KIRKLAND – Left searching for a reason as to why his team laid an egg in its biggest game of the season, Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren may have stumbled onto one Monday.
Quite possibly, the Seahawks haven’t been battle tested enough in big games.
But he’s not willing to use it as an excuse.
“It’s time,” he said. “I’m tired of waiting. So let’s go.”
Most of the team’s offensive stars – Matt Hasselbeck, Koren Robinson and Shaun Alexander, to name a few – have played a fair share of NFL games but not many big ones. Their experience under those conditions has to come through osmosis from their veteran teammates.
“We just try to do our best to give them the advice that we have because we’ve played in playoff games, division championships and Super Bowls,” said safety Damien Robinson, a veteran of six playoff games. “You just try to pass it on. Some things you can’t really tell, you have to learn on your own.”
The Seahawks played what may have been their biggest game in two years Sunday, and looked flat in a 34-7 loss at Minnesota. While Super Bowl-tested veterans like Brett Favre, Ray Lewis and Tedy Bruschi put on solid performances throughout the league Sunday, the young Seahawks looked nothing like a playoff contender.
“In games like that, your best players have to be at their best,” Holmgren said. “I’ve always said that about the Super Bowl. When we’ve won Super Bowls, our best players played their best games. (On Sunday), our best players played their worst games of the year.”
“We pretty much shot ourselves in the foot,” Koren Robinson said. “We talked about the mistakes we didn’t want to make, and then we went in and made them.
“We just didn’t get the job done. But I don’t think that was because it was a big game and we weren’t ready for a big game.”
Cornerback flip-flop? Holmgren hinted Monday that Shawn Springs might replace Ken Lucas as the starting left cornerback, but he downplayed any lineup switch.
“We will juggle Springs and Lucas, depending on how they play in the football game,” Holmgren said. “Whoever isn’t starting, obviously plays a lot. So it’s like three starters.”
Lucas got beat on all three of Minnesota’s offensive touchdowns Sunday, so the team may well turn to Springs as the starter this week.
“You’re accountable, and you have to be judged on how you played that week,” Holmgren said. “That’s the way we’ll do it, and that’s the way we’ve done it all season.”
Gathering Moss: Two of the long touchdowns against Lucas came from Minnesota’s Randy Moss, who is considered by many to be the most dangerous wideout in the NFL. Holmgren said Monday that it might have been asking too much for the safeties to get there in time to help Lucas on either score.
While the Seahawks double-teamed Moss most of the game, Holmgren said that the two touchdowns came in single coverage.
“For 90 percent of the game, we did not” have single coverage, Holmgren said. “But it’s almost impossible, for the whole game, to dictate coverage for him. They can motion, and they did some things. If you set up the game plan that way, they can mix you up with shifting.”
Pain in the neck: After missing Sunday’s game with a sore neck, linebacker Anthony Simmons expects to return to the field this week.
He joined his teammates in the locker room Monday, but could not turn his head because of soreness in his neck muscles. The injury was left over from a home win against Cleveland nine days ago and got worse as the week progressed.
Simmons said he aggravated the injury while putting on his helmet before last Thursday’s practice, then the soreness got so bad that he couldn’t lift his head from the pillow Saturday morning.
A doctor has worked out some of the kinks, but Simmons is still sore.
“I talked to my doctor, and he said I should be feeling good by Wednesday or Thursday,” he said.
Quick slants: Jerry Wunsch and Bobby Engram might be in danger of missing this Sunday’s game due to injuries. … Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck still ranks second in the NFC in passer rating despite his forgettable performance Sunday. Hasselbeck has a 90.2 rating, which is 6.7 points behind that of Minnesota’s Daunte Culpepper.
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