Alexander continues to struggle 

Qwest Field was once a place where the Hawks would dominate. Now they’d just like to get a home win once in awhile. Seattle’s season took another wild, and bad twist Sunday night at home, as they lost 28-17 to the previously winless New Orleans Saints. Seattle fell behind 21-0, and then after scoring to get within 21-7, allowed a touchdown with 0:30 left in the half to fall behind 28-7. They did get a long 52-yard field goal from Josh Brown to cut it to 28-10 on the last play of the first half, but the damage was done, and the Hawks would have no comeback magic on this night.

The issues remain on Hawks offense, and they were exploited by a Saints defense that has had issues of its own this whole season. New Orleans stuffed the running game of the Hawks, led by Shaun Alexander, who ran for just 40 yards on 14 carries, a sick 2.5 per carry average. Take away a 37-yard run by back Leonard Weaver, and Seattle ran for just 55 yards on 20 carries, an average of 2.7 yards per carry. Not what one would come to expect for a team that stated all week they would get the running game back to up to snuff.

There were plenty of other areas of concern for the Hawks, including a bad snap on a punt that led to a Saints score when Pierre Thomas picked up the loose ball and took it in for a score. Seattle allowed New Orleans to convert 7-of-14 third downs, and Reggie Bush, who finally looked like a star in the making, rushed for 97 yards on the ground and pulled in six catches for 44 yards. His play kept the Hawks on their toes all night.

“We’ve got a lot we can correct, and that’s what we’ve got to do,” QB Matt Hasselbeck said after the Hawks poorest home outing in a long time. Hasselbeck threw for 362 yards, but most of it came as the team was trying to get back in the game after falling behind so early. For the Saints, it looked more like 2006 than the early part of this season, in which after four games they looked more like the Aint’s again, and not the high powered Saints of a year ago.