KIRKLAND – Suffice to say, the Seattle Seahawks were feeling a little bit like Curt Schilling’s right ankle Monday.
A day after being exposed like a bloody wound, the Seahawks were left searching for a Band-Aid. Their third consecutive defeat dropped Seattle to 3-3 on the season and uncertain of how to get back on track.
“I’m very frustrated with how we’re playing offense right now,” coach Mike Holmgren said one day after his team lost 25-17 to the Arizona Cardinals. “I wish I could tell you I’ve got all the answers, but … “
As for where to start, Holmgren’s logical place is always at quarterback. Matt Hasselbeck played, in his own words, “probably the worst game I’ve ever played,” so Holmgren is trying to simplify things for the sixth-year quarterback.
Fearing that Hasselbeck has “the weight of the world on his shoulders,” Holmgren said Monday that he will lighten the quarterback’s load.
“He’s been so good for the last year-and-a-half that I think we had a tendency, as a coaching staff, to load him up with too much stuff,” Holmgren said Monday. “And so now I’m going to try to relieve some of that burden and see if I can get him not thinking about too many things.”
Hasselbeck turned in a frighteningly bad performance in the loss to Arizona, completing just 14 of 41 passes while throwing a career-high four interceptions.
“I just never really got on rhythm” Sunday, Hasselbeck said a day later. “When I did have opportunities to be on rhythm, I just wasn’t. I play my best when I’m on rhythm. I didn’t get that part of it done. I don’t anticipate playing like that again.”
Hasselbeck’s performance was so bad that his season quarterback rating dropped 12.4 points – from 82.3 to 69.8. He now ranks 13th in the NFC in that category, tied with Washington’s Mark Brunell and behind every other starter but Chicago’s Rex Grossman (67.9) and Carolina’s Jake Delhomme (67.1).
“I just never really got it going,” Hasselbeck said of Sunday’s performance. “I felt like I was at the driving range. I know it’s bad, but I can’t fix it. Why can’t I fix it? It was that kind of a feeling. I was just off a little bit all day.
“This is football, and if a quarterback’s off like that, it’s not good; your team’s chances of winning go way down.”
Of course, everything didn’t fall on Hasselbeck’s shoulders Sunday. Holmgren took some of the blame, saying he shouldn’t have abandoned the running game despite a slow start on the ground.
There were plenty of other problems, too, many of which had to do with the basics.
“Fundamentally, we weren’t very sound in our technique,” Holmgren said. “Those are training camp, Day One things that you have to be able to do. I was very disappointed in that.”
If there is an appropriate clich for the Seahawks this week, it might be: “Easy does it.”
“I think the simpler your team does things, and the easier it is for everybody, then everybody just goes and does their job,” running back Shaun Alexander said.
Naturally, the players were frustrated immediately after Sunday’s loss to Arizona. Coming off back-to-back losses to playoff contenders, the Seahawks entered that game believing that they were still one of the teams to beat in the NFC. But a loss to the 1-4 Cardinals left some doubt.
“We’ve got to find out what’s going on,” offensive lineman Walter Jones said after Sunday’s game. “We’re going backwards, and we should be going forward. We’ve got a good offense, and we’ve got to find what will get us going again.”
By Monday, much of the frustration was replaced by motivation. Most of the players preferred to look ahead rather than drown themselves in the doldrums of a horrible performance.
“Are we happy where we’re at? No,” offensive lineman Robbie Tobeck said. “But have we dug ourselves a hole that we can’t get out of? No. We’re right in the race for our division title.”
From here on out, the Seahawks plan to run that race with a slightly altered strategy.
“I think we’re just going to take a little different approach here in the next few weeks,” Holmgren said, “and just see if we can’t get better execution on the football field.
“… I still have high hopes for this team. I really do. We have 10 regular-season games left, and we’ve just got to try to stop the bleeding. But I like our guys. I know they’re going to give us everything they’ve got.”
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