Otherwise, a team is just prey.

Partially because Matt Hasselbeck threw a late interception on the first play of a potential winning drive for the second consecutive week, the Seahawks fell prey to the Washington Redskins , 20-17, at Qwest Field on Sunday afternoon, keeping alive the Redskins' playoff hopes.

It was Seattle's fourth consecutive loss, dropping the Seahawks' record to 2-9 and leaving both players and coaches a bit befuddled as to why their season has become a panoply of errors.

After all, they are currently as healthy as they are going to get for the remainder of the season, and they have most of the pieces in place to revisit the type of production to which they had become accustomed.

Instead, their offense continues to stall, particularly in the crucial times that used to be the crucible of their success.

The old Seahawks relished the opportunity to get the ball in the final two minutes of a game, drive down the field and make a heroic play.

But not these Seahawks.

Not even close.

When the defense stripped Washington's Ladell Betts of the ball with 1:28 left and recovered it on Seattle's 22, it represented the possibility of redemption for Hasselbeck, who was in a similar situation against Arizona last week and threw an interception on the first play of the final drive.

On the first play of this drive, with Jim Zorn, his longtime position coach, looking on from Washington's sideline, Hasselbeck dropped back, looked left in Zorn's direction, zipped a ball intended for Koren Robinson and watched as former Seahawk Shawn Springs contorted his body to snare the pass out of the air, ending the Seahawks' chances and adding to their puzzlement.

"It was my fault," Hasselbeck said. "I misread the route by Koren. I think he did everything he was supposed to do. We had run similar routes earlier in the game; they had covered it a certain way. I was obviously anticipating something else. I am definitely kicking myself right now. It was sloppy."

It was another poor performance by Hasselbeck, who missed five consecutive games with a back injury before returning last week.

Appearing to be either rusty or not completely healed, Hasselbeck completed just 12 of 24 passes for 103 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, which combined for a 54.7 passer rating.

"Inconsistent," was the way Holmgren described the franchise quarterback's outing.

Which, with this team, is not good enough.

Hasselbeck is well aware of his shortcomings, and for whatever reason seems powerless to reverse them. He threw one interception that was intended to be an incompletion. He has had difficulty managing the game at times. And his decision-making - the strength of his game - has been suspect since his return.

In short, he does not look at all like the same quarterback that has been named to the Pro Bowl three times, though he does not have - or is not willing to offer - an explanation.

"Not going to be doing that this year," Hasselbeck said drolly about the Pro Bowl.

The lead-up to this game was dominated by the relationships involving the teams, including Zorn and former Seahawks Shaun Alexander, Ryan Plackemeier, Mike Green, Springs and running backs coach Stump Mitchell.

But once the game began, those story lines faded. Alexander did not even play, though he ran onto the field at one point and tried to get in the game in a goal-line situation.

There were good things in this game, almost enough of them to win.

Maurice Morris rushed for 103 yards on 14 carries, the first Seattle back to eclipse 100 yards since the third week of the season.

Josh Wilson had a 55-yard kickoff return, the third consecutive week he has broken off a big run.

And the defense was adequate against Washington's run-oriented offense, though Clinton Portis totaled 143 rushing yards, enough to move him past Minnesota's Adrian Peterson and into the league lead with 1,206 yards.

Still, the Seahawks put themselves in a position to win. When Washington (7-4) went ahead 7-3, Seattle answered with a screen pass to Morris for a touchdown, the second consecutive week he has scored off that play.

When Washington went ahead 17-10, the Seahawks tied the game on a touchdown pass to tight end John Carlson, the rookie's third of the year.

And even as Washington went on what was supposed to be its game-clinching drive, Brian Russell and Julian Peterson did enough to make Betts fumble - much to Zorn's chagrin.

But an offense that has failed to score more than 20 points in five of its last six games does not have the rhythm or ability at this point to produce the way it once could, Hasselbeck or no Hasselbeck.

"If I am just not careless with the Football, we have a chance to win the game," Hasselbeck said.

Now, the Seahawks have a short week to prepare for a Thanksgiving Day game in Dallas against the resurgent Cowboys, who have won two in a row since Tony Romo returned from his pinkie injury.

Perhaps the spoiler role starts then.

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