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Learning to fly

Seahawks' offense finally takes off in exhibition rout

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Posted: Sunday August 29, 1999 05:23 PM

Jon Kitna's 147 yards passing helped earn coach Mike Holmgren and the Seahawks their first win of the season. AP

SEATTLE (AP) -- The Seattle Seahawks felt pretty good about beating up on one of last season's playoff teams even if the Arizona Cardinals were without Jake Plummer.

Jon Kitna threw a touchdown pass and Ahman Green had a TD run in the first half as the Seahawks gave new coach Mike Holmgren his first victory in Seattle, 41-7 over the Cardinals in an exhibition game Saturday night.

The Seahawks' defense was particularly impressive, registering eight sacks, while holding Arizona without a touchdown until the final two minutes. Seattle's defenders had two interceptions and recovered a fumble.

"I'm not surprised that we're getting things done like this," said Seattle defensive end Michael Sinclair, who led the NFL with a team-record 16 1/2 sacks last season. He had two against the Cardinals, who made the playoffs as a wild-card team with a 9-7 record last season.

"Coach Holmgren's attack style of defense plays right into our hands," Sinclair added. "We got constant pressure on the quarterback tonight and kept pouring it on."

Holmgren didn't want to get too excited about his first victory since coming to Seattle from Green Bay, where he coached the Packers in two Super Bowls.

"Let's all take a deep breath," he said. "It's a preseason game. But I think we're capable of playing good defense."

Kitna, the Seahawks' starting quarterback, was 12-of-23 for 147 yards, including a 3-yard TD to tight end Itula Mili in the first quarter. He was not intercepted.

The Seahawks were without Joey Galloway, who missed all of training camp in a contract holdout.

Kitna inexplicably lost the handle on the ball when he was rolling away from pressure in the third quarter, but recovered it.

"It was kind of a Dave Krieg episode," Kitna said of the former Seahawks quarterback who holds the record for the most fumbles in the NFL.

Green, Ricky Watters' backup at running back, gave the Seahawks a 17-0 halftime lead with a 1-yard TD run in the second quarter.

Glenn Foley, Seattle's backup quarterback who had a shaky training camp, threw two touchdown passes after replacing Kitna in the second half. He had a 23-yard scoring pass to running back Michael Black in the third quarter and a 15-yarder to fullback Oscar Gray in the fourth.

Foley, obtained in an offseason trade from the New York Jets, was 4-of-5 for 67 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions.

Seattle (1-2) dominated Cardinals quarterback Dave Brown, who started in place of the injured Plummer. Brown was 3-for-9 for 23 yards and had two passes intercepted. The Seahawks sacked the former New York Giants starter five times.

Plummer suffered a sprained right thumb in Arizona's second exhibition game against Tennessee last week. He is expected to be ready for the regular season opener.

"I'd like to have a full complement of guys on both sides of the ball," Arizona coach Vince Tobin said. "But we're playing with what we've got and they have to play better than they did tonight."

Brown said: "It was ugly in every facet of our game."

The Cardinals (1-2) got a strong game from Adrian Murrell, who had 47 yards on 10 carries.

The Seahawks' first team held the Cardinals to two first downs and 46 total yards, all by passing, in the first half.

On its second possession, Seattle took a 7-0 lead on the 3-yard pass from Kitna to Mili with 3:04 left in the opening quarter.

The Seahawks went 51 yards in eight plays with Watters accounting for 48 of the yards on three runs for 15 and one catch for 33. Watters finished the game with 44 yards on 10 carries.

In the second quarter, Todd Peterson made it 10-0 with a 24-yard field goal and the Seahawks added their second touchdown on the 2-yard run by Green, the former Nebraska star expected to get more playing time from Holmgren. The second TD was set up by Jay Bellamy's interception and 22-yard return on a pass from Brown intended for Frank Sanders.

When Seattle went to a third quarterback in the fourth quarter, Holmgren used training camp quarterback Kevin Kreinhagen instead of Brock Huard, the team's third-round draft choice from Washington. Huard threw three interceptions in the second half at San Francisco last week.

Arizona got its touchdown on a 19-yard swing pass from Chris Greisen to Michael Pittman with 1:14 to go.

 

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