SEATTLE — To heck with all the emotional stuff.
Jim Zorn just needed a victory.
It happened to be in Seattle, where he was the town’s first pro football hero. And it happened to be against the Seahawks, with whom he spent 16 seasons as a player and coach.
The main thing for him is that it happened, one way or another.
“It was the two losses that motivated us coming into this game, and it was the commitment that I think our team has to continue to go,” Zorn said after Washington defeated Seattle 20-17 in an NFL game Sunday at Qwest Field to break a two-game losing streak and improve to 7-4.
“It’s all about the seven wins we’ve got now, and keeping pace with (our) very difficult division,” he said.
Zorn is Washington’s rookie head coach. He was Seattle’s quarterbacks coach the past seven seasons and left for Washington in January to become the offensive coordinator there.
When nobody with proven star power turned up in the team’s search for a new head coach to replace the retiring Joe Gibbs, Zorn got an interview and got the job.
The honeymoon got off to a sizzling start as Washington opened up 4-1.
But the passion cooled considerably the past five weeks as Washington went 2-3, including three losses at home.
“You all put the pressure on. We just react to it,” Washington cornerback Fred Smoot said to reporters. “We didn’t feel like it was a must-win game, but we wanted to win this game.”
That being said, there is no doubt there were a lot of angles to this game for Washington, not the least of which was that the team’s past two visits here resulted in playoff losses, in 2005 and 2007.
“We haven’t had a lot of luck here. It took us to come steal a coach, Coach Zorn, and come back here prepared,” Smoot said. “It was our coach’s homecoming, plus we just don’t like Seattle, so we had a lot of reasons to win this game.”
Washington has three coaches and four players who used to be Seahawks, including 2005 NFL MVP Shaun Alexander and former first-round draft choice Shawn Springs.
Alexander, a running back, didn’t play Sunday, but Springs, a defensive back, sealed the victory with an interception with 1:20 left in the game.
Even though he spent seven seasons here himself, Springs was more excited about winning one for Zorn, who was the first starting quarterback in Seahawks history in 1976 and spent nine seasons here as a player.
Zorn’s name is on the team’s Ring of Honor as the third person inducted.
“I know what it means for him,” Spring said of Zorn. “I know what he means to the Seahawks organization, and I know what he’s trying to start here in Washington. So it was big.”
Zorn didn’t deny it, especially in light of defeating Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, who was, in many respects, a mentor for him while he was on Seattle’s coaching staff.
“I wanted to not worry about all the nuances of what a special game it was. Now, I can reflect back and say that I got a win over Mike Holmgren,” Zorn said. “That’s something. That’s not just split pea soup. That’s a pretty good deal, so I’m excited about that.”
The last two weeks, Zorn has taken some criticism for Washington’s offense, which scored just 16 points in consecutive losses to Pittsburgh and Dallas.
Washington had 20 points on Sunday and 386 yards, 187 of them on the ground, but Zorn said he didn’t really do anything different as the offensive play-caller.
“It was our offensive line running the plays that we’ve worked on in training camp and during the season,” Zorn said. “We didn’t try to do anything new on them. They challenged us and we just challenged right back.
“That’s what’s great about this game. It’s about players making plays,” he said.
Without meaning to, Zorn shone the spotlight on much that ails his former team, which fell to 2-9 and looks nothing like the team that bumped Washington from the playoffs twice in the past three years.
“(We have) the satisfaction of going all the way across the country to beat the Seahawks in their home stadium,” Zorn said. “It’s been difficult to do that the last four or five years.”
But not this year, as Seattle fell to 1-5 at Qwest Field.
As for cross-country trips, forget it. The Seahawks have lost six straight games when they traveled to the other coast, including all four this season.
Zorn said he knows that has to be eating at Holmgren, who will retire after this season, but this is a tough business and he can’t dwell on that while he has his own problems.
When Springs wrapped up the victory with his interception, Zorn put an arm around Alexander.
“I said, ‘Hey, we got them here,’ ” Zorn said. “He knows how hard it is to win here as the opponent. He knows what it takes to get the win in a place like this.
“We did something today, and I’m proud of it.”
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