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Notebook: Brown touchy about kicks

By José Miguel Romero
Seattle Times staff reporter

STREETER LECKA / GETTY IMAGES Josh Brown has made all three field goals but has no touchbacks on 14 kickoffs.

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KIRKLAND — For all the Seahawks have accomplished on the field, the kicking game is an issue.

And Josh Brown is a little tired of hearing about it.

Brown, the Seahawks' kicker, has made all three of his field goals this season and has shown a huge leg on three-pointers, for example, the 58-yard blast he booted at Green Bay last year. That field goal set a team record for distance.

But he has no touchbacks on 14 kickoffs, and opponents have started just one drive inside the 20-yard line after a kickoff. Opponents' average drives start at about their own 34-yard line.

"I feel like I'm kicking off fine," Brown said. "I don't really see what the big deal is."

To be fair, Brown has been asked to use squib kicks when the Seahawks decide they do not want to kick to a dangerous return specialist or simply because they want to give opponents a different look. They employed that strategy against San Francisco, and it cut into Brown's average yards per kickoff.

Special-teams coach Mark Michaels said the Seahawks did not cover kickoffs well at New Orleans, though Brown kicked well. Brown put three of four kickoffs inside the 10-yard line, and all three were inside the 8 at Tampa Bay.

Michaels said he would like to see deeper kicks, but the loss of Mack Strong and Tracy White because of injuries in the San Francisco game hurt the Seahawks' ability to cover kickoffs.

"If you can get the kicks down to the goal line with four seconds-plus of hang time, those are kicks that your coverage team should be able to cover," Michaels said. "Obviously if the kicker doesn't hit it well, then you have to more or less rely on the guys beating the blocks and they have to get off and be solid at the point of attack."

But Brown hasn't reached the goal line on any kickoffs yet this season. He said he has to stay loose and rested, as leg speed is the key to kickoffs.
 
"How many touchbacks have you seen in the last three or four years in this stadium?" Brown said, referring to the thick air of Qwest Field. "Maybe five total last year, three the year before that, by visiting teams. Not even by (former Seahawk Rian) Lindell when he was here. The ball does not fly here. I don't want to be a statistic as far as touchbacks. I think I'm stronger than that."

Not worth mentioning

The Seahawks are 0-5 in games following bye weeks the past five seasons, most recently losing 35-13 at Green Bay after the bye in 2003.

Coach Mike Holmgren had hoped no one would bring up the subject during his weekly media conference yesterday.

"What I think about in a bye week is how much time I'm going to give the guys off," Holmgren said. "They (players and coaches) certainly earned a little bit of time off. And then how injured are we and what we can get done during the bye week? But as far as how we play the week after the bye, heck, we just have to go in and we have to practice. We're not bringing up that stat to the team."

The Seahawks are 3-11 all-time after byes.

Keeping it light and loose

Winning makes everybody happy, and the Seahawks are keeping the mood as light as they can to start the week even though they face divisional foe St. Louis on Sunday.

Holmgren said he was happy to have all of the players back Monday after four days off for the bye, and the team practiced well. So well that Holmgren showed his lighter side by staging a punt-catching drill for linemen with a Tuesday practice on the line.

"The mood of the team, the chemistry of the team is really healthy right now," Holmgren said. "They expect me to kill them all the time. If I can throw them a cookie every once in awhile I think it's a good thing. They all came back with a little jump in their step. I think we'll practice well this week. We're fresh."

Players appreciate the have-fun attitude whenever Holmgren exhibits it. "We've got a bunch of characters," linebacker Isaiah Kacyvenski said. "This is definitely the closest-knit team I've been involved with. It's good to know coach Holmgren has a sense of humor."

Notes

• The only Seahawk not to practice yesterday was LB Chad Brown, who Holmgren believes is ahead of schedule from a broken fibula and is expected back for the Carolina game Oct. 31.

• FB Mack Strong (knee sprain) and Kacyvenski (groin pull) are probable to play Sunday, according to the first injury report of the week.

... Former NFL coach Mike Ditka spent the day in Seattle yesterday, promoting the NFL's Tackling Men's Health awareness program.

... CB Ken Lucas intercepted two passes in practice yesterday, but practice-squad defensive back Jordan Babineaux made the play of the day when he jumped and pulled down a Matt Hasselbeck pass with one hand.