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
I've never been a part of a game like this. We set out trying to get a couple of goals accomplished. I think we took care of, statistically, some things we were trying to take care of. Probably more important, we were just trying to stay healthy also.
One of the things was that I don't scramble on second down. Like I have any care or thought about what down it is when I decide to scramble.
We have played to earn respect, and the way you earn respect is by going out and winning the next game you play. That approach has helped us get here. I don't know too much about Pittsburgh and what their year has been like. Let's just go out and take care of business. It sounds like that is the sort of formula that has helped them get here, too.
He's meant a lot to us, in our careers and as a friend. It looked like he was having a lot of fun. If he does choose to go out that way, it's a great way to go out.
I'm sure some of the coaches are aware of it, or the people who have been in the building for a long time are aware of it. But a lot of our guys are young. They don't remember, and they don't really care. What we do care about is this team, this year and what we can do.
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.
It was a one game deal here. We were talking about this game and this game only...I have learned this week that people dogged the Seahawks because they don't think there is history, but there is history here.
It was a chance I shouldn't have taken. They had a good plan and executed it well. They blitzed early on, but we did a pretty good job of picking it up. After that, they kept seven and eight back in coverage a lot of the time.
They are actually fun to watch. It's fun to watch film because they are so good. But at the same time you realize you have to play them this week.
And we still haven't played good. That's the amazing part. That excites me about the offense, that we're all sort of disappointed with how we've played. We left points out there today.
Arm strength, I think, is a thing that's, like, incredibly overrated in the NFL.