Mora not happy with offensive line
Published 8:39 pm Sunday, December 13, 2009
HOUSTON — Early in the season, the Seattle Seahawks blamed a lack of continuity for their offensive woes.
The left side of the offensive line was a revolving door, so it was no wonder the run game struggled and the pass protection was suspect.
But Sunday’s game, a 34-7 embarrassment of a loss to Houston, was the fifth straight game that the Seahawks have started the line of Sean Locklear, Rob Sims, Chris Spencer, Max Unger and Ray Willis. And after five games of continuity, things aren’t getting better for Seattle’s offense.
Because of the continuing struggles, Seahawks coach Jim Mora said the offensive line may look different moving forward than it has for the past month.
“I am not happy at all with the way our offensive line is playing,” Mora said. “We’re going to take an extremely hard look at that over the next two days, and I can’t promise you there won’t be changes… . I’m not happy with our offensive line. I’m not happy at all with them. If we can make changes to get better up there then we are going to make them. It’s unacceptable for our quarterback to stand back there and get hit the way he is getting hit.”
Asked where those changes could happen, Mora said: “I’m going to consider change at all five spots.”
All five spots had their struggles Sunday, though none were more visible than those of center Chris Spencer. Spencer has been playing with a cast on his right hand, forcing him to snap left handed. He had a hard time getting the ball cleanly to quarterback Matt Hasselbeck Sunday, leading to three fumbled exchanges and a number of other bobbled snaps that disrupted the timing of plays.
“I have no idea what was going on,” Spencer said. “I don’t have an answer for it.”
Whatever the answer is, Spencer and his fellow linemen know they need to figure it out quickly or risk losing their jobs.
“That’s the league,” left guard Rob Sims said. “It’s been that way since I was a little boy and my dad was playing. It’s like that now, it’s the same thing. You don’t do your job and you get replaced. It’s only a matter of when. It’s going to happen eventually, so whenever that day comes, who knows. So I’m going to keep fighting until they call my name.”
The Seahawks averaged just 2.6 yards per carry, and Hasselbeck was sacked three times and hit several more times. He briefly had to leave the game after taking a hard hit in the third quarter, aggravating his right shoulder injury, but he was able to return.
“We didn’t protect Matt a lick,” Mora said.
Hasselbeck was more diplomatic than his head coach when asked about his line, but the linemen themselves know they aren’t getting the job done.
“It’s garbage,” Sims said. “I take pride in keeping Matt off the ground, and unfortunately today he on there too much.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
