Matt Hasselbeck
Matt Hasselbeck
Matthew Michael Hasselbeck is a former American football quarterback and current analyst for ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown. He was drafted in the sixth round of the 1998 NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers. After a season on the practice squad and two seasons backing up Brett Favre, he was traded to the Seattle Seahawks in 2001. Hasselbeck led Seattle to six playoff appearances and a Super Bowl. He was selected to three Pro Bowls and was an All-Pro in...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionFootball Player
Date of Birth25 September 1975
CityBoulder, CO
CountryUnited States of America
That is probably not going to happen against these guys. These guys are very good defensively. I think we need to be ready to weather the storm a little bit in terms of not being as successful as we're used to being.
It's a great feeling in our locker room right now, because we did come together. There is something a little bit more special about fighting through adversity and hanging in there in a tough game against a really good defense. Guys get hurt. Pork Chop Womack filled in at left tackle for Walter Jones for a couple of plays. He said something like, 'Did I make you nervous in there when Walt was out?' I told him no.
We understand that this is Jerome Bettis' hometown and that he's going to get a lot of the attention. He's a classy guy who's had a great career. You can see why it's kind of hard for us to compete against that for attention.
You can't make the mistakes we made and expect to win against a good team like this.
Knowing Chike -- he's a guy with a great pass rush and he's got a motor -- I don't think any quarterback gets excited about going up against him. I think our guys, hopefully, will be up to the task.
He had another incredible play against Detroit on a screen. I've watched all their games and he's great every game.
I hit him on a very similar route against Kansas City three years ago. He saw me and said, 'Hey, good throw, it's just like Kansas City.' I mean, that was three years ago. So that experience, and the reps that we've had together, it's hard to replace that.
I'm not sure they were mental mistakes as much as just mistakes. I guess it wasn't our day that way. You can't make the mistakes we made and expect to win the game against a good team like this.
Once I had this horrible start my first year as starter, and he sat down during the game and told me about this horrible game he had in 1997 against the New York Jets, but still went to the Pro Bowl. He didn't have to be the guy that he was.
The coaches we have don't blink when they see it. They understand it. We have rules about how we like to play against the 3-4. We know it.
We just had opportunities to score touchdowns, but we didn't score touchdowns. We were moving the ball fine, rhythm, time of possession, first downs, yards...we just couldn't score touchdowns.
We were really focused on the task at hand rather than, 'Oh, my gosh, we're in this big game.
We went 8-0. We were the team that never punted. You can go back and see the trophy. It's printed on there.
It was tough. There was a lot of stuff I'd never been through. I'd never really been the guy. I'd never had to play through injury. I really had never played in the NFL.