MIAMI — Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren has dismissed the thought of ditching his halfback-by-committee system, saying that he would continue to rotate Julius Jones and Maurice Morris until one of them had the hot hand.
A few days after saying as much, Holmgren went against that wisdom and proved that patience can indeed be a virtue.
Jones got the bulk of the work Sunday, despite a slow start, and the 208-pound halfback rewarded his coach for sticking with him. Jones finished with 88 yards on 16 carries, including a key 33-yard run late in the fourth quarter of a 21-19 loss to Miami, while Morris got the ball just once.
“It’s nice to play,” said Jones, who has started eight consecutive games but has often split time with Morris. “That’s all I want to do is be in there playing. I just want to play.”
Jones started the game, as usual, but was not having much luck in the first half. After two quarters, the veteran had just 15 yards on seven carries. None of his first-half carries went for more than five yards.
But Holmgren stuck with Jones in the second half, and the result was 73 yards on his final nine carries. The second-to-the last time Jones touched the ball, he broke off a 33-yard run to set up the Seahawks’ final touchdown.
“I felt comfortable in there,” Jones said. “The offensive line was blocking well, and we were able to gash them. It felt good.”
Jones started the season as Morris’s backup, if only for one game. Holmgren had planned to rotate starters throughout the season, but when Morris came down with a minor injury in the opener, Jones took the job and ran with it.
He went over 100 yards in each of his first two starts and remained as the feature back when Morris returned to the field a few weeks later.
But Jones has struggled to gain yardage while splitting time in recent weeks, and the thought was that he might be better served to carry the bulk of the load by himself.
When Holmgren was presented with that possibility last Wednesday, he said that the Seahawks’ run game was struggling for a variety of other reasons and added that Morris had been too productive to leave on the bench.
“We thought hard about how we wanted to do that at the beginning of the year, and we had good reasons for it,” Holmgren concluded five days ago.
On Sunday, his game plan looked quite different. Holmgren said that a first-half injury to fullback Leonard Weaver changed the Seahawks’ game plan, resulting in several three-receiver sets that were designed to spread the field.
“When Weaver went down, we had to change our thinking,” Holmgren said after Sunday’s loss.
Seattle also lined up slot receiver Bobby Engram on the outside for much of the afternoon, moving split end Koren Robinson inside to help soften up the middle of the Miami defense.
“Right now, we’ve got to break the mold,” Engram said. “Whatever we’ve got to do to make things happen, that’s what we’ve got to do.”
The plan worked well in the second half, when Seattle averaged 6.4 yards per carry.
Most of the damage was done by Jones, whose 16 carries marked his highest single-game total since Week 5.
“It showed what kind of running back he is and what kind of offense we have,” said Weaver, who gave way to rookie Owen Schmitt in the second quarter. “He stepped up big like he’s always been able to do.”
Jones has always been willing. It was just a matter of sticking with him.
“I felt comfortable today,” Jones said after posting his most rushing yardage since he had 140 in a Week 3 win over St. Louis. “It just sucks that we don’t have anything to show for it.”
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