A lot happened with the Seahawks this week — historic, dramatic stuff — without their having played even a game.
Coach Mike Holmgren, fed up with his team’s stagnant running game, wants to shift the emphasis from a balanced attack to Air Coryell, or as close as this team can get.
“I think I know why it’s happened to us,” Holmgren said. “This is my next shot at trying to fix it.”
Holmgren continues to search for answers. This one, coming as late in the season as it has, entails a certain amount of risk. If it works, he’s a genius. If it doesn’t, he still has to get a battered team, one that carries components both aging and inexperienced, through the regular season and into the playoffs.
Failing that, the offseason may well be the time to make difficult personnel decisions, blow the whole thing up and commence the rebuilding process.
But first, the second half of the season remains.
“The team has changed and teams do change,” Holmgren said. “That’s part of this business, so you change. We have tried. We have tried any number of things and met on this for endless hours. It’s not happening.”
If you’ve seen the offense in the first half of the season, you can understand the change. For whatever reason, Shaun Alexander has turned from superstar to merely mortal in two years. The offensive line is no longer the league’s elite.
At the same time, quarterback Matt Hasselbeck is having one of his finest seasons. His 88.7 passer rating is a mere sliver off the second-highest of his career.
The Seahawks are 4-4 and still lead a weak NFC West. They lead, despite injuries to Alexander, who has just two touchdowns. They lead, despite the fact that Walter Jones, who many say is the greatest offensive tackle in NFL history, is slipping. They lead, despite an offensive line that has two kids doing on-the-job training, Rob Sims and Chris Spencer, and a 37-year-old, undersized guard in Chris Gray.
Tight end Marcus Pollard, 35, is having knee problems and has just seven catches. D.J. Hackett, coming off a high ankle sprain, has six. Deion Branch has one touchdown catch.
This week, Holmgren announced that he wants to play to the team’s strengths, which means watch for Hasselbeck to throw 40 passes Monday night against the 49ers.
And look for Alexander, if his knee permits him to play, or backup Mo Morris, to carry the ball 10 to 15 times, depending on the way the game shakes out.
The Seahawks are having their worst year on the ground since they drafted Alexander out of Alabama in 2000. Whether or not you want to blame the 30-year-old Alexander for the problems in the running game, there’s no denying he has carried a tremendous load for the team.
In a five-season span, between 2001 and 2005, Alexander averaged more than 330 carries per season. Should it be any surprise that injuries are starting to crop up? A broken foot limited him to 10 games last season.
This season, he has worn a cast to protect a cracked wrist, came out of the Cleveland game with knee and ankle problems and may not play Monday night.
But that doesn’t excuse an offensive line that has given Alexander next to no running room. Mental mistakes have been epidemic, what with penalties, missed assignments and inexperience. Fullback Mack Strong’s retirement hurt, but at 36, he, too, was fading badly.
This is a move just this side of desperation. It’s halfway through the season. Holmgren can’t afford to wait until the running game sets itself straight. So now, in mid-season, he wants to change the philosophy of a balanced offense, a cornerstone for this particular core group of players since 2000.
“My hope is that, without disrupting the whole apple cart, we’ll just slide this into a little bit different direction,” he said. “The style and the types of plays won’t change dramatically, but who gets the ball might. I’ll go with who’s hot.”
As Holmgren says, teams change. Players get older. Players retire. Younger players replace them. Players get injured.
It’s all happened to the Seahawks this season. The trick is to compensate with the personnel available.
If Holmgren pulls this off and the Seahawks sneak into the playoffs, it may count among his greatest coaching jobs, even in this weak division.
Sports columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com. For Sleeper[`]s blog, click on www.heraldnet.com/danglingparticiples.
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