Published: Sunday, November 13, 2011
Seahawks start over against Ravens
Seattle tries to learn from its mistakes in first eight games
-
Associated Press
The Seahawks Tarvaris Jackson threw three interceptions in last week's loss to the Cowboys.
RENTON -- In the season's first half, the Seattle Seahawks learned a lot of painful lessons.
Today, when Seattle hosts Baltimore to kick off the second half of a so-far disappointing 2011, the hope is to turn those lessons into progress. The Seahawks want to clean up their many mistakes in the first eight games, the turnovers and penalties in particular.
"You can take what you learned from it and just try to use it in the second half," quarterback Tarvaris Jackson said. "The mistakes you made -- don't try and make those same mistakes and just build on it. We feel like we're starting over in the second half of the season. We're a 2-6 team, but we're kind of coming in looking at it like we're 0-0 and just trying to go undefeated."
The unfortunate reality for the Seahawks is that, even if they somehow did go undefeated as Jackson is striving for, they'd still have little chance of catching San Francisco. The 49ers, with their 7-1 record, have a stranglehold on the NFC West.
So, the rest of this season isn't about a playoff run for Seattle. But even with that goal out of the picture, the Seahawks feel like they have plenty to gain over the next eight weeks, starting today against a very tough opponent.
"The goal is to just keep pushing," linebacker David Hawthorne said. "We feel like we're on the brink of something. If we just keep working hard and continue doing the things we do, it will click for us and we'll come together as a complete team.
"We knew we were going to have growing pains, and we've had them. So the whole vibe around here is just keep pushing, keep our heads down and keep working."
No player, until maybe it becomes mathematically impossible, will give up on the goal of making the playoffs. The Seahawks are confident that no matter what happens in the next couple of weeks, they'll stay motivated regardless of the playoff picture.
"It's still ball," safety Earl Thomas said. "You still have pride, and you never know what can happen. We'll just take it one game at a time, and we'll just see what happens down the line."
Make no mistake, losing record or not, this is not the same as the Seahawks' dismal 2008 and 2009 seasons, which yielded a total of nine wins during a 32-game span. Those teams were made up of veteran-laden rosters built to win right away. This group, as Hawthorne notes, was expected to go through growing pains.
Have those growing pains been worse than the Seahawks would have hoped? Of course. But despite its record, this team has been competitive in most of its games this season. That could not be said in 2009, or even last year in many of Seattle's losses before things turned around in time to win the division and a playoff game.
Other than this season's Week 2 loss in Pittsburgh, which was a beat-down from start to finish, the Seahawks have been in every game in the second half. Now, this young team hopes it can take the tough lessons of the past eight games and create victories from them the next eight weeks.
"We've been in a lot of close games," Thomas said. "Almost every game we've been in, we've had a chance to win it. We've just got to finish, that's it. ... We're not down around here. We're ready to finish strong."
The Seahawks don't believe they need to make any drastic changes to turn things around in the second half. They've been penalized 70 times through eight games, and have a minus-eight turnover ratio in their six losses. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that those kinds of mistakes will kill a team, particularly a young one with little margin for error.
"There's no secret to this," center Max Unger said. "It's eliminating penalties; (creating) positive run yards and explosive plays. It's so basic. It's just the same stuff that's been killing us."
While Seahawks coach Pete Carroll would have never said before the year that he expected anything less than another division championship, he also knew this could be a challenging year. He and general manager John Schneider have made more than 500 roster moves since taking over in January of 2010, and while they both hoped for better results this season, this team is being built for the long haul, not for the 2011 season.
"We've challenged ourselves as much as we could with the makeup of this offseason and the transition of our young guys," Carroll said. "So it's as difficult a process as we could have put ourselves in, with a new quarterback as well. We just have to fight through it and work. (It's) much different in that kind of a situation.
"There's so much upside, and we see so much in the potential of our group to play together and grow together, that I'm ecstatic about the future of our football team. ... It takes time to develop and so we need to be patient."
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
Today, when Seattle hosts Baltimore to kick off the second half of a so-far disappointing 2011, the hope is to turn those lessons into progress. The Seahawks want to clean up their many mistakes in the first eight games, the turnovers and penalties in particular.
"You can take what you learned from it and just try to use it in the second half," quarterback Tarvaris Jackson said. "The mistakes you made -- don't try and make those same mistakes and just build on it. We feel like we're starting over in the second half of the season. We're a 2-6 team, but we're kind of coming in looking at it like we're 0-0 and just trying to go undefeated."
The unfortunate reality for the Seahawks is that, even if they somehow did go undefeated as Jackson is striving for, they'd still have little chance of catching San Francisco. The 49ers, with their 7-1 record, have a stranglehold on the NFC West.
So, the rest of this season isn't about a playoff run for Seattle. But even with that goal out of the picture, the Seahawks feel like they have plenty to gain over the next eight weeks, starting today against a very tough opponent.
"The goal is to just keep pushing," linebacker David Hawthorne said. "We feel like we're on the brink of something. If we just keep working hard and continue doing the things we do, it will click for us and we'll come together as a complete team.
"We knew we were going to have growing pains, and we've had them. So the whole vibe around here is just keep pushing, keep our heads down and keep working."
No player, until maybe it becomes mathematically impossible, will give up on the goal of making the playoffs. The Seahawks are confident that no matter what happens in the next couple of weeks, they'll stay motivated regardless of the playoff picture.
"It's still ball," safety Earl Thomas said. "You still have pride, and you never know what can happen. We'll just take it one game at a time, and we'll just see what happens down the line."
Make no mistake, losing record or not, this is not the same as the Seahawks' dismal 2008 and 2009 seasons, which yielded a total of nine wins during a 32-game span. Those teams were made up of veteran-laden rosters built to win right away. This group, as Hawthorne notes, was expected to go through growing pains.
Have those growing pains been worse than the Seahawks would have hoped? Of course. But despite its record, this team has been competitive in most of its games this season. That could not be said in 2009, or even last year in many of Seattle's losses before things turned around in time to win the division and a playoff game.
Other than this season's Week 2 loss in Pittsburgh, which was a beat-down from start to finish, the Seahawks have been in every game in the second half. Now, this young team hopes it can take the tough lessons of the past eight games and create victories from them the next eight weeks.
"We've been in a lot of close games," Thomas said. "Almost every game we've been in, we've had a chance to win it. We've just got to finish, that's it. ... We're not down around here. We're ready to finish strong."
The Seahawks don't believe they need to make any drastic changes to turn things around in the second half. They've been penalized 70 times through eight games, and have a minus-eight turnover ratio in their six losses. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that those kinds of mistakes will kill a team, particularly a young one with little margin for error.
"There's no secret to this," center Max Unger said. "It's eliminating penalties; (creating) positive run yards and explosive plays. It's so basic. It's just the same stuff that's been killing us."
While Seahawks coach Pete Carroll would have never said before the year that he expected anything less than another division championship, he also knew this could be a challenging year. He and general manager John Schneider have made more than 500 roster moves since taking over in January of 2010, and while they both hoped for better results this season, this team is being built for the long haul, not for the 2011 season.
"We've challenged ourselves as much as we could with the makeup of this offseason and the transition of our young guys," Carroll said. "So it's as difficult a process as we could have put ourselves in, with a new quarterback as well. We just have to fight through it and work. (It's) much different in that kind of a situation.
"There's so much upside, and we see so much in the potential of our group to play together and grow together, that I'm ecstatic about the future of our football team. ... It takes time to develop and so we need to be patient."
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
Comments
(
