His team had dropped a dud minutes earlier, a 27-3 hammering at the hands of NFC West division rival Arizona.
Yet Seattle Seahawks running back Julius Jones shot straight when asked how his team would recover from the nose-pinching loss heading into the bye week.
“The excuses are over with,” Jones said. “It’s time to perform. And if you can’t get it done, then somebody else can. But we’ve got to come together as a team and decide what we want to be.
“We need a bye, especially after getting thumped like that. We’ve just got to regroup. Sometimes you have to hit the reset button, and this could be it for us.”
Coach Jim Mora expected his Seahawks to compete for the NFC West crown this season, using the term reload rather than rebuild after Seattle’s 4-12 finish in 2008.
But injuries and inconsistent play on both sides of the ball may have Mora re-evaluating the goals he set for the Seahawks before the season started, as they might be on the outside looking in come playoff time for a second straight season.
“We’re going to not focus on the playoffs right now,” Mora said. “We’re going to focus on getting better and more consistent as a football team. That’s our number one goal, which is how we can get better every day we go to work.”
The Seahawks do not play until a Nov. 1 date at Dallas. They will do so without the services of a defensive leader, linebacker Lofa Tatupu, who suffered a pectoral muscle late in the first half. The injury intially was diagnosed as a torn pectoral and it was thought Tatupu would be out for the season.
But Mora said Monday that the injury might not be as bad as feared, and expressed hope Tatupu would be able to return at some point.
Injuries aside, the Seahawks were outclassed by a better team on Sunday, in front of an announced crowd of 67,588 at Qwest Field.
With Seattle playing without three starters along the offensive line, the Cardinals brought the heat defensively against quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. And Seattle had no answer for the wave of defenders in the veteran quarterback’s face. Arizona finished with five sacks, nine quarterback hurries and a forced fumble.
“You know, when you have your foot on someone else’s throat … you leave it there,” said Arizona linebacker Chike Okeafor. “You push it in if you need to, but you don’t take it off.”
Seattle finished with 128 total yards offensively, tied for the seventh lowest in franchise history. The Seahawks were held to a franchise-low 14 rushing yards, eclipsing the record of 20 yards set 21 years earlier in a December game against New England.
“It wasn’t the pressure necessarily,” said Seattle wide receiver Nate Burleson, who finished with a season-low two receptions for 40 yards. “You fall behind early in the game, and it makes you pretty predictable. You have to move the ball. And you’re not going to run the ball every snap because the clock is winding down.
“So it just puts us in a position where we’re going to have to pass, and I think they kind of knew that and put some of their defensive backs in the game, and basically put themselves in a position where they’re not going to give up the big play.”
Seattle lost by getting off to a pitiful start in the first quarter.
The Cardinals took the opening kickoff and marched 80 yards on a clock-sucking 10 minutes and 42 seconds, a drive that culminated in a 2-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Kurt Warner to wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald for a 7-0 lead.
Warner completed 32 of 41 passes for 276 yards and two touchdowns, including 9-of-9 for 64 yards on the opening drive. His favorite target was Fitzgerald, who had 100 yards on 13 catches.
The Cardinals got the ball right back when kicker Neil Rackers perfectly executed a pooch kick the Seahawks’ return unit failed to recognize. Arizona cornerback Greg Tolar recovered the loose ball on Seattle’s 23.
Three plays later, Arizona running back Tim Hightower plunged in from 2 yards out to put his team up 14-0.
The Cardinals held the ball for over 14 minutes in the first quarter, compared to 43 seconds for Seattle.
The Seahawks, trailing 14-0, ended their first drive after three plays, with Hasselbeck fumbling after getting sacked by linebacker Clark Haggans. Defensive end Bryan Robinson recovered the ball, and the Cardinals were again in business at Seattle’s 23.
Seattle’s defense would hold this time, with defensive end Patrick Kerney sacking Warner on a third-and-goal from the 6 for a 5-yard loss.
Arizona kicker Neil Rackers punched through a 29 yarder and the damage was done, with the Seahawks down 17-0 and having to play from behind with a makeshift offensive line the rest of the way.
Seattle performed some trickery of its own. On fourth-and-3 from its own 38, Seattle punter Jon Ryan executed a fake punt, hitting wide-open tight end John Carlson for a 42-yard pass play. But the Seahawks failed to get into the end zone and had to settle for a 28-yard Olindo Mare field goal, the team’s only points of the day.
The second half brought more of the same for Seattle, with the Seahawks never finding an effective offensive rhythm, finishing with game with six three-and-out possessions.
The three points were the fewest for the Seahawks at home since 2002.
Even though the Seahawks fell flat against the Cardinals, Burleson believes the loss doesn’t totally extinguish the team’s playoff hopes.
“It’s a regular loss right now,” he said. “If it was eight weeks from now, and there were playoff implications behind it, then I could answer that differently.
“But we’ve got 10 more games, and crazy thing have happened. So we’ll see what happens when we go to Dallas.”
Eric D Williams: 253-597-8437
eric.williams@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/seahawks
