The Seahawks played awful on both sides of the football yesterday and it showed on the scoreboard.  Matt Hasselbeck was putrid completing 19 of 37 passes for 198 yards with 1 TD pass and 4 INTs.  Justin Forsett led the way for the Seahawks on the ground last night with 70 yards rushing on 14 carries (5.0 ypc).  Julius Jones also was busy with 14 carries for 39 yards (2.8 ypc) and he has also caught 6 passes for 51 yards (8.5 avg).  Deion Branch did a decent job last night for the Seahawks with 5 receptions for  53 yards (10.6 avg).  T.J. Houshmandzadeh pitched in with 4 grabs for 51 yards (12.8 avg) in this game.  TE John Carlson only caught 2 passes for 24 yards (12.0 avg) but he caught a TD pass.  The Seahawks finished up with 291 total yards on offense (115 rushing, 176 passing) in this game.

Linebacker Will Herring (8 tackles) and DT Brandon Mebane (6 tackles) led a terrible effort by the Seahawks’ D yesterday.  The Packers finished up with 417 total yards on offense (153 rushing, 264 passing) in this game.  The Seahawks are now 5-10 on the year.

32-year old WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh has come as advertised this season for the Seahawks.  He has played in 14 games for the Seahawks this season and he caught 72 passes for 794 yards (11.0 avg) with 3 TD grabs.  If the Seahawks were getting better play out of the QB position his numbers would be even better.  Look for Houshmandzadeh to have a outstanding year for the Seahawks in 2010 if the team makes a needed change at QB.

It’s getting to the point where the Seahawks might have to replace 34-year old Matt Hasselbeck as the starting QB in 2010 due to the fact that he is becoming injury prone and it’s hurting his effectiveness on the field.  He has played in 12 games for the Seahawks this season and he has completed 259 of 421 passes (61.5%) for 2,656 yards with 15 TD passes and 12 INTs (79.6 QB Rating).  He has also carried the ball 23 times for 108 yards (4.7 ypc) this season.  If the Seahawks do decide to replace Hasselbeck as the starter they really can’t afford to give the starting job to Seneca Wallace who isn’t really starting material.

The Seahawks will likely have a rough go of it this weekend at Lambeau Field.  The Seahawks have lost their last six games on the road against NFL teams (not the Rams) by an average of 19.2 points.  That does not bode well for them this weekend against a Packers’ team that will likely be in a bad frame of mind after losing to the Steelers on the last play of the game last week.  The best chance for the Seahawks to compete in this game is to air it out on offense.  Matt Hasselbeck has a nice set of receivers in Nate Burleson, T.J. Houshmandzadeh and TE John Carlson so they need to put the ball up.  The O-Line will have to keep rookie OLB Clay Matthews out of their backfield to give Hasselbeck the time he needs to throw the football.  Julius Jones and Justin Forsett are probably going to have long days against the Packers who are only allowing 83.6 yards rushing per game and 3.6 yards per carry.

The Seahawks are also likely to have a long day on defense against the Packers’ O.  The Seahawks must get a good pass rush on Aaron Rodgers or he is going to pick them apart.  The bad thing for the Seahawks is that Rodgers moves the ball around while not keying on any WR or TE.  Even if the Seahawks can somehow slow down Rodgers and the passing game Ryan Grant will give them trouble on the ground.

PREDICTION:  PACKERS 34, SEAHAWKS 13

The Seahawks have signed 39-year old long snapper/TE Jeff Robinson to replace the injured Kevin Houser.  Robinson played in 16 games (0 starts) last season as he served as the long snapper on the Seahawks.  He has now played in 200 games (18 starts) in his NFL career and he has caught 28 passes for 278 yards (9.9 avg) with 8 TD grabs.  Look for Robinson to just handle the long snapping as his days of going out for passes is long gone.

The Seahawks have lost 32-year old long snapper Kevin Houser for the rest of the year due to a collapsed lung that he suffered last week against the Bucs.  He played in all 14 games for the Seahawks this season.  Houser has played 10 seasons in the NFL appearing in 158 games (0 starts).

Matt Hasselbeck had one of the worst games of his career and the Seattle Seahawks (5-9) fell to the lowly Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-12) because of it.  Hasselbeck threw a career-high 4 interceptions and lost a fumble, finishing with 1 touchdown and 256 yards on 27/46 passes.  Hasselbeck’s 5 turnovers helped the Buccaneers get great field position, and built the young Bucs confidence with each turnover.  The running game was the only thing to find success, with running backs Jones and Forsett combining for 120 yards on 21 carries.  They failed to get into the endzone though, and the only Seahawks points coming late in the second quarter on Hasselbeck’s lone touchdown pass to John Carlson.  That was enough to go into halftime with the lead, with the score at 7-3.

The Seahawks defense was put into some tough spots due to Hasselbecks’ turnovers, but they still could have done a much better job in the second half.  They let the Bucs’ 21-year-old rookie quarterback Josh Freeman throw two touchdown passes in the second half.  Coming into this game, Freeman had 0 touchdown passes and had thrown 8 picks in his last two games.  The Seahawks failed to get enough pressure and gave Freeman a big confidence boost.  They didn’t do a good job stopping the run either, with the Bucs getting 134 rushing yards as a team.  This was a very ugly win for the Seahawks and they should be embarrassed.

I couldn’t have been further off on my prediction of the outcome of this game as the Seahawks forgot to show up today.  Matt Hasselbeck completed 24 of 35 passes for 247 yards with 1 TD pass and 1 INT (it was returned 70 yards for a TD by safety Bernard Pollard of the Texans).  Seneca Wallace threw one incomplete pass in this game.  Julius Jones led the way on the ground for the Seahawks in this game with 10 carries for 39 yards (3.9 ypc).  Justin Forsett pitched in with 26 yards rushing on 9 carries (2.9 ypc) and he also caught 4 passes for 47 yards (11.8 avg) today.  T.J. Houshmandzadeh led the way in the passing game for the Seahawks today with 4 grabs for 52 yards (13.0 avg).  WR Nate Burleson (3 rec, 50 yards) and TE John Carlson (3 rec, 24 yards, TD) also pitched in for the Seahawks in the passing game today.  The Seahawks finished up with 282 total yards on offense (62 rushing, 220 passing) in this game.

LB David Hawthorne (10 tackles, fumble recovery) and CB Marcus Trufant (9 tackles, 3 passes defensed, 1 interception) led a overall poor effort by the Seahawks on D today.  The Texans finished up with 450 total yards on offense (85 rushing, 365 passing) in this game.  The Seahawks are now 5-8 on the year.

The Seahawks are facing a Houston Texans team that has lost their last 4 games by a combined score of 98-79.  Teams like this are hard to deal with because they start to get desperate.  It doesn’t help the Seahawks’ situation that they have only won 1 game on the road this year and it was against the pathetic Rams.  The Texans’ D is equally bad against the run or the pass so the Seahawks should have a good offensive game on Sunday.  I think the Seahawks should come out running the ball in this game with Julius Jones and Justin Forsett against a Texans’ D that is allowing 118.9 yards rushing and 4.6 yards per carry.  If the Seahawks keep DE Mario Williams out of their backfield then Matt Hasselbeck should have a good day throwing the football against a Texans’ D that is allowing 214.3 yards passing per game.

The Texans will come out throwing the ball if Matt Schaub starts the game at QB.  Andre Johnson will demand a double team from the Seahawks as he has caught 70 passes for 1,044 yards (14.9 avg) with 6 TD grabs this season.  That means that Kevin Walter will likely be a busy body for the Texans as he is a poor man’s Wes Welker.  The Seahawks won’t likely be too worried about Ryan Moats or Chris Brown in the running game.

PREDICTION:  SEAHAWKS 21, TEXANS 20

The Seattle Seahawks need to finish strong down the stretch to build confidence for the 2010 season as the playoffs are almost out of reach for 2009.  The Seahawks have won two games in a row over the Rams and Niners but the rest of the slate could offer up some tough games.  This week will be tough against the Texans if Matt Schaub plays in the game.  Then the Seahawks play the Bucs in Seattle, the Packers in Green Bay and the Titans in Seattle.  It would be nice to see the Seahawks win at least 3 of the next 4 games which is reasonable.