SEAHAWKS: Leon Washington shines in win

Eventually the Seahawks, surviving Phillip Rivers' 450 passing yards and a second half comeback by the Chargers, won.

But it wasn't easy.

They won 27-20 by using two Leon Washington kickoff returns for touchdowns, five Charger turnovers and the 12th man. Despite all those favorable factors, Seattle still barely eked out the victory.

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The Seahawks started the game like you would normally think. Great pass-rushing defense, opposing team punts/turnovers, and then going three and out. This cycle repeated itself through the Hawks first few drives and led me to believe that we were going to lose.

But luckily, I was wrong.

The Seahawks D shut out San Diego in the first half, thanks to two monster sacks by Chris Clemons. Using this momentum, the Seahawks drove 80 yards down inside the Chargers' ten, only to come out with a field goal. After a San Diego 3 and out, the Seahawks drove into San Diego's territory yet again. Matt Hasselbeck zipped one to Deion Branch who appeared to have a touchdown, if not for a Chargers corner forcing a fumble at the one yard line resulting in a touchback.

The Seahawks made the Chargers use up all of 11 seconds, which gave time for redemption. All the Hawks did was march down the field and have John Carlson catch a touchdown. At a time like this last year with Jim Mora, we would have quit and run a couple one yard runs with Julius Jones. That drive to me told us a lot about the team and their "never give up" mentality. After a Charger fumble on the kickoff and a weird Hasselbeck run play, the blue and green were up 10-0 going into halftime.

During halftime I went to go get some food. As I was getting my treat, I heard yelling. Once I heard the words "kickoff" and "touchdown" I dropped my soda and ran to the T.V. just in time to hear Leon Washington had just returned a kickoff for a touchdown to put the Seahawks up 17-0. I can only describe it one way.

That guy is fast... Really fast.

My enjoyment was short lived though. The Chargers didn't roll over and die and came back to tie it with an Antonio Gates Touchdown to make it 20-20 with 6:39 left in the game. Norv (lamest name ever) Turner must have given the O-line of the Chargers a talking to at halftime because there was little to no pressure on Phillip Rivers in the 2nd half. He shredded the Seahawks for 455 yards in the game.

So after all this, I was preparing for a loss. I was kind of in a depression at this point, thinking how many more Deion Branch jokes I could come up on Twitter. But then something awesome happened.

Leon did it again.

The Chargers kicked it off to Leon Washington and after breaking 1,000 tackles and juking out 10,000 more people, he dashed to the end zone.

But the game was not over. San Diego marched down to the Seahawks' red zone by ripping off 10-15 yard gains practically every play. The Seahawks D had had enough of the scoring for one game. They stood their ground and made the Bolts turn it over on downs.

Unfortunately, the ghosts of Jim Mora and Gregg Knapp appeared for 3 plays resulting in the Seahawks failing and going three and out. They punted and gave it back to red hot Rivers and the Chargers offense. It looked like they would tie it up, the way Phillip and Antonio Gates and Malcolm Floyd were connecting.

They almost did.

They drove down to the Seahawks 10 yard line. Then a few incompletions turned it 4th down and ten yards to the end zone. On the most important play so far in the year, the 12th man did their part. The fans forced a delay of game penalty to make it 15 yards to go. The play the Chargers selected was basically all receivers go to the end zone.

Earl Thomas saw it. He jumped a route and picked off Phillip Rivers for the second time that day, the other coming on a tipped pass. After all this, Hasselbeck ended the game with a kneel down and finally ended a chaotic, yet amazing Seahawks win.

Reach Nathan Parsons at nathanparsons98@yahoo.com