Driving to the airport after Seattle's choke/loss to Arizona.

Traffic sucking. The freeway is closed for repair and I'm driving around back streets looking for the airport.

An email from my friend James comes in and as usual, he summed it up best:

"The Hawks totally Coug'd it."

He would know. He's a Coug.

The game turned on completely unexpected play, one that no one in the stadium could have imagined -- Seattle's best two players, Shaun Alexander and Matt Hasselbeck, fumbling away the football with a chance at a game-winning field goal virtually assured.

Not sure if "The Hawks Coug It" would be a very fair headline in Monday's paper (but unfair to whom? The Cougs? The Seahawks?).

(I'd have to check with a copy editor, but I'm fairly certain "Coug'ing it" is in the Associated Press style book these days, since you hear the refrain so often...)

That big fumble was a hard photo for me to get, and of course, I didn't get a clean shot at it. We'll run an AP photo of the play, shot from behind the line of scrimmage.

With the Seahawks driving and in field goal position, I was just at the point where I was deciding the best place to shoot it from.

Three options run through my mind:

-- Should I be in front of the play along the Seattle sideline. If Josh Brown makes it me might leap towards me?

-- Or, should I position myself far behind the line of scrimmage so I can shoot the Cardinals trying to block it and seeing Brown's expression if he turns back towards the sideline?

-- And, most importantly, will I have time to get to In-n-Out burger on my way to the airport?

Anyway, I'm watching the Seahawks run down the clock with running plays, trying to get within the 30-yard line, and then it happens.

Simple handoff, but Hasselbeck and Alexander run into each other, the ball comes loose and chaos reigns.

The best place to shoot it would have been from far corner of the far endzone, where an Associated Press photographer was stationed.

It looke like this from my angle:

(Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, EF 400mm/f2.8 lens, ISO 800, 1/640 sec., f2.8)

And it just got worse from there (this photo will probably not win an award in the annual NFL Hall of Fame photo contest, but i could be wrong. Wait. None of these will win any awards):

(Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, EF 400mm/f2.8 lens, ISO 800, 1/640 sec., f2.8)

The best frame is actually after the play, when Alexander is walking off the field and the Cards' Darnell Dockett is celebrating with the football:

(Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, EF 400mm/f2.8 lens, ISO 800, 1/640 sec., f2.8)

After the game, I work on Alexander and Hasselbeck. The two could not have more different reactions to losing. It almost appears to me that Alexander knows the cameras are on him and smiles so that we can't use a dejection photo of him. Every photographer in the workroom complains about this. I think it's pretty funny. Then, I find out that in his postgame comments, Alexander doesn't accept much responsibility for the play, and he's apparently as carefree after a tough conference loss as he is any other day of the year:

(Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, EF 16-35mm/f2.8 lens @ 29mm, ISO 800, 1/500 sec., f4.0)

I find Hasselbeck leaving the field, and I like how this one came out -- I think it captures the shock of losing a game the way they did. By putting the camera low on the ground I'm able to capture the stadium environment:

(Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, EF 16-35mm/f2.8 lens @ 16mm, ISO 800, 1/500 sec., f4.0)

Finally, I go to Coach Holmgren's postgame press conference, and of course he's not very happy, but the photos are pretty mediocre:

(Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, EF 70-200mm/f2.8 lens @ 200mm, ISO 800, 1/160 sec., f2.8)