Matt Hasselbeck isn't playing like Matt Hasselbeck

GREEN BAY, Wis. — This down-and-distance situation had been a prescription for disaster all season.

Third-and-11 for the Seahawks, at a time in the game when Matt Hasselbeck had to make a play. Third-and-long, and the Hawks were in danger of getting torched again, by another team in another city.

Hasselbeck tried to find T.J. Houshmandzadeh slanting across the middle. But the throw was late and soft and it was picked off by Packers cornerback Jarrett Bush. And this recurring nightmare of a season continued on and on and on.

Something is wrong, very wrong with the Seahawks' quarterback. Hasselbeck says his health isn't an issue, but it is. He says his shoulder is fine, but it isn't.

"That's not why I played poorly this week and last week," he argued.

But his shoulder is a serious part of the problem. And his heath is a serious question as the Seahawks look to the future.

Matt Hasselbeck isn't playing like Matt Hasselbeck. He is a fastball pitcher who's throwing like a soft-tosser. He's a flamethrower who's lost his heat.

Only once in his first 10 seasons did Hasselbeck throw four interception in a game. He has done it twice in the past two weeks.

"I'm searching for answers," Hasselbeck said, standing in front of his locker after this latest loss. "You've got to look at each (interception) separately. I'm looking for answers. I'm looking for ways to improve. Things to do and things not to do. I've got to figure it out."

In this hideous 48-10 loss to Green Bay, the second-worst loss in franchise history, Hasselbeck completed just 19 of 37 passes for 198 yards. His passer rating was 36.6. He was sacked three times. On the day he broke Dave Krieg's franchise record for career passing yards, he had one of the worst games of his career.

His four interceptions Sunday cost the Seahawks 21 points. And if you figure the Seahawks would have scored at least 10 points on those two aborted drives, Hasselbeck's errant throws cost the Hawks 31 points in Green Bay.

He was bad enough against the Packers, and the game lopsided enough, that coach Jim Mora considered pulling Hasselbeck in the second half.

This Hasselbeck looks like the old Husky Stadium Hasselbeck. Matt from the early years, when he tried to make plays that weren't there, tried to make things happen that couldn't happen.

"We diagnosed his turnovers last week and some of them were trying to force things," Mora said. "I think he's like a lot of us in that locker room. When you're down, when you're a competitor, when you're desperate to win, sometimes you force some things that you shouldn't. It's like, 'I gotta make a play. I gotta make a play,' and sometimes that frustration can get the best of you."

Hasselbeck is trying to force passes into openings that aren't there. He doesn't appear to have the arm strength to thread the ball into narrow spaces.

And like he did in his early years, Hasselbeck is trying to make the impossible possible, like that fumbled lateral on the first drive of last week's loss to Tampa Bay.

"There's definitely an element of forcing things," Hasselbeck said. "The first one (a ball that soap-dished out of his hands and into Green Bay linebacker A.J. Hawk's) it was more of a, you've got to be so careful and so protective of that football.

"Sometimes the good (from quarterback gambles) can outweigh some of the bad. I've seen quarterbacks, they throw a bunch of picks, yet they play really, really well and overcome it. I didn't do that."

Knowing Matt Hasselbeck, knowing the quality of his character; knowing what he has meant to his city and to the Seahawks franchise, this season has been difficult to watch.

He won't make excuses, but he is playing for a team that has no playmakers. And after 10 seasons in Mike Holmgren's West Coast offense, he's had to learn a new scheme, with a bad offensive line and almost no running game.

"I do feel comfortable," he said of the new scheme. "It's just a matter of certain plays where the play has to be made. The ball has to be there. It has to be on time. It has to be thrown perfectly. Sometimes those windows are tight and we're just not hooking up."

The zip is gone, and this winter and spring, the Seahawks' coaching staff and new general manager will have to determine whether Hasselbeck can regain his arm strength and re-establish his form.

Will he be their opening-day quarterback in 2010? Should they use one of their two first-round picks to find his successor?

Their answers to these questions will have consequences for this franchise for the next decade.

"That's something you think about and talk about at the end of the season," Mora said. "I'm confident in Matt and I know he's not happy with his performance. But we'll look at his body of work and see where we think he's headed and talk to him. But that will come later."

In a season that has gone nowhere, on a team that should be imploded like the Kingdome, quarterback has become one of the Seahawks' neediest positions.

Matt Hasselbeck isn't playing like Matt Hasselbeck anymore. And this franchise is reeling.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com