This Week in Seahawks History: A whole lot of John Carney

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. All of these games are regular season play, and we’ve got ourselves a lot of low-scoring games and several wins to look back on.

40 Years Ago

Sunday, September 11, 1983

Game Log

Raise your hand if you can remember when football games were played in baseball stadiums? There is no way that would fly today! In 1983 however, that wasn’t unusual and the Seahawks headed to Shea Stadium to play the Jets. The 1st Quarter was scoreless, but Seattle scored the first 10 points of the game behind a 7-yard rushing TD from Curt Warner and a 40-yard FG from Norm Johnson. Pat Leahy hit a chip-shot FG from 18 yards away before halftime to put the score at 10-3. Not wanting to score in “even” quarters, the Seahawks waited until the 4th Quarter to go ahead 17-3 when Warner ran it in from 1 yard away for his second TD of the game. The J-E-T-S made it interesting when Richard Todd threw a 46-yard TD pass to Wesley Walker, but that would be the final score of the game as the 1983 Seahawks secured their first win of the season 17-10.

This was a sloppy game for both teams. Seattle turned the ball over 3 times, but the Jets more than doubled that with 7(!!) turnovers!

Jim Zorn was 7/15 for 75 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT. Curt Warner had his first 100-yard game as a pro with 128 yards and 2 TDs on 24 carries. Dan Doornink added 47 rushing yards on 18 carries. Steve Largent had nearly half of the team’s receiving total with 3 catches for 35 yards.

Dave Brown, Keith Butler, and Eugene Williams had INTs. Jeff Bryant, Jacob Green, and Michael Jackson – neither the pop star, former Browns/Ravens WR, nor current Seahawks CB – each had 1.0 sack on the old ball diamond.

30 Years Ago

Sunday, September 5, 1993

Game Log

After the offensive disaster/defensive dominance dichotomy of the 1992 Seattle Seahawks season, the 1993 squad took the field for the regular season intent on putting those fears to bed. Surely, it couldn’t happen again, right? Right?!?

Wellll…

Seattle’s defense started where it left off, scoring the first points of the season with a Joe Nash 13-yard INT return for a TD and the 7-0 lead. The Chargers pulled within 1 point at 7-6 with John Carney FGs from 26 and 44 yards. The Seahawks extended the lead to 10-6 with a John Kasay 27-yard FG in the 2nd Quarter. After that, it was the John Carney show with 4 consecutive FGs from 50, 32, 51, and 19 yards, respectively, to put San Diego (should still be their hometown) up 18-10. Seattle’s defense chipped in another 2 points with a safety, but that was all she wrote as the Seahawks dropped the first game of the 1993 campaign 18-12.

The Seahawks offensive output wasn’t that far from the Chargers in terms of total yards, only being outgained 269-230. Third downs were the killer, as Seattle was 1/10. Rookie QB Rick Mirer was 20/27 for 154 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT in his first NFL game. Chris Warren led the Seahawks with 12 carries for 38 yards. Brian Blades paced the receivers with 5 catches for 54 yards.

Seattle’s defense outscored their offense 9-3…not ideal. Carlton Gray and Joe Nash had INTs, with Nash returning his for a TD. Cortez Kennedy and rookie Michael McCrary both had 1.0 sack in the loss.

Side note – as someone who played a LOT of Tecmo Super Bowl growing up, the names on the rosters in 1993 are going to be a big nostalgia hit. Case in point, Marion Butts had 15 carries for 87 yards for San Diego. And Alfred Pupunu (who could break his fair share of tackles in the game) had 1 catch for 28 yards.

20 Years Ago

Sunday, September 7, 2003

Game Log

20 years before manning the sidelines of Lumen Field for the Seattle Sea Dragons of the XFL, Jim Haslett was on the opposite sideline of Seahawks Stadium as the head coach of the New Orleans Saints. His team broke the seal in the first quarter with a 33-yard field goal from…wait, are you shi—ing me?!? John Carney again!! It’s funny how history lines up at times. No idea if he smells like cabbage and has small hands, though. For the 12% of you who got that joke, you’re welcome.

Anywhoo, after that Saints FG, the Seahawks offense went on a tear with 24 unanswered points in the 2nd and 3rd Quarter. Shaun Alexander started the scoring run (pun intended) with a 1-yard rushing TD to take the 7-3 lead. Matt Hasselbeck followed that up with TD passes of 35 yards to Koren Robinson and 10 yards to Alexander for a commanding 21-3 halftime lead. Josh Brown nailed a 37-yard FG for the only points of the 3rd Quarter, before New Orleans got back on the board when Aaron Brooks found Joe Horn for a 2 -yard passing TD to cut the lead to 24-10. Brown tacked on another FG from 25 yards out to seal the 27-10 season-opening victory.

New Orleans actually outgained Seattle 359-270 but lost the pivotal turnover battle 4-0. It’s all about the ball! Matt Hasselbeck was 12/23 for 137 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT. Shaun Alexander had 108 yards rushing and 1 TD on 24 carries with an additional 16 yards receiving and a TD on 2 catches. Koren Robinson had 3 catches for 56 yards and 1 TD. Darrell Jackson was right behind him with 3 catches for 53 yards.

Chike Okeafor tried to get a number in every defensive stat column in this game with 3 tackles, 1.0 sack, 1 INT, and 1 FF. Reggie Tongue had 1.0 sack. Ken Lucas had 1 FF. Anthony Simmons had 11 tackles and 1 FR. Rookie DBs Marcus Trufant and Ken Hamlin both had notable NFL debuts with 2 passes defensed and a handful of tackles each.

10 Years Ago

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Game Log

At the risk of spoiling the outcome of the 2013 season, it turned out pretty cool. Yet, the first week was quite an inauspicious start that I guess prepared the fans for what was to come. Hold on to your butts.

Bring on the Carolina Panthers, whom Seattle beat in 2012 in a 16-12 nailbiter punctuated by a Bruce Irvin sack fumble with less than a minute remaining to close out the game. I get it, history repeats itself, but we already had the 1993 squad looking like the 1992 version and John Carney popping up in two decades. It can’t happen a third time in this article…that would be crazy!

We’ll get to that in a bit. First, was a scoreless 1st Quarter in a defensive struggle. The Seahawks finally broke the seal in 2013 with a Steven Hauschka 27-yard FG. Carolina went right down the field on the next drive and finished it off with a Cam Newton 3-yard TD to Steve Smith to put the Panthers up 7-3. The Seahawks drove all the way down to the Panthers 12 yard line before Russell Wilson fumbled on a sack by Charles Johnson. Carolina ran the clock out and went into halftime with the 7-3 lead. The Seahawks got on the board again late in the 3rd Quarter with another Hauschka FG from 40 yards to cut the deficit to 1 point at 7-6. Seattle’s defense bowed up and forced the Panthers to punt on their next drive. After being allergic to the end zone up to this point in the game, the Seahawks offense finally found paydirt as Russell Wilson hit Jermaine Kearse for a 43-yard TD. Seattle went for a two-point conversion and failed leaving the score at 12-7.

The Panthers got the ball with just over 10 minutes left in the game and started working their way down the field, helped by consecutive 15-yard penalties by Michael Bennett and Kam Chancellor. With 5:34 remaining and the ball on the Seattle 24 yard line, Cam Newton handed the ball off to DeAngelo Williams who scooted through the middle of the line for 16 yards where he was hit by heat-seeking missile Earl Thomas. Williams coughed the ball up and it was recovered by Tony McDaniel at the Seahawks 8 yard line. The Seahawks were able to salt away the first victory of the game after the fumble – the second year in a row that happened against the Panthers! What a coincidence!

Seattle’s offense had a good game statistically with 370 total yards and went 6/13 on third down. Russell Wilson was 25/33 for 320 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT. Marshawn Lynch had a rough go with only 43 yards on 17 carries. Doug Baldwin was the leading receiver with 7 catches for 91 yards.

O’Brien Schofield had the only sack for Seattle’s defense. Earl Thomas had 10 tackles and 1 possibly game-saving FF in the victory.