To paraphrase Shaun Alexander's good friend, the Buddy Christ, "From clutch you are and to clutch you shall return."

What does this have to do with the Week 3 Alba's Dark Angel Award?

Let's just say that the play of the Special Teams unit was a religious experience, or in other words, DeHeaven's boys were raising Hell! Sure, there were some offense and defensive players worthy of a week with Jessica, but the Yin and the Yang of the Special Teams unit is too much to ignore.

But to be fair, here's a shout out to Nate Burleson who made some pretty fancy catches including the game winning TD. And head-butts to Russell and Grant, each of whom pulled in a game changing INT, while harassing the Bengal receivers all day. And while I'm in the secondary, an autographed 8x10 of our favorite Dark Angel to Kelly Jennings, who tailed the Iranian T.J. Housh more closely than a Homeland Security agent, and Marcus Trufant, who spent most of the day draped all over Ocho Cinco like an over sized Future HoF sport coat.

But the one non-Special team player to get serious consideration for this week's award was linebacker LeRoy Hill, who in his first game back from injury provided a clear and undeniable explanation as to what we were lacking against the Cardinals. LeRoy was all over the field, dropping back in coverage, stopping the run, and chasing down plays from the backside. I'm very happy to see him operating back at full strength, as he's the silent steady force that allows Lofa and J-Pete the comfort to improvise.

No, yesterday's win was special, the kind of special that we remember from the 2005 season, so some lucky member of the Special Teams unit will be getting seven days with Jessica for his efforts.

The game started with an unbelievable 72-yard kick return by 2007 first round draft pick Josh Wilson. What made it unbelievable? Well, for one, DirecTV felt the last few minutes of garbage time of the Green Bay game was more important to broadcast in high definition than the most electrifying Seahawks kick return in the past decade, so I completely missed it when I started my DVR feed. But mostly the fact that there were no penalty flags on the field, a blight that seems to have affected every long Seahawks Special Teams play except for the Burleson punt return against the Rams last year. From the excellent field position handed over to the offense, Matt and the boys got to quick work of racking up first quarter points for the first time this season, and putting the high-powered Bengals offense on notice.

From there, the game was unfolding like a heavy weight fight, with both offenses throwing hay makers at each other, and both defenses doing enough to keep it from being a repeat of the Bengals-Browns game on the score board. The 12th man did its part in forcing the Bengals into procedure penalties, and it really seemed to be one of those games where the last team to have the ball would win. As a matter of fact, that turned out to be true.

After taking a 24-21 lead with just over a minute left on the clock, any Seahawks fans who have been following the team for more than a couple years were gripping. Our defense had been giving up the underneath stuff all day, and the Bengals only needed a field goal to tie.

Enter Alvin Pearman and Lance Laury. Both were roster bubble boys just about a month ago, and by converging simultaneously on the Cincinnati kick returner, forcing the game icing fumble, they will be sharing time with this week's Dark Angel.

Enjoy the show!



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