Super tackle Walter Jones is starting to look mortal

IRVING, Texas — Walter Jones is usually the most anonymous 325-pound man in Seattle's locker room after a game for two very simple reasons.

He doesn't say all that much and, more important, there's usually not anything to ask him about because for 16 games every year Jones functions like an eraser at left tackle. He makes the guy he touches disappear.

But Thursday, a procession of reporters came to Jones' locker after the 34-9 loss to Dallas to ask the mountain of a man about being a mere mortal at least for one afternoon.

Toward the end of the first quarter, Dallas' DeMarcus Ware bull-rushed Jones, hit Jones and bounced outside for — gasp — an 8-yard sack of quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.

"It's so unusual that it kind of shocks you when it happens," coach Mike Holmgren said.

Then it happened again one quarter later. That time Jones was faked out so thoroughly, he didn't even manage to get one of his oven-sized mitts on Ware.

"He's a great guy," Jones said. "I'm not going to take nothing away from him. He made two plays on me, man. I still have to line up and go out there and try to block him."

Jones is 34 years old, the age when people start wondering just how much longer he'll play. Not only that, but he is an offensive tackle, a difficult position to measure. They're like referees in that they only get recognized when things go wrong.

Jones has gone through entire seasons in which he hasn't allowed a single sack, and here he gave up two in a little more than 15 minutes Thursday. And it's not like Jones is suddenly a question mark on Seattle's line. It's just that his dominance isn't always a given like it once was.

His left shoulder is healthier than in the past couple of years when he underwent offseason surgery, but on Thursday he was noticeably limping at one point in the team's warmups.

"He's been battling through a little bit of leg problems, but not enough to keep him from practicing," Holmgren said.

Jones just chuckled when asked if he was OK after Sunday's game.

"I'm doing fine, man," Jones said.

Jones has been so dominant that we go searching for reasons when something goes wrong, and he's hardly struggling this year. Earlier this month the Seahawks faced the Dolphins and Joey Porter, who led the league in sacks. He finished with two tackles, and the half-sack he did have came when he wasn't matched up against Jones.

Jones has felt better than recent years, and this year he began having custom-made meals brought to the team's practice facility to take better care of his body as his metabolism changes.

On Thursday, he had a pretty formidable pass rusher lined up across form him. Ware is a former first-round pick who entered the game with a dozen sacks. He added three against Seattle, the two against Jones and then a second-half sack from the right edge. He left the game with a hyperextended knee that will be tested today.

When Seattle last faced Dallas in the regular season, it was 2005 and Ware was a rookie who had played very well against the Seahawks in an exhibition game.

Troy Aikman was announcing that game, and during the week leading up to that game, he asked Holmgren just how the Seahawks might game-plan for Ware. Seattle's coach simply suggested Aikman take a look at Jones, the man who would be blocking Ware.

He is the man of whom much is expected in Seattle. The Seahawks set him out there on the edge of the quarterback's blind side and expect him to handle the man across from him without any help.

And so often, Seattle's eraser does just that. It's just that it's not always a given now.

Danny O'Neil: 206-464-2364 or doneil@seattletimes.com