Hawks History: Holding an Opponent to Single-Digit First Downs

The Seahawks defense accomplished something rare yesterday by holding the Niners to less than ten first downs. It's only the eighth time in franchise history they've managed it.

Presented for your edification are the rest:

11/13/77 @ Shea Stadium: Seattle 17, New York 0 (8 first downs).
The Hawks' Steve Preece, who's now FSN's color commentator for Oregon State football, had an interception at the goal line to preserve this shutout, the franchise's first. Preece was an all Pac-8 QB at Oregon State, but played exclusively defense in the pros. 1977 was the last year of his nine-year NFL career. He had some interesting superstitions, according to the 1978 Hawks media guide: During the National Anthem, he had to be standing on then 47-yard-line. "If someone is already standing there," Preece said, "I ask him to move."

9/7/86 @ Kingdome: Seattle 30, Pittsburgh 0 (9 first downs).
Former special teams standout Fredd Young, who'd claimed a starting LB spot in the middle of the '85 season, kicked off one of the best seasons ever by a Seattle linebacker in this game with 10 tackles and a sack. Young ended up with six sacks, most ever by a Hawks linebacker, and became first Hawks LB to win a Pro Bowl spot.

11/22/87 @ Kingdome: Seattle 34, San Diego 3 (6 first downs).
Rookie Brian Bosworth had a team-leading nine tackles in this game. Bosworth's now regarded as a bust, but he was terrific in his rookie year, finishing second in the team in tackles, winning an AFC Defensive Player of the Week award, and recording 17 tackles in the Hawks' wild-card playoff loss at Houston. Tackles aren't an official stat, but if they were, I'm sure that'd be the team playoff record. Incidentally, Bosworth's twin nephews, Kyle and Korey, play at UCLA and combined for eight tackles last week against the Huskies.

9/29/91 @ Kingdome: Seattle 31, Indianapolis 3 (9 first downs).
Jacob Green got his third and final career interception in this game in his final season as a Seahawk. He didn't have any sacks in this one, but he had six on the year. Green finished his Hawks career with 116 sacks, still a franchise record. From 1982, when the NFL started officially recording the sack, to 1992, when Green retired, only Lawrence Taylor and Reggie White had more sacks.

11/28/99 @ Kingdome: Tampa Bay 16, Seattle 3 (9 first downs).
This is the second game where an opponent got single digit first downs in which Trent Dilfer was involved. Dilfer started this game and went 5/11 for 50 yards--so Shawn King finished it. King led a 67-yard fourth quarter drive that ended in the game's only touchdown. The Hawks outgained the Bucs by more than 100 yards, but Jon Kitna threw five interceptions. As mentioned in a previous post, this was the game that launched the Hawks' 1999 collapse.

9/26/04 @ Qwest Field: Seattle 34, San Francisco 0 (9 first downs).
This shutout snapped the Niners NFL-record 420 game streak of not getting shutout. The streak had stretched back to October 1977. Ken Hamlin intercepted a pass in the end zone to preserve the shutout. Ken Dorsey started at QB for San Francisco, he was 19/32 with two interceptions.

12/11/05 @ Qwest Field: Seattle 41, San Francisco 3 (8 first downs).
This was the Hawks sixth and final divisional game of the year, they won it to finish undefeated in division play for the first time in franchise history. Rookie linebacker Lofa Tatupu had an interception and his first career fumble recovery in the win. Frank Gore had his first career rushes against the Hawks in this game, he ran twice for five yards.




9/30/07 @ Candlestick Park: Seattle 23, San Francisco 3 (9 first downs).
Yeah.