RENTON — The icy stares and terse answers have made it abundantly clear this week that the Seattle Seahawks don’t find any of this amusing.
So go ahead, call the 7-9 Seahawks the worst playoff team in history. Point out that their minus-97 point differential was just better than that of
four of the worst teams in the NFL. Or than they are hosting a playoff game against New Orleans today despite ranking 28th in total offense and 27th in total defense. Just know that you do so at your own peril.
Even Matt Hasselbeck, who is about as easy going and humorous as any player in a press conference setting, seemed to be genuinely irritated when a reporter asked if the Seahawks should apologize for becoming the league’s first division champ with a losing record.
“Apologize to who?” he said, before a long, awkward pause. “No, I’ve got nothing to apologize for.”
When that was followed with a question about the Seahawks record, Hasselbeck cut off the questioner before he could finish, saying, “We’re 0-0 right now, so that’s where my head’s at.”
Safety Lawyer Milloy quickly dismissed a similar line of questioning with a direct, “We’re in the playoffs.”
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, meanwhile has taken a lighter approach to those questions, which were constant all week as national media descended on the Seahawks’ practice facility.
“I didn’t think that much has been made of it,” he said with a grin.
In fact a ton has been made of the Seahawks shortcomings, and in a lot of ways for good reason. As mentioned earlier, the Seahawks were outscored by a margin only eclipsed by Carolina, Arizona, Denver and Buffalo, arguably the worst four teams in the NFL this season. The Seahawks won consecutive games once all season, and in each of their nine losses, they were outscored by at least 15 points. With Vegas odds makers making the Saints a 10.5-point favorite, the Seahawks — who are also 100 to 1 to win the Super Bowl — are the biggest home underdog in playoff history.
And all kidding aside, Carroll is proud of what his team has accomplished no matter how flawed his team or the NFC West.
“We’re not apologizing for anything,” he said. “We battled like crazy to get this, as did the other teams in our division, as did the teams in other divisions. So we’re the last guys standing here and we’re proud of that. We’re going to go represent and hopefully go do something special with our opportunities, and see how far we can go. There’s no governs on us and what we can do from this point forward, there’s no restrictions to how far we can go. Record has nothing to do with it right now, it’s how we play on Saturday. So that’s it.”
The good news is that, one way or another, that story line will die out after today’s game. Either the Seahawks will lose like most people expect and the rest of the country will move on, caring about the rest of the playoffs, or the Seahawks will beat the defending Super Bowl champs, quieting their critics.
And no matter how bad the Seahawks have looked at times this year, they really don’t think that matters at this point.
“That’s the great thing about the playoffs, it doesn’t matter what you did before, everybody is 0-0,” receiver Brandon Stokley said. “If you don’t show up to play, you’re done, you’re going home.”
Stokley has seen that first hand. In 2005, he played for a 14-2 Indianapolis team that was expected to meet the Seahawks in the Super Bowl. Instead, coming off a bye week, the Colts lost their first playoff game to Pittsburgh, who they had soundly beaten earlier in the season.
“We knew we were the better team, but we didn’t play better on that given day, so we went home,” he said.
In 2001, Milloy was part of the New England Patriots team that pulled off upsets in the AFC championship game and the Super Bowl to win the franchise’s first Super Bowl.
“I’ve been in the situation where you were the underdog, and when you’re holding the trophy up at the end, nobody can ever take that away from you,” he said. “That’s what football’s all about; it’s not about the people that write the stories, it’s about the people that play.”
The difference, of course, is that those Patriots were 11-5, a team with a lot going for them despite not being the Super Bowl favorites, as were the 2005 Steelers. It’s hard to say the same about these Seahawks, but no matter how long the odds against them, the Seahawks remain a confident, defiant team heading into today’s game.
“I can tell from our players, they’re really pumped about this opportunity,” Carroll said. “They’re not afraid of this opportunity. They’re not wowed by it. . . Our guys are excited about the opportunity. They’re not in the wrong frame of mind about this thing. So it gives us a chance.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
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