Seahawks To Stay On Road; Friesz Returns As Backup

Dennis Erickson, your team just won a game over the New York Giants, what are you going to do?

Well, he’s certainly not going to Disney World.

Or any other tourist attraction in Florida.

Erickson and his Seattle Seahawks are going to Jacksonville for a game Sunday and spending the next week there to prepare for the following game against Washington.

And he emphasized Monday it’s not a vacation. No, there is no room on the plane for players’ golf clubs.

“It was a situation where I felt two trips all the way back to the East Coast was just really hard on us physically,” Erickson explained of the decision to stay in the Eastern Time Zone. “You have a 6-hour flight to Jacksonville and a 6-hour flight back home. You practice Wednesday and Thursday and then have another 6-hour flight on Friday.

“I just felt this would give us a better chance to win rather than going back and forth. It’s strictly a football decision, it’s not a vacation, it’s to help us physically get ready to play Washington.”

The team will work out at Fletcher High in Jacksonville.

“I don’t think it will throw us out of whack at all. We’re going to take everything with us that we need as far as video preparation is concerned,” Erickson said. “I know where the field is and it’s a great facility.”

Friesz off shelf

Quarterback John Friesz, who started against Arizona two weeks ago but was sidelined last week with a shoulder separation, said he’s ready to return to action.

Since the Hawks won with Rick Mirer at the controls Sunday, Mirer will once again start, but Friesz will be the backup.

Friesz still has a nasty bump on his left shoulder where ligaments have torn, and his range of motion remains a bit limited.

“There’s going to be some pain for a while, but that’s a part of playing football,” Friesz said Monday. “I expect to be out there for practice on Wednesday. Taking snaps and extending the arm all the way for handoffs will be the hardest part, but I don’t think it will be a problem. I’ve seen improvement every day.”

Friesz’s goatee was shaved off Saturday, the result of a bet with fellow Hawks quarterback Stan Gelbaugh. Gelbaugh talked of changing his number from 18 to 8, and Friesz said he’d shave off the facial hair if he did. Gelbaugh subtracted 10 and Friesz subtracted his beard.

Is he growing it back?

“Are you kidding, we’re on a (winning) streak,” he said.

“It does for us - that’s one in a row.”

Heady Lamar

Second-year running back Lamar Smith, with 169 yards rushing in limited action the past two games, is having an impact when Chris Warren needs a breather.

“He’s an instinctive runner,” Hawks running back coach Clarence Shelmon said of Smith. “He seems to make the right decisions, the right cuts, a large percentage of the time. And he finishes his runs - rarely do you see him go down on the first contact.”

Shelmon was even more impressed by Smith’s blocking, saying he picked up blitzing linebackers and flattened five of them Sunday.

, DataTimes