These Seahawks focused
KIRKLAND, Wash. – The Seattle Seahawks of last season – and of the season before that, and the season before that – would be fully chilled out on chaise lounges by now.
A huge win like last weekend’s upset victory at NFC West-rival St. Louis, Seattle’s first over the Rams in four tries, followed by a matchup like tonight’s game against the 0-4 Houston Texans at Qwest Field? Current players say that combination would have left previous Seahawks flapping into an in-season hiatus.
“In years past, when we won a game like we won last week, guys would have been jumping around, making noise, yelling, being happy – then we’d relax and lose the next game,” said center Robbie Tobeck, a Seahawk since 2000.
“Now, it’s like last week. Guys were like, ‘We won. We expected to win. Now, who’s next?’ ”
Who’s next is the NFL’s only remaining winless team. Houston has the league’s most anemic offense, last in yards gained (an average of 213 per game) and points scored (11 per game). The Texans have yet to score more than one touchdown in any game. And today, they may be without game-changing receiver Andre Johnson, who has a strained right calf.
They fired their offensive coordinator, Chris Palmer, after just two games and replaced him with line coach Joe Pendry. But Pendry’s linemen have allowed opponents to sack quarterback David Carr 27 times in the four losses. That brutal pace would set the NFL record for a season if it continues.
“God put me here for a reason,” Carr said last week. “He didn’t put me here just to get beat up.”
Carr might need heaven’s help today. His line may have new starters in three of the five positions. Fifth-round draft choice Drew Hodgdon may start at center. Not only has Hodgdon not started an NFL game, he hasn’t even dressed for one.
Seattle, meanwhile, is a victory away from its third 4-2 start in 16 years. The Seahawks lead the NFL in total offense (397 yards per game). Shaun Alexander leads the league with 574 yards rushing. Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, named NFC Player of the Week for compiling his franchise-record 12th 300-yard passing game while beating the Rams, hasn’t thrown an interception in five games. The young defense has improved from 26th overall last season to 17th now.
Seventh-year Seattle coach Mike Holmgren sees a change heading into this match of first place vs. last place.
“Our guys are ready to handle this (game) maybe better than they have handled it in the past,” Holmgren said. “It’s coming from the feeling I get when I go down in the locker room, and the feeling I get on the airplane and different things. They’re having fun playing. The cynics aren’t around here so much anymore.”
No Seahawk will name names, but recent castoffs include receiver Koren Robinson, linebackers Orlando Huff, Anthony Simmons and Chad Brown, defensive end Chike Okeafor and cornerback Ken Lucas.
“I think every team I have been on you have a group of guys that are really helping pull the team in the right direction. Then you have a couple guys that are pulling it in a wrong direction. Everybody else is sort of on the fence,” said Hasselbeck, a Seahawk since 2000. “I think for the first time since I have been in Seattle we have an overwhelming majority going in the right direction. It is a contagious thing.
“I don’t know how to explain it other than we feel really good about what we are doing. We believe in the program. We believe in what the coaches are asking us to do and we believe in each other.”
The Seahawks will be facing a Texans defense that already has benched linebacker and former first-round draft choice Jason Babin and cornerback Phillip Buchanon, Oakland’s top pick from 2002. Houston is the league’s only team without a forced turnover this season.
Seattle has had only one 10-win season in the last 18 years.
“We have a chance to do something new again here, this season, if we stay at it,” Holmgren said.