RENTON — Before this week, the Seahawks could still cling to a least a sliver of hope.
Win out and we can finish with a winning record, they’d say. If we finish strong there is still an outside hope at the playoffs, they’d declare. But after last weekend’s blowout loss in Houston, those playoff dreams, as slim as they were the past few weeks, are completely dead now.
So what now? For a 5-8 team that is going nowhere past its final regular season game in two weeks, what’s the point of these final three games, starting with today’s home game against the one-win Tampa Bay Buccaneers?
“Finish .500,” safety Deon Grant said. “Finish .500. If you have any kind of pride and you’re any kind of man, you want to go out there and give your best performance. You don’t want the guy in front of you to beat you, you don’t want to put bad stuff on film.”
Ah, yes, playing for pride. The true sign that a team is playing out the string. But there is more at stake this season than just pride for the Seahawks. As Grant mentioned, a lot of players want to put good performances on film, because decisions on a lot of players’ futures will be made this offseason.
“We’re all competing for our jobs every day,” Seahawks coach Jim Mora said. “That’s this business… . Everyone understands the circumstances here. I mean, everybody. Everybody. It’s been laid out very clearly for everybody here, what’s expected these next three weeks and what’s at stake. Everyone knows that they are being evaluated.”
And while some players may be fighting for their jobs, even those who are most likely secure in their futures hope to use these games as a building block. As receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh likes to point out, his former team, the Cincinnati Bengals, had a bad season in 2008, but won their final three games to head into the offseason with some momentum. Now the Bengals are 9-4 and sit atop of the AFC North standings.
The Seahawks hope a strong finish could propel them to similar success next season.
“We’re fighting for a lot of things right now, we’re playing for a lot of things,” quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. “Obviously we’re playing a game Sunday, but our goals right now are bigger than just getting a win Sunday. We’re trying to reestablish something that was here. We’re trying to reestablish that and not let this thing slip away, and I think that’s really important right now. This is a difficult time, we’re going through a rough patch here, but this is kind of when you find out what people are made of. You find out who you want to stay here, who you want to stick with and go into Sundays with, and who’s not cut out for it.”
Hasselbeck and the rest of the offense hope to finally start clicking after a rough season that has featured an inconsistent run game and consistently bad pass protection. Mora and his coaching staff hope a change in the offensive line — rookie Max Unger moved from right guard to center, trading places with Chris Spencer — will spark that improvement.
And despite the frequently poor results, Hasselbeck doesn’t think his offense is too far from turning things around.
“It’s frustrating at times,” Hasselbeck said. “But at the same time I realize we’re not that far away, even though it feels like we’re that far away because the product we’ve put on the field has been just so bad at times. We started this past game horrendously. We’re really not that far away. We just need 11 guys to do their job on every play, not 10, and plays will be successful. And that’s been the big problem for us this year, it hasn’t been 11 guys every time.”
Pride, not playoffs; getting 11 guys on the same page, not 11 wins; building momentum for next season, not for the postseason. That’s what’s left for the Seahawks in 2009.
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
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