Notebook | Hasselbeck laughs it off after getting hurt in places he didn't even know existed

Matt Hasselbeck took several hard shots to his body during the 33-6 victory Sunday over St. Louis. One from Rams defensive tackle Claude Wroten that left him slow to get up and another from Wroten a few plays later in the second quarter that caused him to pull an oblique muscle on his right side.

But leave it to Mr. One-liner, Hasselbeck, to lighten the mood after the injury.

"I think it's a great thing. Actually I'm kind of excited," Hasselbeck said when asked how difficult it was to throw after the injury. "They told me I tweaked my oblique, which is awesome because I didn't know I had any obliques."

The oblique is that back muscle that protrudes when muscular people flex.

Hasselbeck played in pain and was functional enough not to force coach Mike Holmgren to take him out for backup Seneca Wallace until the closing minutes. The pain in his torso affected his throws, and Hasselbeck finished 18 of 35 for 195 yards with one interception.

"Obviously my throws were all over the place and not very accurate," Hasselbeck said.

"I don't think it's too serious," he added.

A talk with Shaun

Holmgren also took running back Shaun Alexander out of the game in the fourth quarter — to Alexander's dismay.

The move sparked a sideline conversation. Holmgren said Alexander wanted to keep playing.

"He is frustrated a little bit and he just wants to do well," Holmgren said. "So he's probably a little mad at me. ... But in that situation, I get the say. If I had left any of those guys in the game and they had been hurt, it would have been a really dumb thing to do."

Alexander said he gets pulled from games when the Seahawks get big leads.

"I said, 'Mike, come on,' " Alexander said. "He usually gives me a warning, like, 'Hey, if we score again, you're coming out.' And it happened again."

Alexander still heard from the boobirds a couple of times, though he looked to be running with something to prove after a pair of lackluster performances. He finished with 47 yards on 19 carries Sunday.

"We've all been doing our thing and he's been running hard and we've been blocking hard and sometimes it just doesn't happen when we've wanted it," center Chris Spencer said. "We started getting a little bit going."

Backup Maurice Morris had 10 carries for 42 yards, and Seattle gained 100 rushing yards overall.

Repeat performance

When the first question a coach is asked after the game is if he would identify this game as the team's worst offensive output of the season, it's a pretty good sign things didn't exactly go swimmingly on the field.

Scott Linehan's answer to that first question said even more about St. Louis' season.

"I would say last week wasn't very good either," Linehan said. "It was not good in a number of ways."

Not at all. The Rams failed to score a touchdown for the second consecutive game. At halftime, their net passing yardage was 7. They were penalized for five false starts on offense. They committed five turnovers. They suffered seven sacks.

Linehan went to Sunnyside High School, he previously coached at the University of Washington and he's 0-7 in his second season as the Rams coach. The most recent defeat came after he got all hot and bothered at practice Thursday.

"I feel like we really let him down," tight end Randy McMichael said. "I really do because he was speaking from his heart."

Action Ashworth

Backup offensive lineman Tom Ashworth appeared in the final stats with a kickoff return, though he called for a fair catch on a short kick late in the first quarter.

Ashworth was one of the up men on the return team and the Rams looked to be avoiding kickoff returner Nate Burleson. He made a clean catch.

"If it's short like that and way in front of the returner where they can't get to it, you have to fair catch it," Ashworth said. "I'm just glad I caught it."

Supersub Mac

That's what backup fullback Fred McCrary called himself after he signed with Seattle on Oct. 9. McCrary, an 11th-year veteran, didn't play last week and had not appeared in a game since last season with Atlanta, but was called into service when starter Leonard Weaver limped off in the third quarter.

McCrary blasted Rams linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa with a lead block for Alexander and led the way on a 6-yard run for Alexander two plays later.

"It was good to get my feet wet in a game situation," McCrary said. "I haven't been playing this long for no reason. I take a lot of pride in that stuff."

NOTES

• WR D.J. Hackett, who practiced during the past week, was deemed not healthy enough to play Sunday because of a sprained ankle and missed his sixth consecutive game. TE Marcus Pollard was inactive after missing two practices with a lingering knee injury. S C.J. Wallace, a special-teams player, was also inactive and missed his first game of the season.

• Mariners star Ichiro raised the 12th Man flag before kickoff, drawing a thunderous ovation.

Seattle Times staff reporter Danny O'Neil

contributed to this report.