Entering the 2004 NFL season, the Seattle Seahawks were the trendy pick to represent the NFC in the upcoming Super Bowl. They were coming off a narrow loss to the Green Bay Packers in the previous postseason, their relatively young offense led by Matt Hasselbeck and Shaun Alexander had another offseason under their belts, and Ray Rhodes chose to stay in Seattle to coordinate the defense again rather than bolt to a different NFL team for a chance at another head-coaching stint. As a result, it appeared as if Mike Holmgren had all the pieces in place to lead Seattle to championship glory.Then, the Seahawks opened the year in impressive fashion with road wins over New Orleans and Tampa Bay, and then came home to Qwest Field and put a whipping on their divisional foes, the San Francisco 49ers. Everything was in place as hoped for.
Unfortunately, Seattle ruined an almost three-and-a-half quarters’ worth of perfect football against the St. Louis Rams by somehow letting Marc Bulger lead his team back from a 27-10 deficit to a stunning overtime victory that shocked the home crowd and took the wind out of Seattle’s sails. Instead of the first 4-0 start in franchise history, the Hawks had a loss to their name and ended up losing their next two to New England and (SURPRISE!) Arizona.
Although the Seahawks rebounded by beating the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, fans and other sports observers can tell that their confidence level isn’t very high. Jimmy Johnson said on a national postgame show that “they don’t have any swagger.” On top of that, Holmgren has publicly simplified the playbook to accommodate a previously confused Hasselbeck.
The Seahawks brought in the legendary Jerry Rice to try to offset the impending suspension to wide receiver Koren Robinson, but a bulk of the fan base has had a skeptic response, citing the franchise’s bringing in a fading Franco Harris two decades ago and making the point that Rice may steal minutes from other players and thus disrupt team chemistry. Also, his signing may be another signal to the team of the coach’s lack of confidence in their current roster, causing them to be filled with even more self-doubt than their three-game losing streak had already left them with.
Which leads us to TODAY. Right now, the team sits at 4-3, tied with the Rams for the lead in their division and, more importantly, the last playoff spot in the NFC. Assuming they win their next game against the moribund 49ers on the road, they’ll enter the St. Louis game at the halfway point in the season at 5-3 with a chance to redeem themselves against the Rams team that made that incredible comeback against them a month earlier. If they win that game, then they will be 6-3 with a renewed sense of confidence and a sense that they are, at least, the favorite to capture the NFC West title.
Still, they will be looking at teams like (the currently undefeated) Philadelphia Eagles, the upstart New York Giants, and the offensively explosive Minnesota Vikings and wondering if they can run with the strongest horses in the NFC.
In the best-case scenario, hopefully you will call the 2004 Seahawks the “Seabiscuits”, i.e. a team that in the end would make a dramatic run that would catapult them to unprecedented heights for their franchise. Going into this year, the fans and the media were echoing the coaches’ and players’ talk of a trip to the Super Bowl.
But alas, unforeseen events such as key injuries (Chad Brown, Grant Wistrom, Anthony Simmons, and Tom Rouen) and the terrible loss to the Rams at home have caused cynical fans to utter (or at least think) the phrase “Same Old Seahawks.” The season is still ripe with possibilities and promise, but instead of being a respected front-runner, the Seahawks are occupying their old familiar place in the NFL food chain, i.e. a team that’s trying to show the rest of the league that they’re really not just pretenders.