Mora puts his team on notice

Seahawks coach Jim Mora insists he’s still optimistic about the Seahawks and their ability to turn things around, but his tone Monday was different than it has been in previous weeks, even after other blowout losses.

“Adversity turns weak people into victims and it turns strong people into competitors,” Mora said, repeating a quote his junior high coach, Bruce Brown, sent him Friday. “We’re going to find out who the strong people are, and they’re going to be here fighting with us until the end, and we’re going to be finding out who victims are, and they aren’t going to be here fighting with us at the end. And that’s going to be the way it is. I believe there are a lot of men in this room that will continue to fight. We’re up against it a little bit, we’ve hit some rough patches, some of them anticipated, some of them not, but people will reveal themselves in these times. Their true character will reveal itself, and I’ll be looking hard for the truth. If a man’s will to stand here and fight and give his all come to work every day with great resolve and great determination and great toughness and accountability, then I’ll fight with him. But if somebody reveals himself not to have those traits, then by the end of the season there’s a good chance they won’t be members of the Seattle Seahawks.”

That wasn’t just something Mora told reporters Monday; it was also the message he passed on to his team after it’s third blowout loss in four games.

“After the game, Coach Mora was very blunt about our performance and he basically said, ‘Listen, we’re going to evaluate this organization up and down, and if I feel like I’ve got to make changes, I’m going to make changes. If that means firing people I’m going to fire people,’” quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. “So we’ve definitely been put on notice that the scrutiny is going to go up and the coaching is going to go up in terms of being critical on us and pushing us to get better.”

As for injuries, the topic that usually dominates these Monday press conferences, the Seahawks came out of the game seemingly as healthy as they have all year.

Ken Lucas, who didn’t finish the game, is expected to be OK to play Sunday. Ben Obomanu suffered an oblique injury, and Will Herring a shoulder injury, but Mora said he didn’t think either were serious injuries. The Seahawks could get Sean Locklear back in practice this week, but Mora said it was too early to know on that.