Respect for His Experience

Seahawks' Hasselbeck Is Having a Tough Season, but Redskins Are Wary

Seattle Seahawks Pro Bowl quarterback Matt Hasselbeck has played in only five games this season because of back and knee problems.

Backup quarterback Seneca Wallace performed well at times in place of Hasselbeck, but Hasselbeck came back in last week's 26-20 loss to the Arizona Cardinals and is expected to start against the Redskins. Because of Hasselbeck's experience in Seattle's version of the West Coast offense, the Redskins face different challenges than they would against Wallace.

"It's different with a guy that knows the offense like the back of his hand and is a great quarterback," cornerback Carlos Rogers said. "Not taking anything away from Seneca, but there's a difference when you're dealing with a guy who doesn't have that much experience.

"You still approach the game the same, especially on our end, but you know Hasselbeck is back. You know he's going to make the throws, make the right reads, based on what the defense is doing. He's seen everything because he's been doing it for so long now."

In six games, including four starts, Wallace has thrown five touchdown passes and one interception while completing 52.9 percent of his passes. He has a 79.5 passer rating.

Although Wallace is considered more mobile than Hasselbeck, "Hasselbeck is no slow guy either," defensive tackle Lorenzo Alexander said. "You're not going to change your game plan for one or the other because they can both do things back there. The only time you might make a big change if the backup is in there is if you have a drastic change in what a guy does, like with Dallas. Let's say you went from a Tony Romo to a Brad Johnson. You know Brad Johnson is just going to sit back there compared with a Romo, who is going to try to get out of the pocket a little bit and do some different things. But that's not the case with" Hasselbeck and Wallace.

With only three touchdown passes, seven interceptions and a 55.0 quarterback rating, Hasselbeck is having his worst season statistically since he became the Seahawks' starter during the 2001 season. But those numbers do not matter to the Redskins.

"He's still very dangerous," linebacker H.B. Blades said. "He can do a lot of very dangerous things because he's elusive and he's always looking to make plays."

Coach Jim Zorn could attest to that. In seven seasons as the Seahawks' quarterbacks coach, Zorn helped Hasselbeck become one of the league's top players at the position. He pushed Hasselbeck to maximize his ability, and Zorn also had a big part in Wallace's development.

"What Matt does, he's got the complete awareness of what's going on at the line of scrimmage. He takes command of the line of scrimmage," Zorn said. "Its going to be hard for an opponent to come in there and trick him. He's good. He's very verbal.

"He'll be able to manufacture drives and audible and get his team into the right play. He's got real talent. Seneca's got more run-ability talent than Matt does, but he hasn't been controlling the line of scrimmage the way Matt controls the line."