Seahawks, Bears First-time failings still eat at Hawks

By CLARE FARNSWORTH
P-I REPORTER

The Seahawks and Bears meet Sunday for the second time this season ...

In the Second City ...

In the second round of the NFL playoffs ...

With the Seahawks trying to win on the road in the postseason for only the second time in the 31-year history of the franchise ...

And the Bears getting a second chance to get it right, after beating an opponent, the Carolina Panthers, in the regular season last year only to lose to that same team in their playoff opener -- at home.

It is against this backdrop of second helpings that the Seahawks will try to extend their improbable season -- and advance to the NFC Championship Game for the second consecutive season -- against a Bears team that roughed them up 37-6 in Week 4 at Soldier Field.

"We have to play a flawless game," quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. "We have to play a perfect football game offensively, just to combat how good they are on defense."

The Seahawks (10-7) also need to play a much more physical game against the big, bad Bears (13-3) than they did on that Sunday night in October.



Just watching the videotape of the Seahawks' lines being handled on both sides of the ball has been a difficult task this week for coach Mike Holmgren.

"We have a lot to make up for, because we didn't play very well," Holmgren said. "They kind of kicked sand in our face."

That, more than mental mistakes or blown assignments, doesn't sit well with Holmgren.

It's one thing to get beaten, another to get beaten up.

Playing tougher and matching the Bears' physical style have been Holmgren's main teaching points this week. That and getting his players to embrace their underdog role (the Bears are a 9-point favorite).

Holmgren began stressing both the tangible and intangible aspects Monday, when most of the talk swirling around the team centered on the Seahawks' wild victory over the Dallas Cowboys in their wild card playoff game at Qwest Field on Saturday night.

Holmgren pounded it home Wednesday, when the players had to endure a video review of that earlier loss to the Bears.

Even Steve Largent is getting into the act.

"It really comes down to this game," the Hall of Fame wide receiver said this week. "You can't look beyond that. You can't look back at anything that has happened. Because the only thing that matters is this game."

Largent was a member of the last Seahawks team to win a playoff game on the road -- Dec. 31, 1983, in Miami.

There are parallels between the two teams. Each finished the regular season 9-7 and was given little chance of advancing in the playoffs. Each won a first-round game at home -- against the Denver Broncos in '83 and the Cowboys in '06. Each was a Great Dane-sized 'dog while going on the road the next week.

"The thing about the playoffs is, all the prognosticators and all of the rating of teams goes out the door," Largent said, "because it doesn't matter. So don't be intimidated at all by who you're playing against."

Intimidation had nothing to do with the Seahawks' meltdown in Week 4. Ineptness did.

To reverse that in their second shot at the Bears, the offensive line has to do a much better job of protecting Hasselbeck and opening holes for running back Shaun Alexander, who did not play in the first game. The defensive line has to do a much better job of pressuring Bears quarterback Rex Grossman into mistakes, especially since the Seahawks are now playing with a patchwork secondary.

"Obviously this is a big challenge," Hasselbeck said. "Their defense is very, very good -- definitely the best defense we have played this season."

Pro Bowl linebacker Julian Peterson offered this then-and-now assessment: "They made a couple big plays. They were playing at home. And that's when Rex Grossman was pretty much on fire. Now he's seasoned. He's made mistakes and his confidence probably isn't the same. We should have a more successful time."

The Bears also have something to prove Sunday. To themselves. To their fans. To the football world.

It goes back to their abrupt end to last season -- that 29-21 loss in the second round of the playoffs to a Carolina team the Bears had beaten 13-3 during the regular season. The Panthers' Steve Smith caught 12 passes for 218 yards and two touchdowns.

"We didn't double (team) Steve Smith last year," All-Pro middle linebacker Brian Urlacher said. "Maybe we should have."

The Bears do not want to waste this chance for redemption.

"We've got to play better. That's what I learned," Urlacher said when asked about the lesson he carried from that game -- and will carry into Sunday's game.

"You can't go to the playoffs and not," he said. "You can't go out there and just expect to win. We know what to expect and know how to react to certain situations."

Just as the Seahawks should. After all, both teams have been here before.
[Edited 1/12/07 12:19pm]

Seahawks score on degree of difficulty

By ART THIEL
P-I COLUMNIST

If the Seahawks lose Sunday, will the season be considered a success?

Naturally, Mike Holmgren thinks so. As the man in charge, he doesn't have much of a choice but to be a half-full guy.

"Given what has happened, I am not unhappy with where we are right now," he said. "In fact, I'm very happy. We're down to the last four teams in the NFC, last eight teams in the NFL.

"(But) I think everyone probably has a different opinion on that."

Starting with linebacker Julian Peterson.

"I don't care if we'd lost just two games in the regular season," he said. "It still won't be a success until we win the Super Bowl.

"We've had goals of winning the division, getting to the playoffs and winning there. We've done those things. But the ultimate goal is winning the whole show. Team success is winning the Super Bowl.

"We're not complete right now."

In his first Seattle season as an expensive gun hired to make a Super Bowl team better, it's not surprising Peterson can't accept anything less than a win in Miami. Losing could be considered some invalidation of his contribution.



Robbie Tobeck, the injured center who will retire after the last game, has been with the Seahawks for the past seven of his 13 NFL seasons, which included two Super Bowl appearances. He has appreciation for the difficulty of the climb as well as the view from the summit.

"I think you have to consider it a success," he said, "since we were the first Super Bowl loser to get back to the playoffs in the last six seasons, plus overcoming all the injuries."

Defining success somewhere below a championship is elusive, because the American cultural imperative is all about No. 1, for better or worse. Only in the disingenuous world of college football, where 32 bowl-game winners can call themselves champs of something, is it likely that attention will puddle up somewhere besides the top.

"The problem is, whether you win or lose the Super Bowl, unless you go back again, people have a tendency to say, 'Well, you didn't have as good a year as you had last year,' " Holmgren said. "And by record (10-7), yes. But you throw it all into the big pot, and I know this year was harder. I'm not sure that in some ways what they've been able to do to this point isn't even a little more remarkable."

The idea of doing more in a season with less resonates with coaches, because it speaks to their skills at pulling more out of athletes than was believed possible. But that unquantifiable subtlety tends to be lost on owners, fans and media.

"You are judged by where you wind up," he said. "But I think it is important: Although this is a very bottom-line business, you can't be judged all the time by exactly where you finish at the end.

"People don't know that. The only people that know really how it came together, or what caused it, are the people in the inner circle. That's hard for fans and people on the outside to judge. I get that. But this team has done OK."

Holmgren expended quite a few words answering the question of what defines success besides a championship, admitting he was rambling. He didn't want to sound as if he was settling for less, nor did he want to diminish the pride of accomplishment in the deeds already done.

He cited the example of Bobby Engram, the wide receiver who missed a big chunk of the season sorting out a thyroid problem but caught four passes for 88 yards against Dallas on Saturday.

"It would have been easy for him to ride it on out, but he came back," Holmgren said. "He's so excited about playing in this game. There are a lot of players like that. That kept my spirits up during the season."

Peterson stuck to his insistence on the bottom line, but also savored being part of a quality team different from his first six NFL years with the fading 49ers.

"You lose a Pro Bowl quarterback, an MVP running back, and guys like Engram, Marcus Tubbs, Jerramy Stevens, and we're still getting it done," he said. "That's the sign of a good team. No team is going to have all their guys healthy, but others have been better off than we have.

"I'm just glad to be part of it."

As a 9-point underdog, there would be no shame in a 10-7 team losing to the 13-3 Bears in Chicago, unless the Seahawks play as bad, or worse, than they did in the Oct. 1 match. Particularly in view of the fact that the Seahawks have added 11 players since the start of the season.

But appreciation of the feat to date will be recorded only lightly.

"Mike's right -- 10 years from now they'll look back and say, 'Oh, 9-7,' " Tobeck said. "Nobody's going to remember who was hurt. That's the bottom line.

"But the thing is, we're still sitting here, and 24 other teams aren't. Sometimes success isn't about winning it all. Sometimes success is overcoming adversity."

Overcoming adversity, they have done. Since it doesn't get much more adverse in postseason football than facing down in a Midwest winter an opponent that already conquered them by 31 points, it is no stretch to suggest that a win Sunday using guys off the street in the secondary would represent, in difficulty, a larger achievement than making the Super Bowl last year.

No need to be in the inner circle to understand that.

Defending NFC champion Seahawks are underrated

January 12, 2007


If you believe in your Bears—"the worst 13-3 team of all time," a sardonic Brian Urlacher made light of the situation Thursday—then you believe they will be in the Super Bowl.

If you believe in fairy tales—grim beginnings, happy endings—then you believe it's the New Orleans Saints who will represent the NFC in this Super Bowl.


Ah, but if you are a true-blue fan of the Seattle Seahawks—there must be somebody in the Midwest who is—then you could take a minute to remind everybody that only 11 months ago the Seahawks were in a Super Bowl.

A number of Chicago fans have gone totally blank on this. Blacked out the fact Seattle has most of its Super Bowl XL team back, a team that was double-teamed by the Pittsburgh Steelers and the officiating crew.

Some speak of the Seahawks as if they are in the Bears' conference but not in their league. As if a 37-6 beating the Bears gave them on Oct. 1 is clear proof as to which is the better team.

Never mind that last season's NFL MVP Shaun Alexander had to skip that game. Or that irreplaceable Tommie Harris won't be on the Bears' defensive line this time.

Some people seem to think a loss by the 13-3 Bears in Sunday's NFC playoff game would be a monster upset, Seattle's last appearance in a Super Bowl having come way back in … uh, let's see … 2006?

Wake up and smell the Starbucks.

If you go solely by the records, OK, the Bears are better. But this is a 9-7 Seahawks team that lost Alexander for six weeks and quarterback Matt Hasselbeck for a month. Wide receiver Bobby Engram missed nine games, Pro Bowl center Robbie Tobeck seven, right tackle Sean Locklear five, wide receiver Darrell Jackson the last three.

These guys made up the heart and soul of a team that went 15-4 last season.

It was a team that in a 21-10 Super Bowl defeat had more net yardage than the Steelers did (396-339) and more first downs (20-14).

It was a team that lost Jackson's 16-yard touchdown catch to a ticky-tack call of offensive pass interference. It was a team that had an 18-yard pass to Jerramy Stevens to the Pittsburgh 1 nullified by a very iffy holding call against Locklear.

And then there was Ben Roethlisberger's quarterback sneak for the Super Bowl's first touchdown. A lot of Seahawks fans to this day don't believe Roethlisberger could have made it into that end zone even with a motorcycle.

No wonder the coach, Mike Holmgren, went overboard upon returning home to Seattle, where he told a cheering reception, "We knew it was going to be tough going up against the Pittsburgh Steelers. I didn't know we were going to have to play the guys in the striped shirts as well."

The point is, if you feel the Bears have something to prove by getting to the Super Bowl, keep in mind the Seahawks also have some unfinished business there.

Will underdog Seahawks bark, or bite?

By José Miguel Romero

Seattle Times staff reporter

KIRKLAND — The oddsmakers say it. National media members say it. Even the Seahawks admit it.

They're the underdog Sunday against the Chicago Bears, and they're fine with it. In fact, the Seahawks are used to not being favored no matter where they are in the standings or what big games they've won.

"They're still not giving us credit," cornerback Jordan Babineaux said after the Dallas game. "But you know what? We never asked for it. We're going out and we have to prove ourselves, that's the bottom line. And we don't have a problem going out there and doing it."

Will not being the favorite help the Seahawks? Maybe. But being an underdog can also be passé.

"I think everyone wants to be the underdog now," quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. "Everyone says they're the underdog, so we'll see. We just go out and play."

Still, Hasselbeck likes the position his team is in.

"The nice thing is ... I don't know if it's a nice thing, but I think everyone expects the Bears to win this game. So we've got nothing to lose. We just go out there, have fun, play as hard as we can and see what happens."

The Bears are the NFC's No. 1 seed, the same spot the Seahawks held last year at this time. They have a powerful defense. They have seven Pro Bowlers, including a sparkplug special-teams return man. They have a solid rushing attack and both size and speed at wide receiver.

The Seahawks, meanwhile, have a struggling offense, a battered defense that can only give so much more of its collective heart, a good return man, and a special-teams unit that has lost several core players and gave up a touchdown last week.

No wonder, the so-called experts will tell you, the Bears are favored to win by 8 ½ points.

But the Seahawks still are the team to beat, theoretically. They are still the defending NFC champions. Battle-tested. Experienced. Playing with, as Hasselbeck put it, nothing to lose.

Coach Mike Holmgren has been on both sides — as favorite and underdog.

His 1996 Green Bay Packers team was viewed as the underdog before beating the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl XXXI.

"Certainly, I was the underdog coach. I was the new coach and coaching against Bill [Parcells]," Holmgren said. "So I kind of played that up a little bit. That type of feeling hungry and no one gives you respect, it can work on some players."

The next year, the Packers made it back to the Super Bowl as a confident bunch and were the favorites over Denver. They felt it didn't matter who the opponent was, they were going to repeat.

"We lost the Super Bowl because I couldn't get them to believe how tough a game it was going to be, in my opinion," Holmgren said. "That was my opinion. They really had a confidence, because we had gone through the season, played well."

This year, the Seahawks were favored to win the NFC West.

They did that. Beyond that, most expected nothing.

"I don't mind being below the radar," Holmgren said. "I thought, even after our game with Dallas, there didn't appear to be much about the Seahawks on television nationally. It was about the [bobbled] snap or T.O. [Terrell Owens] coming back. One side of me, I say, 'That's too bad' because we played a good game. But the other side, it's OK to be under the radar."

I'm I the only one who loves the saturday games?

lilgish said:

No way!! I love the Saturday games.....but the best game of the weekend (at least on paper) is the Chargers-Patriots.....hope it lives up to the hype....

I'm watchin right now. Still waitin for the kickoff in Baltimore. The Saints and Eagles is gonna be on later.

I'm watching the games right now too. I'm trying to enjoy them, but I'm still nursing a hangover right now. I don't feel like doing shit today

HOLY SHIT!! What a game for the Saints!!! I am still on a sugar-rush high after watching the game!! The Dome was electric...the fans were off the hook....I loved every minute of it....except when Drew and Reggie had a brain cramp (WHO CALLS A PITCHOUT WHEN YOU'RE TRYING TO MILK THE CLOCK?!?!?! ). I think everyone in New Orleans and Saints fans worldwide all had a simultaneous massive coronary.....Christ, all I thought was OH NO!! As a lifelong resident of N.O., you grow up with memories of the Saints giving away games with mistakes like that...but these are definitely not the Saints of my youth.....

Still a lot of work to do in rebuilding my hometown, but damned if the Saints aren't doing all they can to make sure the spotlight remains on the rebuilding effort!!! GEAUX SAINTS!! WHO DAT?!?!?!

Big props to Deuce McAllister.....words do him no justice....!!!!

july said:

!!!!!
I'm not into football, but I am really proud of our Hawks! I just bought my mom a Hawks jersey yesterday, and she's gonna wear it while she watches the game today. I hope they win!

OT in Chicago! Go Seattle!

Fuck. I won't be watching the rest of the playoffs now.

my condolensces go out ot all those seattle fans...








GO BEARS!!!!!


BEARS vs SAINTS




WHO DAT!!!!!


now


GO CHARGERS!!!!!

butterfli25 said:

It ought to be a good game.....it BETTER be!!! I would be so disappointed if it turns out to be a blowout.....unless of course its the Saints doing the blowout.....

HEY MS. BUTTERFLI....

Bears 27, Seahawks 24 (OT)

I'm still happy. We had a long season. A lot of injuries and up and downs.
We came to play. We did our best. I'm okay. The emotions of this year. It hurts.
Best of luck to the other teams in the playoffs. Time for a break.

reneGade20 said:

I think the Saints have a great chance against the Bears.

Tough game going on in San Diego right now. New England are in the game.

Indianapolis has a great chance too.
[Edited 1/14/07 15:58pm]

As for me, regrets.

First downs. Field goal range. Running plays.
Short passes. Incomplete passes.

An empty field. A long summer looms.

Though, I'm still excited about the rest of the playoffs and the Super Bowl.

This Charger/Patriot game is the sloppiest game I've seen all season...wtf?

reneGade20 said:

HEEEEEYYYYY


damn the miracle man pulled it off again

Indy vs Pats
Peyton better not choke again

july said:

So do the Patriots. That is a good match up and The Patriots are a true professional team.

I think the Saints are gonna roll in chicago. Which will be great to see. lol.

The bears thought we got at them. The Saints are gonna run wild on um.

I think the Super Bowl is gonna be The Patriots and The Saints. With the Saints winning it all.

Well, for my Seahawks a nice vacation. Four guys in the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. The whole summer to reflect and heal up train and just feed the soul. Time with family.




Then it's back to camp and then off into the preseason and to the China Bowl.

The Seahawks will be winging it to China in 2007: The Seahawks will face the New England Patriots in an exhibition game at Beijing, China, on August 8th, 2007. The game will be played exactly one year before the start of the Olympic Games in China. New NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made the announcement today before the Patriots' home game against the Denver Broncos. Goodell said the Seahawks and the Patriots were chosen to go to China because of the teams' success. The Seahawks lost last season's Super Bowl, while the Patriots have won three of the last five Super Bowls. The Seahawks-Patriots exhibition will be the 42nd NFL game played outside the United States. All but one have been exhibition games. Before the Seahawks and the Patriots head for China, they will play an exhibition game at Seattle's Qwest Field before the teams leave for China. Each team will play five exhibition games, one more than the usual number.



The China Bowl is the name of a National Football League (NFL) pre-season exhibition game scheduled to take place on August 8, 2007 between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks at Workers Stadium in Beijing, China. The contest will serve as the start of the one year countdown before the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and will also be the first NFL-sanctioned game to take place in China.

The game will begin at 8:30 p.m Chinese Standard Time (8:30 a.m. North American Eastern Daylight Time/12:30 p.m. UTC). China Central Television (CCTV) and NBC will air the contest live in China and the United States, respectively.

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GODDDDD!!!!!

If the Patriots go to the superbowl again I'm going to cream. You can't get much better than the Patriots and Prince.

We're coming for you Peyton. Be afraid, veerrrrry afraid muahahahahahahaa!!!

PS: I'm glad it's the end of July's Seahawks postings!!! Neener neener neener!

CarrieLee said:

Oh great, you just jixed um and put Payton Manning into the Super Bowl.

july said:

No way dude. Peyton and co. have beaten us the last 2 times we've played them. They are due for a beating and with the Patriots drive right now they are dangerous!! Beating San Diego was huge and a much bigger threat than Indianapolis...IMO anyway.

CarrieLee said:

Well, the Pats are a great team. It's the late game on Sunday. I'm gonna watch it. I think The Colts might get the win at home. San Diego just lost their edge from the bye week. Some teams just relax too much and the Chargers were way too confident going in. The Pat's may do it, but it wont be easy in Indi. I like the Colts coach. It's gonna great to watch this all unfold. As part of the Deion Branch trade the Patriots got our first round pick this year. Since we advanced to the divisional round. It's only the 24th pick in the draft. See NE in the China Bowl. Well, that it. Go Colts and Saints!

july said:

Fuck the Colts and Peyton can eat a dick. Did you see him pleading with his fans to not sell their tickets to New England? He's afraid of having too many Pat's fans there... Whatever, go do another commercial, Peyton.