SEATTLE – They will spend part of the morning in meetings, will arrive at the stadium sometime this afternoon, then wait for a rare late kickoff.
The routine today might not be familiar, but at least one Seattle Seahawks player knows how to prepare for a night game.
Running back Shaun Alexander has been a prime-time star during his NFL career, piling up 578 yards of total offense and eight touchdowns in four appearances in ESPN games.
”I don’t change anything I do,” Alexander said of his routine before night games. ”I eat the same food, I get the same amount of rest, I watch the same shows. But whenever it’s a national game, it seems like everybody else starts to respond correctly to my game. I guess that’s just a blessing. I can’t really explain it. It’s been like that in high school and college, too.”
Alexander will get another chance to show his stuff on national television tonight, as the Seahawks host the San Francisco 49ers at 5:30 p.m. in another game televised by ESPN.
The last time Alexander played in a Sunday night game, he scored five first-half touchdowns in a 48-23 win over the Minnesota Vikings in Sept. 2002. He finished that game with 139 rushing yards, a number that was dwarfed by an ESPN appearance the previous year. On Nov. 11, 2001, Alexander ran for a franchise-record 266 yards and three touchdowns in a 34-27 win over the Oakland Raiders.
While all eyes may well be on Alexander tonight, he’s more concerned with his team continuing its run atop the NFC West. The Seahawks (3-1) are already unbeaten against the other two division opponents this year, so a win over San Francisco (2-3) could make their driver’s seat even more comfortable.
It would also give Seattle a 3-0 mark in the division for the first time in franchise history.
”If you want to win the division, the first thing you have to do is sweep the teams in your division at your house,” Alexander said. ”This is the third game, so it’s a big one. It’s the first step in us accomplishing what we want to do.”
The 49ers won the division last year, yet are a game-and-a-half behind Seattle in the current standings. St. Louis (2-2) is between the two teams and has a chance to pull into a first-place tie with a win and a Seahawks loss.
Because of the way the standings look, San Francisco coach and Everett native Dennis Erickson is more concerned with earning a victory than he is with any homecoming storylines.
”The bottom line for us is to try to get back into it, play our way back into it,” said Erickson, who coached the Seahawks from 1995-98. ”This obviously is a huge game as far as that is concerned.”
This marks Seattle’s last NFC West game until December, as the Seahawks close out the schedule with division games over the final three weeks. That adds to the importance of winning tonight’s game.
”That’s one thing we set out to do at the beginning of the season,” quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. ”We said, hey, it’s going to be very important for us to win our division games. We took care of that in the first two games, and now we’ve got another opportunity.
”San Fran might be the best team in our division. It might be the toughest task for us.”
GRAFIC:
49ers at Seahawks
Today, 5:30 p.m.
TV: ESPN and KOMO (Ch. 4)
Radio: KIRO (710 AM)
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