If this were basketball, calling the end of this Seahawks season “The Final Four,” might be a cruel joke. No one on this team envisioned a 2-10 record with four games left to play but reality is sometimes cruel and always requires a response.
When asked about his plan in the last four games of the season coach Holmgren had a simple straight forward answer. “We’re going to play every game to win. Whatever that means as far as the roster, that’s what we have to do.”
A roster change is a possibility depending on center Chris Spencer’s situation.
“I won’t know for a couple days,” coach Holmgren said at Monday’s press briefing. “As of today it wasn’t a lot better. We’ll have to revisit that in a couple of days and see where he is.”
“He’s sore, I think he appreciated his time off as much as anybody.”
Two of the Seahawks opponents in the final four games are battling for the top spot in the AFC East. Is there a concern that the Patriots and Jets will aggressively rush the passer as other teams have and will that lead to a change in strategy to protect Hasselbeck?
“I’d change the mode, Matt’s going to play…you get torn, because you’re competitive and you want to win the game and you see some good things out there that probably only he can do, but look, I hope we can protect him a little better than we did last week. That’s our goal. I don’t want him to get hurt, I don’t want anybody to get hurt.”
As coach Holmgren’s final season heads into its final quarter, questions arise about the team’s future. How will the Seahawks deal with the fact that pound-for-pound the defense is smaller than most opponents? Coach Holmgren has been very careful with questions like that as was the case Monday.
“Well I think that’s a question you should ask down the road, but I don’t think you can ignore that stuff. I mean at any position, if you have a high expectation level anywhere and you haven’t reached it, you got to look at why.”
Sunday’s game time has bee changed to 1 p.m. and before the game the U.S Marine Corps Reserves will be collecting unwrapped toys in their annual Toys for Tot’s campaign.
