The good: Shaun Alexander did not start the game well. He carried four times in the first quarter for a total of 5 yards and never gained more than 2 yards on any of those carries. In the second quarter, he looked downright slow when he got the ball moving to his right on third-and-goal at the Tampa Bay 7 and lost three yards. But he averaged 4.4 yards per carry in the second half, and his running was a big reason Seattle grabbed hold of the game's tempo. He finished with 105 yards rushing and one proverbial tip of the cap from his quarterback. "I thought he ran hard on that first drive [of the second half] where we got it going," Hasselbeck said.

The bad: Deion Branch failed to catch a pass for the first time since November 2002, his rookie season. Now, there was a lot of talk about this after the game and the defensive adjustments the Buccaneers made. Hmmm. Don't know if I buy all of that. Branch played four years with the Patriots, and I'll bet he went up against some pretty good defenses and innovative game plans in that time and he never got a goose egg tossed at him his final three seasons in New England. Coach Mike Holmgren went out of his way to say that Branch was anything but disappointed and frustrated on the sidelines. Well if one of the biggest stories of this training camp was an improved rapport between Hasselbeck and Branch and one of the biggest questions is who would be the team's top wide receiver without Darrell Jackson, consider this something to keep a close eye on.

The ugly: The Seahawks failed to convert only one third-and-1 play all season in 2005. Well, they're already 0-for-2 this year. Ronde Barber made the stop on the first one, and Alexander fumbled on the second one. Hardly a good sign for that being an area the Seahawks improved over a year ago.

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