No complaining

RENTON, Wash. – This has been a trying year for Matt Hasselbeck.

There have been injuries, most notably a pair of broken ribs that cost the Seahawks quarterback 21/2 games. There have been more losses than wins, an inordinate amount of injuries on the offensive line, particularly on his blind side, and as a result more sacks that a 34-year-old quarterback would like to experience. And all season the Seahawks have struggled to establish an offensive identity.

What there haven’t been, however, are complaints from the leader of the Seahawks offense.

“He stayed very positive,” Seahawks coach Jim Mora said. “He stayed upbeat, positive. … I think he likes the things we’re doing. He likes the direction we’re headed. This is just from me talking to him. He sees promise in the concepts.”

About the only time you’ll hear Hasselbeck complain this season is if you try to play up the fact that he has played through broken ribs, and a sore throwing shoulder that has flared up on two different occasions after taking hard hits this season. As has been the case for much of this season, Hasselbeck was banged up and limited in practice early in the week. And as has usually been the case, he was back at it when Thursday and Friday rolled around, and he will start at quarterback Sunday when the Seahawks face the Houston Texans.

“It’s just part of the game,” Hasselbeck said. “It’s part of the job. Unfortunately, just because I play quarterback, I feel like we’ve got to talk about it all the time. I wish we could just stop talking about it, because everybody on our team is hurting right now, and I got to talk about mine. It’s really annoying.”

Hasselbeck is much happier to talk about his budding relationship with offensive coordinator Gregg Knapp. Each Tuesday – the team’s off day – the two sit down around lunch time for an hour or more to trade ideas about the offense and develop a game plan for the upcoming game.

“It’s been really good in terms of me learning him and him learning me,” Hasselbeck said. “I feel like I’ve got a really good sense for what he wants on plays, and he’s the play-caller, and ultimately, that’s my job. My job is not to do what I want to do out there. My job is to do what the play-caller wants done, and to kind of be him on the field for the other 10 guys. And so, that’s what I try to do. I ask less questions now than I did early on, because I think we’ve got a feel for each other. He’s in every single meeting that I’m in. There’s no meeting that I’m in that he’s not the guy up front talking, the guy running the meeting. It’s definitely sped up the get-to-know-you part of the relationship, so it’s been good.”

Knapp said such meetings are new to him, and both agree that it has helped the Seahawks adjust to a new offensive scheme.

“It’s been great,” Knapp said. “It’s the first time I’ve done it. I have not done it in previous jobs. … This has been really good for both of us because it’s helped us get on the same page faster and I get a feeling for what he’s comfortable with.”

Hasselbeck has shown this year that, despite a few injuries, he can still play at a high level. His completion percentage of 61.2 percent is slightly higher than his career average, and his quarterback rating of 83.6 is only one point off his career average.

Despite missing 10 quarters with the rib injury, Hasselbeck is on pace for his sixth 3,000-yard season, and his touchdown-to-interception ratio is the third best of his career, trailing only his Pro Bowl seasons in 2005 and 2007.