Seahawks host Cowboys in rare MNF appearance

SEATTLE – There will be no T.O. promo for Desperate Housewives, but perhaps ABC could convince a glowering Mike Holmgren and a scowling Bill Parcells – both fully clothed, of course – to scour videotape in darkened offices for that hidden morsel that suddenly steers their wobbling teams back on course.

Working subtitle: Desperate Coaches.

Perhaps not. Whatever intro ABC conjures up, there are few stages bigger than Monday Night Football. If the Seattle Seahawks plan on performing on the biggest stages in January and February, they might need to nail their dress rehearsal tonight against the Dallas Cowboys.

Kickoff for Seattle’s first home Monday Night Football game since Oct. 14, 2002, is at 6 on ABC.

Seattle (6-5) needs a win to retain its one-game lead over St. Louis (6-6) in the NFC West, the weakest division in the NFL. There has never been a sub.-500 divisional champion. Cleveland won the AFC Central in 1985 with an 8-8 mark.

“When you play a stinker like we did last Sunday (losing 38-9 to Buffalo), it’s been my experience that the players bounce back quicker than coaches,” Holmgren said. “Having a Monday night game there’s a lot of extra stuff, but more than that we’re still leading our division. It’s still there for the taking. That should be a greater motivating factor than Monday Night Football.”

Dallas (4-7) lacks wins, but not motivation. The Cowboys, like virtually everybody in the NFC with a set of shoulder pads, are still in the playoff chase. Vinny Testaverde will start instead of Drew Henson, who is expected to ascend from clipboard carrier to first team in the future. Henson got a crack at the starting job on Thanksgiving Day, but was ineffective for a half. Parcells summoned Testaverde to pull out a 21-7 victory over Chicago.

Seattle has enough problems of its own to worry about. Holmgren fielded questions earlier this week about his team’s passion, confidence, yards after contact, third-down conversion rates, red-zone productivity, dropped passes, tipped passes and the players’ post-loss moods.

For 35 minutes, Holmgren offered earnest responses.

Seattle has been “OK” in the red zone and “average” with yards after contact. He staunchly defended his players’ passion. “You can’t play the game without passion or you’ll get killed,” he said. He suggested Seattle may have a shortage of confidence, particularly on a young defense that lost veteran linebackers Chad Brown and Anthony Simmons to injuries.

Holmgren closely monitors one stat – third-down conversions, for and against. Seattle was 3 of 9 (33 percent) while Buffalo was 9 of 15 (60 percent) a week ago. For the season, Seattle is at 34.4 percent to opponents’ 39.9.

“That leads to a disparity of time of possession and it usually leads to losses,” he said.

The Seahawks have dropped 32 passes, most in the NFL. Receivers have put in extra time after practice and they’ve done pushups by the dozens as punishment for drops.

“We do all the drills,” Holmgren said. “It’s a matter of doing it in the game.”

Holmgren is aware that Matt Hasselbeck has had numerous passes batted down recently by linemen, but hasn’t detected a drop in his quarterback’s throwing motion.

Regarding the post-loss demeanor of his players, Holmgren recalled boarding the team plane as a young San Francisco assistant following a humiliating playoff loss to the Giants.

“I’m in the back of the plane with the players and I’ve never felt worse in my life,” he said. “It was a grand old shindig back there. I learned that those guys gave everything they had, they were hurt and now it was over. But to go rip out the seats in the plane and gnaw on the barf bag. … guys react differently.”

In the end, Holmgren seemed to arrive at a time-honored conclusion. Roughly translated, football isn’t rocket science.

“After you sift through all the stats, theories and everything, what you’ll hear coaches and all sorts of people say is we just didn’t make enough plays,” he said. “You’ll watch a game on TV and you’ll see a team make four or five plays and go, ‘Wow, that was a great catch or interception.’ And then with the other team you’ll go, ‘Wow, they dropped that ball or something bad happened.’

“That usually decides games.”