Alexander ties mark; helps Seattle keep rolling

Shaun Alexander continued his record-breaking season Saturday, as he tallied three more touchdowns to lead the red-hot Seattle Seahawks to a 28-13 win over Indianapolis. Alexander raised his touchdown total to 27 for the season.

He tied Priest Holmes' NFL record of 27 touchdowns in a single season. Holmes set that mark in 2003, and did so by rushing for all 27 scores. Alexander matched the total of 27, but one of them came through the air versus the Colts.

It was the first receiving touchdown of the season for Alexander to go with 26 rushing TDs. He helped carry the Seahawks to a club-best 11th straight win, which raised the team record to 13-2 and established a franchise mark for most wins. This team has won one more game than the 1984 Seahawks squad. Oh, they also hold a slim eight-game lead over Arizona and St. Louis in the NFC West.


Alexander's last touchdown came with just under four minutes to go in the game. Think back to last year when Alexander lost the NFL rushing title by one yard to the Jets' Curtis Martin. This year, head coach Mike Holmgren was about to let Alexander fall short of a different mark.
"I'm just standing on the sideline and Mo (Morris) runs for a touchdown and they decide to stop him on the one," Alexander said. "I'm sitting there and laughing. Here we go again. (Holmgren) turns around and goes, 'OK, I'm giving you one play to score, and if you get hit and get hurt and go to the hospital, I'm not visiting you.'

"I just said, 'OK, I'll do it on the first play. I come in and the crowd was so loud, it was just awesome."

"He's a great back and I'm glad to be blocking for him," said left tackle Walter Jones. "He does some spectacular things out there. He just shows us respect. You've got to stay humble. This year, the whole team is one unit. That's how we've gotten things done this year. The last two years, we got a taste of the playoffs, losing on the last play. This year, we want the whole meal."
All this leads to one big question, what will Alexander do in the season's final game at Green Bay? The team has clinched the No. 1 seed in the NFC and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

For the second time in three seasons, Seattle posted a perfect home record. The Seahawks went 8-0 this year, raising their record to 21-3 over the last three seasons. The win over the Colts, who were without head coach Tony Dungy due to the untimely death of his son, came in front of 67,855 fans, the second-largest crowd in Qwest Field history.

In a class move, the entire Seahawk team came back onto the field after the game to thank the fans.

"The curtain call, it was great," said tight end Jerramy Stevens, who hauled in a touchdown pass for the third straight game. "You usually don't get a chance to do that in football."
Meanwhile, Mike Holmgren will lead his current team to Green Bay this week to face his old squad. Holmgren went 75-37 in seven seasons as head coach of the Packers. He also led them to a Super Bowl title in 1996.

SEE THE BALL, BE THE BALL

Since their Week 1 loss at Jacksonville, one of the main reasons the Seahawks haven't lost much is due to the fact that they have taken care of the football. In that Week 1 loss, Seattle turned the ball over five times.

Since that defeat, Seattle has gone 13-1 and turned it over just 10 times. Four of those five turnovers against the Jaguars were by quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. He fumbled once and tossed three interceptions. Since then, he has thrown only six more interceptions in 14 games, while tossing a touchdown pass in each of the last 12 games.

UP NEXT

Seattle travels to Wisconsin this week for the final regular season game against the Green Bay Packers. The Packers lead the all-time series, 5-4, and have won two of the last three matchups. The teams have split the last two meetings, in 1999 and 2003, both of which were played at Lambeau Field.
source : http://www.sportsnetwork.com/