Who didn’t see that coming? The Seahawks were laid out on the tracks like Nell Fenwick, the fair maiden in the old Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon. But there would be no Dudley Do-Right to save the Hawks. They were destined to get Snidely Whiplashed by the runaway train again, just as happened in Indy and Dallas earlier this season. 

Like the Indy game especially, the only purpose this game served is to show just how far away the Seahawks are from competing for the Super Bowl. After a 35-9 blowout, they are 3-7, and that puts them in the bottom third of the league. The Vikings and Colts, meanwhile, are a combined 19-1 and are two the league’s three elite teams. Losing to them is not necessarily an embarrassment – unless you do it the way the Seahawks did.

Matt Hasselbeck did what he could, completing 19 of 26 passes, but the offense just couldn’t sustain a drive because the Seahawks couldn’t run and the line couldn’t keep the Vikings away from Hasselbeck. The Hawks finished with a franchise-low four rushing yards – the second time this year they have broken that dubious record (they had seven yards in the 27-3 home loss to Arizona). They were out-possessed 42 minutes to 18 because they converted just 1 of 10 third downs.

A team needs three things to win: a quarterback, a line to protect the quarterback and a line to pressure the other quarterback. The Hawks have the quarterback. They don’t have the lines, especially on offense.

Of course, this game was a huge reminder that they could have had a much better line if they had not let Steve Hutchinson go in 2006.

Brett Favre and Adrian Peterson are the Vikings’ stars, but they wouldn’t be nearly as effective if they didn’t have such a good line blocking for them. And the best player on that line is Hutch.

So for Seattle, this was Hutch Bowl II – the second time the Seahawks faced the one that never should have gotten away. Hutch and the Vikings won the first game 31-13 in 2006 and equally overmatched the Seahawks in this one.

Four seasons after leaving the Seahawks, Hutch is still a stud – and definitely worth the $49 million contract Tim Ruskell refused to even consider giving him in 2006. Hutch has been to the Pro Bowl for six straight seasons and has been named All-Pro (i.e., one of the league’s two best guards) five times.

Hutch is so good, he was not called for holding for six years – a 97-game stretch that finally ended against Pittsburgh last month. That’s more than just the luck of not getting caught; it’s the talent to be able to dominate defenders without holding and the technique to make sure he wasn’t seen on the few occasions he had to hold. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Hutch has been called for only three penalties in his three-plus seasons with the Vikings.

Think the Seahawks don’t miss Hutch? Think their young bunch if whippersnappers couldn’t use his savvy? You’d be thinking wrong.

Until the Seahawks fix their broken-down line, Hutch will be a reminder of what they once had. Knowledgeable fans know what a huge error Ruskell made in not using the franchise tag on Hutch after the 2005 Super Bowl season.

The Curse of Hutch signifies all that Seattle has lost since 2006 – and really the reason they are so bad on offense right now.

Ruskell simply has not succeeded in putting together a new line in front of Hasselbeck to replace the stellar veteran group of Walter Jones, Hutch, Robbie Tobeck and Chris Gray (plus young Sean Locklear) that paved the way to the Super Bowl in 2005.

Ruskell’s pick of Chris Spencer in the first round in 2005 has been a failure. Re-signing Locklear as Jones’ potential replacement has not worked either because Locklear cannot stay healthy.

And Ruskell’s other attempts have failed as well. He tried to make up for the Hutch screw-up by signing Tom Ashworth in 2006. Then he attempted to lure Kris Dielman from San Diego in 2007, but the Pro Bowl guard took about $9 million less to stay in sunny Southern California. In 2008, Ruskell brought in veteran Mike Wahle, but he didn’t even last a full season in Seattle.

Ruskell has said he thinks linemen can be developed out of the mid-rounds of the draft, but you have to think he is reconsidering that flawed opinion in the wake of the past four seasons of horrible running games and poor protection for his franchise quarterback.

Next April, Ruskell must use one of Seattle’s first-round picks on a tackle. And he must also sign a good, young lineman in free agency and draft another guard to give the team depth and competition. Yes, he absolutely must bring in THREE new linemen to replace some of the deadweight the Hawks currently have (Spencer, Wrotto, et al.).

Then maybe, just maybe, the Seahawks will finally be able to exorcise the Curse of Hutch.

In the meantime, the Hawks have to do a couple of things ASAP:

1)     Move Max Unger to center NOW. That is his future position, and it’s time to prime him for it in this lost season if the Hawks are going to have a chance to make the playoffs next year. Move him NOW.

2)     Spencer needs to be benched or cut NOW. The guy cannot stay healthy. And has simply not turned into an NFL starter-quality player. The guy shouldn’t be on the field. And if you could get Hasselbeck to be brutally honest, he would say the same thing. It’s time to admit this bust and make the move to the future NOW.

3)     The Seahawks also might need to re-evaluate this much-touted zone blocking scheme. It has so far resulted in the two worst rushing performances in franchise history. So either it’s the players or it’s the scheme. Or it’s both. Get it figured out. NOW.

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

**David Hawthorne’s legend continued to grow. He had 15 tackles and was all over the field. Yeah, the Vikings ran for 160 yards and held the ball for 42 minutes. But Hawthorne was a big part of holding Peterson to 3.4 yards per carry. (Chester Taylor is the one who tore them up — again.)

**Has Leroy Hill come back from his groin injury yet? Haven’t seen him. He has yet to make any kind of impact since signing his $38 million contract. Aaron Curry’s inconsistency is understandable; he’s a rookie. But where is Hill?

**All in all, the defense has played well early in most games this season but faded as the offense has remained inept or the opposing offense has adjusted.  

**Jon Ryan had a monster game, averaging 51.3 yards on seven punts and netting 44.1. Too bad the Seahawks just don’t take advantage of that weapon.

**Nate Burleson bounced back from a shutout in Arizona with six catches for 100 yards against his former team, but tight end John Carlson was shut out this week. The Hawks continue to fail to get Carlson involved in the offense (they threw it to him four times).

**Why does Seneca Wallace insist on running out of bounds and taking the sack instead of throwing the ball away? He took a 9-yard loss on third-and-2 in the second quarter. Just a dumb play.

**Not sure Gus Bradley isn’t overmatched as an NFL defensive coordinator. Or is it just that he needs a play-making safety and an impact pass rusher? Either way, goodbye, former Mora & Ruskell faves Patrick Kerney and Lawyer Milloy.

**Hasselbeck is now 1-5 against Favre in head-to-head meetings since Hasselbeck left Green Bay. That includes the 2005 finale, in which Hasselbeck did not play after the first quarter (if Hasselbeck had played, the Seahawks would have won). The record does not include the Seahawks’ win against Favre’s Jets at Qwest Field last December; Seneca Wallace started that game in place of Hasselbeck.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Can the Seahawks avoid a second straight top-10 draft pick? Probably not.

They so far have performed to the worst-case scenario since the bye, losing all three road games and barely managing to beat Detroit at home. Up next is a game in St. Louis. Then they have three of the final five at home. If these Hawks have any fight left in them, they should be able to go 4-2 in those final six.

If they don’t win at least three of their final six, it will be a sign that this team made no progress in Mora’s first year.

However, if the Hawks rally to finish 7-9, that would mark respectable progress from 4-12 and set up the appropriate expectation that the Hawks return to the playoffs in 2010. And 7-9 might move them out of the top 10, too.

Either way, it’s playoffs or bust for Mora and Ruskell in 2010.