KIRKLAND, Wash. -- The Seahawks shredded one post-Super Bowl
jinx.
But while becoming the first team since the 2000 Tennessee
Titans to follow a Super Bowl loss with a playoff appearance,
Seattle had to endure another recent hex of Super Bowl runners-up:
injuries.
From Shaun Alexander's broken foot through Matt Hasselbeck's
sprained knee, broken fingers and beyond, the epidemic cost Seattle
its consistency -- and ultimately its season.
"We were inconsistent. We played like an average team with good
talent," Alexander said in the wake of Sunday's overtime loss at
Chicago in the NFC divisional playoffs. "Next year, we have to be
better."
And healthier.
The Seahawks had 12 starters miss a combined 52 games in the
regular season and postseason. They started eight different
combinations on their offensive line. Last week's wild-card round
win against Dallas was the first time all season they had all
receivers available -- and then Darrell Jackson and D.J. Hackett
re-injured themselves.
"I can safely say this: It is highly unlikely we will have as
many injuries next year as we had this year," coach Mike Holmgren
said Monday, with a wry smile.
"It's been a weird season," All-Pro left tackle Walter Jones
said. "But we still had a chance to meet our goals. We were a
field goal short of reaching the NFC championship."
That was remarkable, given the defending NFC champions (10-8)
failed to fulfill their potential at any time throughout a uniquely
painful season.
"We never lined up with the team I wanted to line up with,"
Holmgren said. "So it's kind of tough to compare (potential with
performance)."
The injury to Alexander, the 2005 league MVP, proved most
costly. From him breaking his foot Sept. 24 through finally feeling
he was back to normal in mid-December, Hasselbeck and fill-in
Seneca Wallace were essentially on their own.
Those three months, opponents relentlessly pressured the
besieged quarterbacks with almost no regard for running plays.
Seattle's offense, consequently, had all the rhythm of a preschool
music class.
"I honestly believe if I was healthier, our offense would have
gotten in rhythm faster," Alexander said. "Then we would have
been playing (postseason) games at home, instead of on the road.
"That changes everything."
Seattle was 8-4 and tied with Dallas and New Orleans for the
second seed in the conference following its win at Denver on Dec.
3. That second seed would have meant a first-round bye and a home
playoff game. Seattle then lost three of its last four
regular-season games to fall to a fourth seed.
Hasselbeck's skittish play followed his return Nov. 27 from
missing four games with a sprained knee. He played the final seven
games with a glove over a compression wrap on two broken fingers in
his non-throwing hand and finished with 18 interceptions in 14
games. He had just nine in 16 games while going to the Pro Bowl
last season.
"It wasn't the kind of year I anticipated having," he said.
"But you learn from it. I have learned more from my mistakes than
I have from my successes. (And) there's plenty to learn from."
Such as the most interceptions he's had through a complete
regular and postseason in his eight-year career.
"I really think -- you've seen it -- he can be as good as anyone
in the league," Holmgren said. "But that type of consistency that
you see in great quarterbacks, that has to appear all the time."
All these what-could-have-beens didn't discourage the
58-year-old veteran of 15 seasons as a head coach and three Super
Bowls.
"I am not one of these people who writes off the season as a
failure if you don't win the Super Bowl, don't get to the Super
Bowl," Holmgren said.
"I think there are reasons to be hopeful. ... Our core group
(led by Alexander, Hasselbeck, Jones and receiver Deion Branch),
we'll have back. The free-agency situation appears to be
manageable."
The most obvious free-agent need appears in the secondary, which
gave up big pass plays all season.
The relatively few, key players eligible to leave in
unrestricted free agency: trusted wide receiver Bobby Engram,
inconsistent tight end Jerramy Stevens, invaluable kicker Josh
Brown -- who some teammates see as the team's MVP for four
game-winning field goals this season -- guard Chris Gray and safety
Ken Hamlin.
Holmgren spent Monday's team meeting selling his potential free
agents on how money might not be the best reason to stay or go.
"It wasn't attractive (to be here) -- not even when you were
drafted here did you want to come here," Alexander said of Seattle
when he arrived in 2000.
"We've got it turned into a winner. Now we've got to turn it
into a champion."