Desperate Seahawks happy to see 49ers

Published 11:31 pm Saturday, September 13, 2008

SEATTLE — If this afternoon looks anything like the one that unfolded last Sunday, the partial tear that is the Seattle Seahawks’ 2008 season could look like a severed ligament.

The Seahawks are one loss away from potential disaster, at least when considering the factors involved. During the team’s four-year run as NFC West champions, Seattle has been dominant at home, has made mincemeat of division opponents and has been particularly bullying when it comes to the San Francisco 49ers.

Throw in the sour feeling after last Sunday’s humbling defeat at Buffalo, and today’s game against the 49ers brings a desperation rarely seen in Week 2.

“We made a lot of mistakes,” quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said last Thursday of the Bills game. “We were not very good in a lot of areas. It definitely showed. … We’ve got to be ready to go.”

An 0-2 start does not necessarily mean the season is over — just ask the 2007 New York Giants, who rebounded from back-to-back losses to start last season and went on to win the Super Bowl — but another loss could deflate the hopes of a city starving for some positive sports news.

The Seahawks haven’t lost a home opener since 2002, when the Arizona Cardinals shocked them in their first game at the new downtown stadium as Seattle limped out to a 1-5 start.

This year’s Seahawks have already gotten off on a bad foot once, and they certainly don’t want to do it again in today’s home debut.

“It’s our home opener,” defensive tackle Brandon Mebane said, “and we want to show the NFL that we’re for real.”

Of course, a loss today would not signal the end of the 2008 season. The injury-plagued Seahawks should have several starters coming back in the next couple weeks, most notably wide receiver Bobby Engram, running back Maurice Morris and starting right tackle Sean Locklear. So there are reasons for the fans to stay optimistic even if Seattle falls to 0-2 for the first time in seven seasons.

“In a 16-game schedule, you can’t get too caught up in exactly where you are after one, two, three, four weeks,” safety Brian Russell said. “It’s a long season, and you have to try to win every one of them.

“We didn’t get it done last week, so we want to be 1-1 after this game. But we don’t want to look behind us; we just want to look forward.”

Today’s opponent has been a fairly soft challenge in recent years, especially at Qwest Field. The 49ers (0-1) have been outscored 112-27 in their past four trips to Seattle, three of which saw them go without a single touchdown.

Actually, the entire NFC West has been somewhat easy pickings for the Seahawks, who boast a 22-8 record against division opponents over the past five years.

“Anytime you win a division four times in a row, everybody’s trying to knock you off,” Seahawks linebacker Julian Peterson said. “The biggest thing is, we can’t allow that to happen. This is a division game, so we can’t let them do that.”

This Seattle team has some issues that recent ones did not. Injuries have ravaged the offense, particularly at the receiver position. The Seahawks will start eight different players from the lineup that played at San Francisco last September, and today’s probable starting receivers have a combined nine NFL receptions.

“This is not the first time that I have or the team has faced some adversity,” an upbeat coach Mike Holmgren said last week.

Seattle’s defense has a few minor injuries — middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu is likely to play with a cast to protect his right thumb, while cornerback Marcus Trufant could sport a brace on his left hand — but the unit is in much better shape than the offense. So the defensive players are putting it upon themselves to carry the load for now.

“We played OK as a defense (against Buffalo), but we’ve got to take it to a whole other level,” Mebane said. “We’ve got to lead right now.”

The Seahawks might not be desperate, necessarily, heading into today’s game. But they’ve certainly got incentive to get their first win of the season.

“We’re not going to be 16-0 now. We dropped one,” Russell said. “But you can’t look back and say: ‘We owe ourselves one.’ You just move forward and play your best football.

“Everything’s not going to be perfect every week, but we have to play a lot better this week.”