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Hasselbeck, Seahawks outgun Bears

Nov 19, 2007 - 4:08 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Matt Hasselbeck and the Seattle Seahawks look like they might be ready to make a run.

Hasselbeck threw a pair of touchdown passes and the Seahawks extended their modest winning streak to two games with a 30-23 victory over the Chicago Bears on Sunday.

Seattle (6-4) started the season 3-1 but has been dealing with injuries and inconsistent play. The Seahawks have now won consecutive games for the second time this season and remained a game ahead of the Arizona Cardinals (5-5) for first place in the NFC West.

"We were down 10-0 before we could blink. So, I was proud of the way our guys battled back and got even," Seattle coach Mike Holmgren said. "I thought we got pretty good pressure on the quarterback in the second half. It was a game of big plays, clutch plays."

Hasselbeck was 30-of-44 for 337 yards. He threw a 19-yard TD pass to D.J. Hackett in the first quarter to cut Chicago's lead to 10-7 and connected with Nate Burleson on a 4-yard scoring strike early in the third quarter for the only TD of the second half.

"He (Hasselbeck) stepped up in the pocket instead of freaking out and throwing it away or tucking it and running with it," Burleson said. "He had had faith that I was going to bust open."

Burleson's score gave the Seahawks a 24-17 lead and the defense did the rest, keeping the Bears out of the end zone over the final two quarters.

"It was a tough loss. We got an early lead on them and made a lot of good plays, but we didn't score enough points in the second half," Bears quarterback Rex Grossman said. "For whatever reason we didn't finish our drives in the second half and that came back to bite us."

Robbie Gould kicked his second field goal of the fourth quarter, a 48-yarder, with 13 seconds left to pull the Bears within 30-23. The ensuing onside kick went off a Seattle player and out of bounds, giving the Seahawks the ball and the win.

Rex Grossman was sacked five times and lost a fumble but did not throw an interception and completed 24-of-37 passes for 266 yards.

"Disappointing loss. To come out with a 10 point lead on the road is definitely a good start. We felt we needed to get off to a good start to take the fans out of it and all of that," Chicago coach Lovie Smith said. "We weren't able to hold the lead. We made some critical mistakes.

"Offensively, I thought we did some good things. I thought that we had gotten pretty good play from our quarterback position. Defensively, too many passing yards. We were able to get decent pressure, but we weren't able to keep the quarterback inside the pocket enough."

Hackett finished with nine receptions for 136 yards, both career highs. His 59-yard reception in the fourth quarter was also a career long and led to a 23-yard field goal by Josh Brown that gave Seattle a 27-20 lead.

"He's our starting split end right now, and he's making plays," Hasselbeck said. "You make plays, and your going to continue to get the ball."