 carries. Kelvin Martin had 8 catches for 80 yards and 1 TD. Barry Sanders is not a Seahawk, but he’s awesome and I’m writing this article, so I get to include his 101 yards rushing on 22 carries.

Patrick Hunter had the lone interception for Seattle’s defense. Michael Sinclair and Rod Stephens each had 1.0 sack as the Seahawks were on the wrong end of a double-digit whooping in Detroit.

20 Years Ago

Sunday, October 19, 2003

Game Log

The 2003 Seahawks were on a roll at 4-1 and faced Dick Jauron’s 1-4 Chicago Bears in what would be his last season coaching the team. Seattle got the ball first and quickly drove into Chicago territory before the drive stalled. Josh Brown was brought in to attempt a 50-yard FG but missed. After the Bears and Seahawks both punted on their next drive, Chicago scored first with a Paul Edinger 50-yard FG to take the 3-0 lead. Seattle took the ball and possessed it for nearly 6 minutes on their way to a 1-yard Shaun Alexander rushing TD and the 7-3 lead early in the 2nd Quarter. Chris Chandler was intercepted by Anthony Simmons on the next drive and Seattle turned that into a 25-yard passing TD from Matt Hasselbeck to former Bear Bobby Engram, extending the Seahawks lead to 14-3. Edinger kicked a 35-yard FG for Chicago on the next drive to pull within one score at 14-6. Hasselbeck led Seattle down to the Chicago 42 yard line with under 30 seconds left, but was intercepted by Mike Brown in the end zone, squandering the opportunity to add points before the half.

The score didn’t change until over halfway through the 3rd Quarter when Josh Brown kicked a 45-yard FG for the 17-6 lead. Chicago went on their own FG drive with Edinger making a 40-yarder to pull within 8 again at 17-9 early in the 4th Quarter. Seattle drove past midfield on the next drive, but current FBI agent Charles “Peanut” Tillman did what he was famous for and forced a fumble on Koren Robinson that was recovered by Chicago’s Bobby Gray. The Bears followed with a 13 play, 67-yard TD drive that milked over 7 minutes off the clock. Stanley Pritchett punched it in from 1 yard out and Chris Chandler ran in the 2-point conversion to tie the game at 17-17 with just over 4 minutes remaining in the game. The Seahawks had enough and took the game back into their own hands with a scoring drive finished off by a 25-yard rushing TD from Shaun Alexander – his 2nd TD of the day – to give Seattle the lead again at 24-17. The Bears had less than a minute to answer, but rookie first-round pick Marcus Trufant slammed the door with his 1st career interception. Seahawks win 24-17.

Matt Hasselbeck was 19/27 for 215 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT. Shaun Alexander had 21 carries for 101 yards and 2 TDs. Bobby Engram had 6 catches for 73 yards and 1 TD. Koren Robinson added 3 catches for 65 yards.

Seattle’s defense pulled their weight in this game forcing 2 turnovers and sacking Chris Chandler 3 times. They also held Bears RB Adrian Peterson (not THAT Adrian Peterson…the other one) to 55 yards rushing on 16 carries. Anthony Simmons had 6 tackles, 1.0 sack, and 1 INT. Marcus Trufant had 8 tackles, 1 INT, and 3 passes defensed. Chad Brown and Antonio Cochran picked up 1.0 sack each in the win.

10 Years Ago

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Game Log

The 2013 Seahawks headed off to the desert for a Thursday night game in a time when Arizona’s stadium had yet to become a house of horrors. The Cardinals got the ball first and drove near midfield before the Seahawks defense shut them down, forcing a punt. Seattle took less than 2 minutes to drive for a TD as Russell Wilson threw a 31-yard TD pass to Sidney Rice for the 7-0 lead. Arizona drove to midfield again before Carson Palmer was picked off by Earl Thomas. The Seahawks went on another scoring drive with Russ finding Zach Miller from 15 yards out for his 2nd passing TD of the game. The next score would come a few drives later for the Cardinals via a Jay Feely 49-yard FG. Russ was strip-sacked by Matt Shaughnessy on his own 13 yard line on the next drive and Arizona scored on a 3-yard rushing TD by Rashard Mendenhall one play later to make the score 14-10. The Seahawks managed to tack on a 1-yard FG from Stephen Hauschka to extend their lead to 17-10 at halftime.

Seattle went three-and-out after receiving the 2nd half kickoff and Arizona answered with a 52-yard FG from Jay Feely to pull closer at 17-13. The Seahawks offense took the ball all the way down the field on the ensuing drive and Russ threw his 3rd TD pass of the game, finding Kellen Davis from 1 yard away for the 24-13 lead. Brandon Browner picked off Carson Palmer at the 50 yard line on the next drive and returned it down to the 1. It took 2 plays, but Marshawn Lynch bulled his way in for a 2-yard rushing TD and a 31-13 lead late in the 3rd Quarter. Seattle forced a punt and got the ball back with about a minute left in the quarter. Russ was promptly strip-sacked by John Abraham and the ball was recovered by Shaughnessy at the Seattle 15 yard line. Arizona got a first down on a Seahawks penalty and had a fresh set of downs from the 4. Seattle’s defense held firm and the Cardinals settled for a 22-yard Feely FG. The Seahawks answered with a FG drive of their own with Hauschka nailing a 42-yard FG to re-establish a 3 score lead at 34-16. Both teams traded punts and the Cardinals took over on offense with 8 minutes left in the game. The Seahawks defense made them work for a score, but eventually Carson Palmer threw an 8-yard TD to future Seahawks Legend Jaron Brown. Arizona failed the 2-point attempt and the score remained 34-22. That would turn out to be the final score with the Seahawks stopping the Cardinals on 4th down with 30 seconds left to preserve the victory.

Russell Wilson was 18/29 for 235 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT. Marshawn Lynch had 21 carries for 91 yards and 1 TD. Golden Tate led Seattle in receiving with 77 yards on 4 catches but didn’t get in on the TD party. Those honors went to Sidney Rice, Zach Miller, and Kellen Davis. That was Davis’ last of 3 total catches for the Seahawks and his only TD for the entire 2013 season.

Seattle’s defense only allowed 30 yards rushing, forced 2 INTs and sacked Carson Palmer 7(!!) times. Earl Thomas had an INT for the 2nd game in a row. Brandon Browner hauled in the other INT. The following defenders recorded 1.0 sack: Malcolm Smith, Tony McDaniel, Michael Bennett, Clinton McDonald, Cliff Avril, and Chris Clemons. KJ Wright and Red Bryant shared the final sack with 0.5 sack each.