Seahawks: Slow starters

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, September 7, 2006

KIRKLAND – By the end of the memorable 2005 season, the Seattle Seahawks boasted the NFL’s second-ranked offense and were the envy of every offensive coordinator with a penchant for touchdowns.

An offense featuring many of the same parts finished the 2004 season ranked eighth.

The Seahawks always seem to finish among the league’s best – the offense has been in the top 10 in each of the past four seasons – but they’ve often had a hard time starting there.

Case in point: The Seahawks were held under 300 yards of total offense in each of the first five openers of the Mike Holmgren era.

Case in point: the offense managed just 182 yards of total offense in the second week of the 2004 season, yet beat Tampa Bay because the defense was playing so well.

Case in point: the 2005 season got off to a forgettable start when five turnovers paved the way to a 26-14, season-opening loss at Jacksonville.

“For whatever reason, the last two years our defense has started out strong and we’ve started off slow,” said quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who threw two interceptions and lost two fumbles in the loss to Jacksonville one year ago. “Hopefully that won’t happen, but it may.”

That Hasselbeck is not exactly oozing with confidence has little to do with the Seahawks’ personnel or offseason preparation and more to do with football trends. Defensive units are typically ahead of offensive units this time of year, which sometimes makes for some ugly football.

Last season was a perfect example. Seattle’s offense looked so sloppy in the Jacksonville game that the 2005 season looked momentarily bleak. But the Seahawks cleaned things up, won 12 of the next 13 games, and finished the season behind only Kansas City in terms of offensive yards per game (369.7).

The Seahawks have most of their starters back – the exceptions are Pro Bowl guard Steve Hutchinson, who is playing in Minnesota, and injured tight end Jerramy Stevens – but still might not be in midseason form.

“You start from scratch,” offensive coordinator Gil Haskell said. “As good as we were when we finished last year, we’re not that good this year. It takes months and months of practice to get it there.

“We’re not there, but we sure are taking the right steps to get there.”

Hasselbeck isn’t making any bold predictions for Sunday’s opener at Detroit, either.

“It may not be different, who knows,” he said. “We may need the defense. We may be in a 6-3 game, and our defense needs to be great.

“You just never know. Sometimes your offense is growing, scores a lot of points, other times your defense bails you out, sometimes special teams takes one to the house.”

The defense has actually outplayed the offense in past Septembers, allowing just 9.5 points per game in those contests. The defense got off to a decent start in last year’s opener at Jacksonville but couldn’t make up for the turnover-prone offense.

“I didn’t think, offensively, we played a very good game in the opener last year,” coach Mike Holmgren said this week. “We have come out of the gate before looking a little more polished.

“Part of that is who you play. There are any number of reasons why.”

The trend extends beyond Seattle. Offenses typically get off to slower starts than defenses because of the complexity of the game.

“It’s 11 guys working together,” Haskell said. “The running game takes longer than the passing game because they’ve got to be coordinated more.”

Haskell is confident that the Seahawks will come together fairly soon because so many of the offensive players have been together for a few years. But he was quick to point out that training camp injuries to new starters like tight end Itula Mili and guard Floyd Womack, along with the missed practice time by center Robbie Tobeck (elbow surgery) and wide receivers Darrell Jackson (coming off knee surgery) and D.J. Hackett (was out two weeks with a strained hamstring), retarded the growing process.

“Even in training camp, we didn’t have those linemen together; Hackett wasn’t there, Jack (Jackson) wasn’t there,” Haskell said. “You look out and say, something’s missing.

“But now you look out there, and everything’s running smooth, and you go: that’s it.”

With everyone but Stevens back this week, Haskell was beginning to see familiar signs of the offense that finished second in the league last year.

And Holmgren is expecting a better start than he’s seen in recent years.

“This group, because of how we practiced in our training camp, I don’t expect them to come out slow,” Holmgren said. “I expect us to be operating on all cylinders.”