.......

Russian Roulette toy.  For Seahawk fans seeking a more feel-good way to pass the time.

.... 

What's triage, you ax?  You know, that's the medical tent just off the 50-yard line, in which you de-prioritize the near-DOA's as not being worth the distraction.

...now that you've had a half-week to spit out your chipped teeth, let's talk Whitehurst.  ::chuckles::

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Q.  Doc, anything redeeming that I've missed?

A.  A lot, yeah, but let's start with ...

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Q.  A rating of 35.8!!  Whitehurst was terrible.  End of story.

A.  First of all:  that was one of the worst offensive performances I've seen in the NFL.  I remember the game that the Rams smoked the Zorn-Largent Seahawks for a -7 net yards, the Super Bowl in which the Bears crushed the Patriots like a pop can, and this one didn't feel a lot different.

Second:  Whitehurst wasn't real sharp -- didn't have game timing, didn't create, couple of times flopped the ball through the air like a seal with a busted flipper.

Will cheerfully admit that, if you thought Whitehurst was a backup QB going in, that this game was one piece of evidence strongly in your favor.

Third:  If this was going to be Whitehurst's result in each game going forward, then:  obviously he's not an NFL player.  If you think that this team offensive result was representative, then obviously you powerflush him out of the league.

Sometimes it is important to realize that things are never as bad as they seem on your worst day.  Nor as good as they seem on your best.  :- )

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Q.  Was he playing under extenuating circumstances?  To what extent?

A.  Dr. D sat on the couch with eight or ten friends around.  

After the second, and I mean second, Seattle snap, I pronounced a huge Seahawk loss.  And not because of any Charlie blinkin' Whitehurst.  (Kudos to the defense and to Leon Washington for pulling a 10-6 victory out of a game like that.)

What was the AFC championship game where the Raiders destroyed the Seahawks?  Same thing:  two plays in, you could see that the Raiders had 13 players on the field.

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Whitehurst was playing under brutal circumstances, as many experts protested.  Jim Mora, Dave Wyman, and others tried to tell the fans:  "You gotta help the guy out a LITTLE."  The ten players around Whitehurst were atrocious and the Browns' defense was flying around like angry wasps.

The fans weren't listening.  They were ticked.  That's all.

Whitehurst had no time to set his back foot, and when he did throw a sting pass into coverage, it seemed like it was dropped half the time.  Frankly, I'm amazed that the receivers hung on to 12 of his passes.

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Q.  It was just the Browns.

A.  Actually, the average NFL team is capable of a great performance on a particular day.

Don't believe that?  You see the Seahawks do it, right? 

The Browns' defense, on this particular day, was sensational.