"The numbers - eight catches for 103 yards - indicated that it was the best game of receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh's young Seahawks career.

But Houshmandzadeh, who signed a five-year, $40 million deal with Seattle in the offseason after eight years in Cincinnati, knows as well as anyone that sometimes the numbers lie.

"Man, my catches came in garbage time, so it doesn't matter," said Houshmandzadeh after Seattle's 34-17 loss to Indianapolis on Sunday. "They weren't meaningful. They weren't when the game was a game. So it doesn't matter."

And it was symbolic of the entire Seahawks offense, which never got going until long after the game was decided.

The Colts led 34-3 before the Seahawks drove 70 yards for a touchdown with 2:59 left, then recovered an onside kick and drove for another score. Those two marches accounted for 124 of Seattle's 279 total yards.

Until then, the offense was stuck in reverse in a game in which Seattle knew it had to be going at well past the speed limit to keep up with the frenetic Colts.

"We know what they are going to do on offense," said Houshmandzadeh, whose previous Seattle bests were six catches and 62 yards. "So that's the hard part about it ... we knew coming in we had to help the 'D' out, and we didn't.""