by John HickeyFiled under: Seahawks, NFC West
SEATTLE -- Coach Pete Carroll made it a point in the last seven days to repeatedly take Charlie Whitehurst aside and tell him that he would be Seattle's starting quarterback against the St. Louis Rams Sunday with the Seahawks' playoff hopes on the line.The first time was informational. The rest of the time was to make sure that Carroll wasn't kidding the first time.
The regular starter, Matt Hasselbeck, dealing with an injured left hip, worked all week to get back into the lineup, and, in fact, Carroll said after Sunday's 16-6 win over the Rams that "Matt made it all the way back; he could have played.''
"Charlie knows what a competitor Matt is,'' Carroll said. "I reminded Charlie a number of times that he was starting. Even in the walk (onto the field before the game) Matt was hoping he would start.
"We committed to Charlie and I think he did a great job. I never intended to pull the switch on him. His ability to run the ball when he had to really helped us. That was something that Matt wouldn't have been able to do. He wouldn't have been able to play with the same mobility.''
The question about next week, with New Orleans coming to Qwest Field in the first round of the playoffs, was one that Carroll danced away from.
"Next week,'' he said, musing. "I don't know. We'll figure it out.''
Hasselbeck, who improved enough to get some of the snaps in Friday's workout, also took snaps before the game Sunday, seemingly leaving the Seahawks' options open. But Carroll didn't want to go to a Hasselbeck who wouldn't be completely mobile if he didn't have to.
"I told Matt to be ready,'' Carroll said. "To be ready maybe even in the first quarter. But I thought Charlie did a great job.''
What Whitehurst, making his second NFL start did, was go 5-for-5 in the Seahawks' first possession, stunning the Rams with a 61-yard completion to backup wide receiver Ruvell Martin, then hitting Mike Washington in the front left corner of the end zone for a 7-0 lead that the Seahawks never gave back.
"I think (the first drive) was important for me; I don't know about Charlie,'' Carroll said with a chuckle. "We all liked it. It showed that there wasn't going to be questions all night long. We thought we would move it like that throughout the night.
"Well, that didn't quite happen, but it surely gave us the boost that we needed early on. Then, when the defense started playing, every point was enormous ... it was enough.''
Whitehurst wound up hitting on 22-of-36 passes for 192 yards and the one touchdown. He mostly threw ball-control type passes and didn't try to go deep much, but he kept the Seattle offense moving enough to make sure the Seattle defense wasn't on the field all the time.
When the Rams crept within a point at 7-6 with after recovering a fumble at the 21, the Seattle defense took heart. The next three possessions for St. Louis were three-and-out and the fourth was the first interception of defensive back Will Herring's career. It came with 8:42 left to play and dealt a crushing blow to the Rams' chances.
"It feels great,'' Whitehurst said. "We won the division, and it's awesome. We have a playoff game. There were some ups and downs for sure during the year, but we did what we had to do. We're in the tournament. Anything can happen. So we're all excited.''
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