MINNEAPOLIS – There are easier venues in which to find your composure.
The Big House at the University of Michigan.
Cameron Indoor Arena.
Westlake Mall during the WTO riots.
All would be a preferable site for the 2003 Seattle Seahawks, who are looking to end a maddening road streak in one of the toughest places to play.
No one likes to visit the Metrodome, least of all Mike Holmgren. The Seahawks coach was 1-6 there as a head coach of the Green Bay Packers and hasn’t been back since.
“It’s a tremendous home-field advantage for them,” said Holmgren, whose Seahawks face the Minnesota Vikings this morning. “But any team that goes in there, you have to deal with it.”
Above all else, the noise at the Metrodome makes things difficult for opposing teams. There have been stories about how the facility used to have artificial crowd noise piped in through speakers pointed at the visiting sideline. Quarterbacks have been known to go hoarse trying to bark out signals amid the resonance.
It makes for quite a challenge for a team that hasn’t won a road game since Sept. 14. The Seahawks have dropped their last four games away from home, including three in a row that happened in remarkable fashion: at Cincinnati, Washington and Baltimore.
The Seahawks’ road record might not be so alarming if it weren’t for the team’s 7-0 mark at home. While finding ways to win at Seahawks Stadium, Seattle (8-4) has also found countless ways to lose on the road.
“We know that we’ve let opportunities slip this year,” quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. “We had opportunities to win games this year, on the road, and we didn’t get it done.”
Holmgren shudders at the talk of road woes, pointing to the fact that Seattle hasn’t gotten blown out in any of the games. The Seahawks have had good starts in every road game this year, so theories about jet lag or early start times seem unsubstantiated.
“We’re 1-4 on the road this year; we were 5-3 on the road last year,” Holmgren said. “We’re not approaching any sort of record here of futility on the road.”
To prepare his team for this road game, Holmgren had artificial crowd noise pumped into the team’s practice bubble on Friday. The synthetic surroundings seemed to rattle the offense, which hasn’t played in that kind of environment since a road date at St. Louis last season.
The noise at the Metrodome makes it difficult for teams to call audibles at the line of scrimmage or even hear the snap count.
“Well, I’m used to it, but I think it’s pretty tough,” Vikings coach Mike Tice said. “But it depends on if our fans happen to like us that particular week. Around here, you never know if they’re with you or against you.”
It’s December, the Vikings (7-5) are barely clinging to first place in the NFC North, and a very competitive team is coming to town. So the Minnesota fans are likely to be behind their team this week.
“They say that this might be the loudest stadium you’ll ever be in,” Seattle’s Koren Robinson said. “It’s going to be loud.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
