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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Mirer Must Step Up If Hawks Plan On Competing In Nfl

Dave Boling The Spokesman-Revie

Someone tried to disguise the Seattle Seahawks Sunday.

During introductions in the Kingdome, the Hawks ran out of their tunnel, through some manner of phantasmic fog machine with flashing lights, and onto the field with great fanfare.

The whole thing seemed to excite the fans.

But it was only smoke and illusion.

As the team itself proved to be.

No team in the league so desperately needed to put on a good show and come away with a win Sunday.

And no other team answered with such a disaster, such a monumental 53-man belly-flop.

As Kansas City - a team suspected to be on a downslide this season - put the finishing touches on a 34-10 thrashing of the Hawks, boos rained down thicker than ceiling tiles.

And it’s doubtful that, on their way to the gates, anybody who forked over $35 for a ticket said: “Well, the Hawks were sure lousy, but weren’t those introductions great with all the lights and smoke?”

New Hawk head coach Dennis Erickson certainly understands the futility of trying to get fans worked into a lather only to put an awful product on the field.

And that’s what the Seahawks were Sunday.

Perhaps still disoriented by the fog machine, the secondary couldn’t have found Chief receiver Willie Davis if there had been runway landing lights on him.

Davis turned two passes into long touchdowns - both of which would have been stopped by even halfway attentive defenses. And Tamarick Vanover exploited a shaky Seahawk coverage team with a 99-yard touchdown kickoff return.

“Everybody is going to have to look at themselves and how they did and be truthful about it,” said Hawk cornerback Carlton Gray, who was toasted by Davis on a 40-yard score. “I’d like to say that I came back and broke up a touchdown play, but I didn’t.”

But, as fullback Steve Smith said in a remarkably obvious analysis of a season-opener, “It’s not too late to turn this around.”

Other than Erickson, who is being paid $1 million a year to make sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen, nobody was more harshly treated than quarterback Rick Mirer.

Mirer had respectable numbers (19 for 37 for 209 yards), but he was unable to get the team in the end zone and he was booed with vigor in the second half.

“This is a whole new thing for me,” Mirer said of the ridicule. “I guess this is when you find out how strong you are. John (Friesz) told me that if I didn’t know what this was like, I hadn’t been in the league very long.”

Mirer was replaced in the fourth quarter by Friesz, who was excellent while leading the Hawks to their only touchdown.

Erickson made it clear, though, that there is no quarterback controversy in Seattle.

“Rick did some good things; he was in a tough situation in the second half,” Erickson said. “But there was never any doubt that Rick was the quarterback and still is.”

Mirer was one of the three Seahawks fined this week for eating hot dogs on the sidelines during the preseason game at San Francisco.

When the team voted for captains this week, some of them didn’t vote for Rick Mirer, but for “Oscar” Mirer - in honor of his consumption of that forbidden tube-steak.

The point is, they did vote for him. And as a third-year quarterback, he’s going to be called on to pull this team out of mire into which it has sunk.

“Nobody expected anything like this,” Mirer said. “It’s embarrassing, it’s ugly, it’s gross. But it’s a long battle - it’s 16 rounds, and this is just one of them. This team is better than it showed today, I promise you that.”

Mirer reflected what seemed to be the general attitude in the locker room: disappointment, but not despair.

“You can’t afford to be discouraged,” Mirer said. “Because we have to buckle up and go back and battle next week.”

No amount of reviewing and changing of perspectives can make this grim episode anything but what it was: an absolutely awful performance by a team that should be better.

Maybe, though, a more interesting game will be the one against Kansas City on Dec. 24 - the season finale.

The meshing of the new staff and new personnel will be complete. Excuses will be voided.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Dave Boling The Spokesman-Review