Ailing O’Brien Gets Cure in Seattle : He Throws for 431 Yards, 4 Scores in Jets’ 38-7 Victory

Ken O’Brien wasn’t feeling well, but he made the Seattle Seahawks look sick.

O’Brien passed for 431 yards and 4 touchdowns Sunday to lead the New York Jets to their seventh straight victory, a 38-7 rout at the Kingdome.

“I haven’t been feeling well,” O’Brien said. “It’s the flu.

“We got on a roll today. Wherever we got the ball, the offense was confident we could move it. We got hot. I don’t care if I have 400 yards or 100 yards as long as we win.”

The four-year veteran from UC Davis passed for touchdowns on plays of 83 yards to Wesley Walker, 50 and 36 yards to Al Toon, and 1 yard to tight end Mickey Shuler.

“He was outstanding,” Seahawks Coach Chuck Knox said. “He wound up with some fantastic numbers.”

O’Brien, who passed for 479 yards against Miami in the third week of this season, completed 26 of 32 passes. He was not intercepted and had 277 passing yards at halftime to help his club into a 24-7 lead. He hit on 8 in a row in one stretch and was 17 for 18 in the second and third quarters.

“We had a lot of great catches,” O’Brien said. “I don’t know if we had them confused--we just had a lot of really great catches.”

The Seahawks secondary was simply no match for O’Brien and his speedy tandem of Toon and Walker. Toon caught 9 passes for 195 yards, his best day in his two seasons as a pro, and 2 touchdowns, while Walker made 6 receptions for 161 yards and a score.

The Jets (8-1) also got a 9-yard touchdown run from Freeman McNeil, who rushed for 84 yards in 25 carries, and a 50-yard field goal by Pat Leahy.

The Seahawks (5-4) lost for the fourth time in six games.

“We just got an old-fashioned butt kicking,” Knox said. “I hope the players are as disappointed about this as I am. This was an embarrassment.”

One bright spot for Seattle was quarterback Gale Gilbert, who made his NFL starting debut in place of the benched Dave Krieg at quarterback. He was 25 of 44 for 284 yards and a touchdown, but was intercepted twice.

Gilbert gave the Seahawks a 7-3 lead with 48 seconds left in the first quarter on a 27-yard scoring pass to Daryl Turner. However, the Jets scored three touchdowns in the second quarter.

The Jets took the lead when O’Brien found Toon on a 50-yard touchdown play, and increased the lead to 17-7 just 2 1/2 minutes later when O’Brien hooked up with Walker on the 83-yarder.

New York got its third touchdown of the first half on McNeil’s nine-yard run.

O’Brien added a 36-yard scoring pass to Toon and the one-yarder to Shuler in the second half.

Seattle’s Steve Largent, who extended his NFL-record receiving streak to 132 straight games, caught 7 passes for 108 yards.