Home field may help Seahawks
Published 9:00 pm Saturday, November 29, 2003
SEATTLE – It has been awhile since the Seattle Seahawks have entered a game looking up. Not just in the division standings, but also at the scoreboard.
That will be the case today, when the second-place Seahawks host the Cleveland Browns at Seahawks Stadium.
While spending the first 11 weeks of the season alone or tied atop the NFC West, the Seahawks felt the pressure of being kings of the hill. Now that they’re a game behind St. Louis (8-3), there’s a different kind of stress involved.
“It’s a good pressure,” coach Mike Holmgren said last week. “Last year we didn’t have this kind of pressure. It’s a lot better than it was last year.”
With just five games to go, the Seahawks (7-4) are not just concerned with the Rams anymore. Possible wild card teams like Dallas (8-4) and Green Bay (6-6) are also on their radar in case the West is not won.
Statistically, the Seahawks and Rams have an identical schedule down the stretch, as both teams face opponents with a combined 27-28 record. But St. Louis hosts all three of its opponents with winning records – Minnesota (7-4), Seattle (7-4) and Cincinnati (6-5) – while playing at Cleveland (4-7) and Detroit (3-8). Seattle, conversely, has its three most difficult games on the road: at Minnesota, St. Louis and San Francisco (5-6).
That makes today’s game even more important. The Seahawks have to win their home games, especially against struggling teams.
“We’re still sitting good right now,” said cornerback Marcus Trufant, whose team has lost three of its last five. “We’ve got a nice record, and if we keep winning, things will be looking nice.”
Also on the line today is an unbeaten record at Seahawks Stadium. No Seahawks team has ever gone unbeaten at home over an entire season, with the 12-4 unit in 1984 being the only one to win its first seven home games.
A win today would make the Seahawks 7-0 at home with only a date with the 3-8 Arizona Cardinals separating them from a perfect mark at the two-year-old stadium.
“We’ve won some close ball games and played some good football at home,” Holmgren said. “It’s becoming a great homefield advantage for us.”
If the Seahawks want to have any kind of homefield advantage in the playoffs, they’ll have to win the NFC West. The Rams could realistically lose to Minnesota today, which could put Seattle back into a tie at the top.
But rather than keep one eye on the Rams, the Seahawks are vowing to keep their full focus on the task at hand.
“Like I told the team, we must control our own future,” Holmgren said. “You can never count on anybody for help, (because) most of the time it doesn’t happen. So we are very much in control of how we finish, and that’s how we have to look at it.”
