Mirer Under Fire, Melting Seattle Quarterback Struggles When 2-4 Team Needs Him Most

A theory prevalent in football - at any level - holds that a quarterback gets too much credit when his team wins and too much blame when his team loses.

Well, the Seattle Seahawks, at 2-4, are losing.

So quarterback Rick Mirer will be, predictably, dodging criticism as heavy as enemy blitzes these days.

In this case, the criticism of the third-year quarterback out of Notre Dame is frequently warranted.

“Rick’s playing really well at times but his play is inconsistent,” Seahawks coach Dennis Erickson said Wednesday as his team continued preparations for Sunday’s game in the Kingdome against San Diego.

Mirer’s up-and-down season has been on a nosedive the last two weeks - in losses to Oakland and Buffalo.

In those games, he threw five interceptions.

“That’s to be expected from a guy who’s been in the league three years,” Erickson said of Mirer’s erratic play.

He could easily point out the statistics of New England’s Drew Bledsoe, a Pro Bowl player last year whose quarterback rating of 57.6 (one touchdown and nine interceptions) is well below Mirer’s 63.8.

But Bledsoe is playing with a damaged left shoulder.

Mirer, meanwhile, is playing with damaged confidence.

That’s because a player who was known as a cool competitor under fire, a man who came through in the clutch, is failing to produce when the Seahawks need it most.

In third-down situations, Mirer has completed a mere 16 of 42 attempts (38.1 percent) and been intercepted five times. That adds up to a third-down quarterback rating of 21.3 - by far the worst in the NFL.

And on fourth-quarter passes, he again ranks last in the NFL with only 45.8 percent completions and four interceptions.

The interceptions, Erickson said, are the prime problem. But he felt that Mirer was sharp in the second half in the loss to Buffalo.

“He came out at the end of the third quarter and in the fourth quarter and everything was right on the money,” Erickson said. “He’ll get better and better with time.”

Mirer has been sharp in a couple games this season, hinting that he’s on the verge of mastering Erickson’s offense. Against Cincinnati, he completed 21 of 30 passes for 279 yards, and he also passed for more than 200 yards in a win over Denver.

Also, he’s been victimized by a number of dropped passes and poorly run routes.

Coeur d’Alene High and Idaho grad John Friesz, meanwhile, waits on the sideline.

Friesz had a strong preseason, but Mirer’s $15 million contract makes him the obvious choice to man the position.

But on Wednesday, Erickson said there may be a time when Friesz can come in handy.

“If there was a situation where I felt we needed to put John in for a couple series to let Rick come off and take a different look at it, yeah, that could happen,” Erickson said.

, DataTimes