Krieg’s Improvisation Is a Seahawk Key : Seattle: Veteran quarterback staves off Raider pass defense and rush, showing he is not quite ready to turn over his job to heir apparent Stouffer.

Seahawk quarterback Dave Krieg was supposed to be phased out this season in favor of Kelly Stouffer. A 10-year veteran, Krieg was thought to be too old and too immobile.

But Krieg remains the Seahawks’ quarterback.

“I think Dave is the type of quarterback who does well under adverse situations,” Seahawk wide receiver Steve Largent said.

“I’d like to see him get the credit he deserves. But he’s never had the comfort of that type of situation.”

If Krieg continues to play as he did in a 23-17 victory over the Raiders Sunday night at the Kingdome, he might keep his job a long time.

Krieg completed 25 of 34 passes for 270 yards and two touchdowns as the Seahawks won their third consecutive game. He engineered touchdown drives of 83 and 76 yards as Seattle kept its slim playoff chances alive and dealt a serious blow to those of the Raiders.

“Dave Krieg was just outstanding. I think it was the best game of the year for him,” Largent said.

“Our offensive line allowed him some room to breathe. And we had a good strong running game. Any quarterback will tell you that when you have a good, strong running game, that will help you.”

Largent and wide receiver Brian Blades were used as decoys because the Raiders took away deep passing lanes. Krieg had to improvise and throw short to running back John L. Williams and wide receiver Paul Skansi.

Williams had 12 catches for 129 yards and one touchdown, and Skansi caught four passes for 44 yards and one touchdown.

“We wanted to throw to our wide receivers, but they kept dropping back in zones and taking away the wide receivers,” Krieg said. “They were trying to stop certain things (long passes), and, fortunately, I had guys who took short passes and made them into bigger things.”

Krieg said Williams wasn’t the primary receiver on most of the passes he caught.

“John L. and I have a good rapport,” Krieg said. “He’s got a great knack of getting open, and he’ll yell my name out there and I know that he knows instinctively what to do. If he sees me scrambling around, he’ll just give me a yell because he knows I’m looking the other way. He does a lot on his own.

“He’s like a Steve Largent in that he can read a defense at the snap of the ball. He knows whether it’s ‘man’ or zone.”

Krieg improvised on a 13-yard touchdown pass to Williams that put the Seahawks ahead to stay, 20-17, with 1:11 remaining in the third quarter. The play was supposed to go to Lewis Clark or Skansi.

“I couldn’t get it to them and I scrambled around, and I saw John L. and Brian Blades running next to each other and John made a good catch,” Krieg said.

Williams questions Krieg’s status among the NFL’s quarterbacks.

“Dave is underrated,” Williams said. “He’s able to improvise better than any other quarterback.”

Krieg also did a good job of improvising on a five-yard scramble that set up the Seahawks’ first touchdown.

The Seahawk line, which had problems protecting Krieg earlier this season, didn’t allow a sack Sunday night. Krieg said the extra protection gave him time to improvise.

“I don’t know if you can win all the time doing some of the things I do out there,” Krieg said. “You have to have the time by the offensive line and you have to have the catches down field by the receivers.

“When you scramble around, there’s no preparation you can do for it. Which is good, because they don’t know what you’re going to do either.”