The NFC’s first opening-round playoff game, which may have produced the Bears’ opponent in the NFC conference semifinals next Sunday, simply came down to an unwritten NFL league rule that somebody has to win.
The Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks played exactly like two teams that had lost three of their last four games stumbling into the playoffs. The Seahawks advanced to the conference semifinals with a 21-20 victory very short on style points after quarterback Tony Romo, also Dallas’ holder on field goals, fumbled the snap for a 19-yard field-goal attempt with 1 minute 19 seconds remaining.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Seahawks Pro Bowl left tackle Walter Jones said.
Romo tried to pick up the ball and circle Seattle’s left end but was pursued and taken down by cornerback Jordan Babineaux, the only Seahawk between Romo and a winning score–or at least a first down.
“I take responsibility for messing up at the end there,” Romo said. “That’s my fault. I cost the Dallas Cowboys a playoff win, and it’s going to sit with me a long time.”
If the favored Philadelphia Eagles defeat the New York Giants in Sunday’s playoff game, the Bears will play host to Seattle (10-7) in the semifinals. If the Giants win, they come to Chicago. The Seahawks would not mind a rematch with the team that pummeled them 37-6 in their fourth game.
“They had our number earlier in the season,” Babineaux said. “It’s going to be a real NFC heavyweight fight this time, if that’s who we play.”
The Bears sacked quarterback Matt Hasselbeck five times in the first game and limited the Seahawks to 153 net passing yards.
“They’re the best defense in the NFL,” quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. “You might have to be crazy to hope to play them.”
Still . . . “it does stick in your mind,” safety Michael Boulware said. “I got knocked out in that first game and feel like I let my team down. I’d like to set that right.”
The Seahawks did not beat the Cowboys (9-8) so much as survive them before a crowd of 68,058 and needed a number of plays that bordered on the fluky to escape.
But the Seahawks have won five of six games this season decided by three or fewer points and “a game like this speaks to what we are as a team,” according to veteran fullback Mack Strong.
The Seahawks got no points from a first-and-goal at the Dallas 1-yard line midway through the fourth quarter while trailing 20-13. Not to worry; on the Cowboys’ next play, Terry Glenn caught a short pass in the left flat and then simply lost the ball. It bounded into the end zone where Seattle appeared to recover for a touchdown.
The play was overturned when a review showed that linebacker Lofa Tatupu’s foot was out of bounds when he batted the ball back into the end zone. But the result was still a safety and the ball for the Seahawks on a free kick.
Four plays later, Hasselbeck hit tight end Jerramy Stevens on a 37-yard touchdown pass, Stevens’ second of the game against a Dallas pass defense that allowed 14 passing touchdowns over the final four games of the regular season. Seattle’s two-point conversion pass failed, leaving the Seahawks with 21 points.
The ineptness began with the opening kickoff, which Dallas sent out of bounds to give Seattle a start at its 40 and eventually a 23-yard field goal. The Seahawks returned the favor with Hasselbeck throwing an interception to give Dallas the ball at the Seattle 43. Martin Gramatica’s 40-yard field goal followed.
Dallas then helped Seattle sustain a second field-goal drive with two holding penalties. Fittingly, the Seahawks went down 10-6 on a 13-yard Romo pass to Patrick Crayton when the 205-pound receiver bulled the final five yards against 428 combined pounds of Seattle defensive backs.
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jmullin@tribune.com
