It’s Tough To Tie Up Loose Ends Seahawks Defensive Ends Get By With Help From Friends

On the list of Seattle Seahawks strengths, these guys were at the end of the line.

In those first six games, three defensive ends totaled two sacks.

It was almost as if they weren’t really there. Or as if they were just some guys tossed in to get the defense up to the requisite 11.

Opposing quarterbacks took snaps, took a nap, dropped back, filed their nails, signed a few autographs, found receivers and passed the ball for big gains.

So the Seahawks staff moved in linebackers Terry Wooden and Duane Bickett on passing downs to try to get pressure - and under their breath must have muttered about what it would take to land Charger Leslie O’Neal, who will be a free agent at the end of this season.

Nothing worked.

But since that dismal start, Michael Sinclair and Antonio Edwards - stepping in for Brent Williams - have teamed for nine sacks. And in the past two games, against Denver and Oakland, they’ve had three sacks, a touchdown on a fumble return and sent a quarterback to the sideline.

Oakland’s Jeff Hostetler, for instance, would suggest the Seahawks’ defensive ends are no longer a weakness. (Surgery was Tuesday to remove Sinclair from his shoulder.)

And although this reversal has been remarkable, no one seems able to come up with an explanation.

“I think it’s just that everybody is hitting on all cylinders right now and we’ve been improving every week,” said Edwards, a third-year player from Valdosta State, who set a team record with an 83-yard fumble return score against Denver.

Why the improvement, Michael Sinclair?

“Hard work; lots of hard work,” he said. “We did get off to a slow start. It seemed like sometimes we’d get a little pressure from the left side or a little from the right, but we were never meeting back there. Now we are.

“We’re doing the exact same thing we were during the early part of the season,” Sinclair said. “It’s been a matter of us benefiting from that continuity. Now, we’re reaping the benefits of staying with what we were doing.”

Hawks coach Dennis Erickson, too, sees this as a product of familiarity with the defensive scheme.

”(Sinclair) is just a lot more comfortable and is playing with more confidence,” Erickson said. “Sometimes when you have success, you just become a better player because of it. Physically, he’s always had the tools.”

Surely, the outside pass rush is aided by opponents’ concerns over blocking Pro Bowl defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy, who gets doubled nearly every play.

Improved coverage, though, also has contributed to quarterbacks’ problems.

“We haven’t had any scheme changes at all, but when the secondary is covering guys so well, it sometimes forces quarterbacks to hold the ball for a count or two longer and that helps us up front,” defensive tackle Joe Nash said. “So, part of it is just that everybody is playing better across the whole defense, and we’re playing the defense the way it was designed.”

The pressure up front and coverage in the secondary, then, have had complementary effects, which makes all defenders happy.

“There were a couple times against Oakland that a receiver was open and the quarterback couldn’t get it to him because of the pressure from Sinclair,” safety Eugene Robinson said. “That really saved my butt a couple times. So, it’s a collective thing for all of us. Coaches always say that interceptions come in bunches, well, sacks do too, and now we’re getting some.”

Neither Edwards nor Sinclair are particularly demonstrative on the field. Edwards, for instance, didn’t even spike the ball after his momentum-turning TD at Denver (“everybody kidded me that I was just too tired to do it,” he said.)

But Sinclair was so juiced about his sacks of Hostetler and his replacement Billy Joe Hobert that he displayed a couple of Hansand-Franz most-muscular poses in the aftermath.

“When it happens, you’re running on emotion and then you think ‘did I just do that?”’ Sinclair said of his display. “After the first sack, after the celebrating, I had to go take some Tums. I wore myself out more with the celebrating more than when I was in there rushing.”

But as all on the team seem to agree, it’s nice that these ends finally have something to celebrate.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo