After losing a “winnable” home game at home against Chicago, and now having to face a very “losable” game today at Indianapolis, Seahawks coach Jim Mora was asked whether a coach can allow himself to consider the grim possibility of starting the season with a 1-3 record.

“With the team, you have to keep it as narrow as possible in terms of focus,” he said. “All we can control this week is preparing for (the Colts) and playing as well as we can on Sunday.”

But as the head coach? Surely there are little mental W’s and L’s projected to games all the way down the schedule.

“It’s natural as a head coach that you think big-picture,” Mora said. “I look at the schedule. I would be lying if I (said I) don’t peek at it. This is a long season. You never want to discount any loss, or your record, but a lot of things are going to happen in this season, and there’s a lot of great challenges ahead for us.”

When Mora outlined the specific challenges for the week, he pointed to the obvious: Being disciplined against Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, coming out ahead on turnover difference, controlling the ball and protecting field position.

Of course, he didn’t mention one of the Seahawks’ traditional sore spots: games in the Eastern Time Zone. Since the start of the 2003 season, the Hawks are 5-15 in games three time zones away.

Coach Mike Holmgren tried making a number of changes in the travel routine once it became an issue. Nothing seemed to work and he finally decided he would just stop talking about it.

Mora has instituted some general practice protocol that might affect the team’s readiness for morning competition. On some mornings during a typical week, weightlifting gets started before 7 a.m., and meetings are under way shortly thereafter. Practices generally are finished by early afternoon, a time when they were getting started under the previous regime.

The 2009 version of the Seahawks also will travel on Saturday rather than Friday, even on three-time-zone trips.

More relevant than the Seahawks’ balky biological clocks is the condition of their hamstrings, knees, obliques and ribs. Most notably, backup quarterback Seneca Wallace will be operating behind backup left tackle Brandon Frye rather than having Pro Bowlers Matt Hasselbeck and Walter Jones at those respective positions.

The return to health of linebacker and veteran defensive leader Lofa Tatupu, however, will help cope with the manifold challenge that is Manning.

Mora could point to countless examples of teams – especially under new staffs – that bounced back from shaky starts. The Seahawks were 2-2 heading into an Oct. 9 game at St. Louis in 2005, the season they advanced to the Super Bowl.

“I’m not pleased to be 1-2, but I’m excited about our football team,” Mora said. “I think we continue to get better. I look where we’re ranked statistically in the league, and I see us being productive.”

The Seahawks are 10th in the NFL in total offense and 11th in total defense. Of course, a 28-0 win over St. Louis (0-3) in the opener bolstered those numbers.

“I feel like we’re starting to get some of our best players back, and I feel like … while they were gone, young guys stepped in and played admirably,” Mora said.

“I like the direction this team’s headed in; I don’t necessarily like our record, but I love our mind-set, our attitude, our work ethic, and I think there are real positives on the horizon for this team.”

How does that horizon look if the Hawks lose, as predicted by the oddsmakers, and fall to 1-3?

They’ve got a best-case scenario that seems plausible. The next two games are at home against 1-2 Jacksonville and 1-2 Arizona. The subsequent week is the bye, after which they could expect to see some of their injured starters return to the field.

November and December will be difficult, with four road games on the November docket alone.

With a loss to Indy today, 2009 could start looking a lot like 2008. But if the Seahawks can scramble back to .500 at the bye week, all good things remain possible.

Dave Boling: 253-597-8440

Dave.boling@thenewstribune.com