|
The 2005 Seattle Seahawks season saw them win a conference championship for the first time in the team's history. They were the NFC representative in Super Bowl XL, a game they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Seahawks compiled a 13–3 record in the regular season, easily winning the NFC West and earning the NFC top seed, thus clinching home field advantage in the NFC playoffs for the first time in franchise history. There, they beat the Washington Redskins and Carolina Panthers to win the George Halas Trophy, and advance to their first ever Super Bowl. Combining the regular season and postseason, the Seahawks finished with a perfect 10–0 record at Qwest Field. The 2005 team was widely considered the best team in club history until the Super Bowl XLVIII championship. The 2005 season was also the team's 30th anniversary season in the National Football League. The Seahawks touted Pro Bowlers on offense, and boasted season MVP, running back Shaun Alexander, who would eventually break Priest Holmes's previous single-season rushing touchdown record, with 28 TDs. Alexander also led the league in rushing yards for the second consecutive year, which in turn helped the Seahawks lead the league in scoring. The offense was led by 7th-year veteran quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who compiled a career-high and NFC leading 98.2 passer rating, while completing 65.5% of his passes, earning his second trip to the Pro Bowl. Walter Jones and Steve Hutchinson anchored the offensive line at left tackle and guard respectively, and Mack Strong effectively blocked and rushed from the backfield at fullback. Although Seattle's strength was attributed to their offense, they were strong on the defensive side of the ball as well. The Seahawks compiled an NFL-leading 50 Quarterback sacks, with defensive end Bryce Fisher leading the franchise with nine, while defensive tackle Rocky Bernard added 8.5 and veteran defensive end Grant Wistrom recorded four. Despite starting two rookies at linebacker for most of the year, the Seattle linebacking corps played well, led by Pro Bowler Lofa Tatupu, who topped the team with 104 tackles and added four sacks, three interceptions, and one fumble recovery. In the secondary, Michael Boulware led the team with four interceptions and also tallied two sacks and one fumble recovery, however Seattle suffered injuries throughout the year, notably to free safety Ken Hamlin. A bright spot in relief, second-year cornerback Jordan Babineaux played well as he appeared in all sixteen games for Seattle, intercepting three passes and making 61 tackles. For the season, the Seahawks defense ranked 7th in points allowed, surrendering just 271 total, 181 fewer than the Seahawks offense scored. ==Offseason== The period between the disappointing 2004 season and the start of the 2005 was marked by major changes for the Seahawks, starting with the front office. Team owner Paul Allen fired 8-year incumbent General Manager Bob Whitsitt on January 14, the same day that Vice President of Football Operations Ted Thompson was hired away by the Green Bay Packers to be their General Manager.〔(Seahawks president Whitsitt fired )〕 Rumors had been floating that Whitsitt's relationship with coach Mike Holmgren (and almost everyone else) was strained and Holmgren later admitted that he had thought about leaving the team after a 2004 season that was personally draining.〔(Yahoo! story )〕 At the time of Whitsitt's firing the Seahawks salary cap situation was in extreme flux with 16 unsigned free agents on the roster including their 3 biggest stars Matt Hasselbeck, Shaun Alexander and Walter Jones. On February 3 Mike Reinfeldt, who had previously been pushed out of the Seahawks organization by Whitsitt, was hired back as a consultant to try to sort out the mess.〔(Hasselbeck, Alexander join Jones in Hawks' fold )〕 Reinfeldt was able to sign Jones and Hasselbeck to long term deals and put the Franchise Tag on Alexander, setting the stage for the rest of the offseason. After a careful executive search the Seahawks settled on highly regarded personnel man Tim Ruskell as the new President of Football Operations on February 23, 2005. As a part of his roster overhall, Ruskell subsequently released or neglected to resign 6 players (Anthony Simmons, Chad Brown, Orlando Huff, Chike Okeafor, Rashad Moore and Cedric Woodard) who were starters on an underperforming defense during the 2004 season. Over the rest of the offseason and into training camp Ruskell signed a raft of free agents to replace departed players on both sides of the ball, emphasizing character and work ethic in his evaluations. In the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft the Seahawks traded down from pick 23 to pick 26 to select center Chris Spencer from the University of Mississippi and acquire an extra 4th round pick. They then gave up 2 fourth round picks to trade up in the second round and selected USC linebacker Lofa Tatupu who would start every game of the 2005 season and go to the Pro Bowl as a rookie. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「2005 Seattle Seahawks season」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|