Fan's guide | Player stats | Schedule | Roster

Seahawks
This is nothing special

By José Miguel Romero
Seattle Times staff reporter

Mark Michaels' special teams have struggled.

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Related stories NFL notebook: Green likely to start

How does that sports saying go?

Offense wins games, defense wins championships?

In the case of the Seattle Seahawks, the offense isn't winning games and the defense is as close to championship form as west and east.

The biggest problem area for the Seahawks in their recent struggles, however, could be special-teams play. It's giving coach Mike Holmgren headaches. It's keeping special-teams coach Mark Michaels busy after practice and into the night, trying to figure out what's wrong. "It's not one area in general," Michaels said. "We just have to be a little smarter, a little more disciplined and just understand the game and understand the tempo of it."

If only it were that simple for Michaels, who was named special-teams coach after last season when the Seahawks elected not to retain Pete Rodriguez. Rodriguez has long been considered one of the best special-teams coaches and now heads the Jacksonville Jaguars' special teams.

Michaels has the unenviable challenge of trying to follow his mentor, Rodriguez, and a rich tradition of special-teams play in Seattle over the years.

Remember Rusty Tillman?

Monday Dallas @ Seattle, 6 p.m., Ch. 4

Today, the questions about Michaels and his coaching are a hot-button issue among fans. Holmgren promised changes, and the most noteworthy is that Michaels was not directing drills by himself in practice this week. Offensive coordinator Gil Haskell, former special-teams coach of the Los Angeles Rams, and wide receivers coach Nolan Cromwell, who coached Green Bay's special teams for Holmgren in the 1990s, were involved.

"We're all just trying to make the thing better and fix the problems that we have, particularly last week," Holmgren said. "Mark's still setting stuff up."

The Seahawks made eight major mistakes on special teams in last Sunday's 38-9 loss at home to Buffalo

They began with Josh Brown's opening kickoff out of bounds, which let Buffalo start at the Seahawks' 40-yard line. They also included an onside kick to open the second half — recovered by Bills kicker Rian Lindell — that caught the Seahawks completely by surprise. Then there was Maurice Morris's leaping penalty on a missed field goal, on which he jumped to block though he never should have been near the line of scrimmage. Holmgren said Morris was supposed to be back to retrieve a possible pooch punt.

Rookie linebacker Niko Koutouvides slammed into Bills punt returner Nate Clements, drawing a 15-yard penalty for fair-catch interference.

Holmgren and Michaels have taken criticism for the shortcomings.

"I think it would be wrong to get into specifics and specific people, but just look at our productivity," Holmgren said this week. "It's never one person. It's never the coach and not the players. It's never just all the players."

Michaels agreed.

"Coach Holmgren put me in charge to do a good job here and that's what I'm trying to do, and as I told the guys, it's a group effort," Michaels said. "It's me, It's them, it's everybody. Everybody's got to study during the week and then we have to execute it on Sunday. So there has to be that carryover. Also with special teams, it's a little hard to simulate the speed in practice. It's important guys see the tape and understand where they need to be."

The tapes will show that the average starting point for Seahawks opponent's after a kickoff is about their 31-yard line, 27th in the NFL. The Seahawks, who have used two kickoff returners this season (Morris and Kerry Carter), start drives short of their own 28. That's 18th in the league.

Brown's kickoffs aren't driving returners back near the goal line on a consistent basis. The Hawks are on their third punter of the season, without many positive results since Tom Rouen was lost for the season with a hamstring injury.

On kickoff coverage, the Seahawks have given up returns of 32, 35 and 48 yards in recent games.

To be fair, the Seahawks are missing some key players on special teams. Pro Bowler Alex Bannister is out for the season after shoulder surgery. Linebacker Tracy White, who stepped in for Bannister at the bullet position, or lead cover man on return teams, won't be back until next week at the earliest.

Other special-team players have had to become defensive starters, notably linebackers Isaiah Kacyvenski and Solomon Bates, who are replacing injured regulars Chad Brown and Anthony Simmons.

The Seahawks are using their third bullet, rookie safety Michael Boulware. And in an effort to get more downfield speed on kickoff coverage, the Seahawks could move Morris to the interior of the line.

"When you have a guy like Tracy or Alex, they're both 4.4 (speed) types of guys," Michaels said. "They can get down there fast and disrupt a little bit. We need somebody to approximate or try and simulate that speed a little bit."

Even the injured Bannister has tried to do his part. He has called special-teams players after games to try to inspire them to work harder and make it a priority.

"It doesn't matter what the game plan is or what type of coverage you're in," Bannister said. "You just make your play. This one guy's not going to stop me. Execution is just heart. Sometimes you have to find a way to bring that out."

Note

• Two Seahawks returned to practice yesterday. Both LT Walter Jones (thumb) and RB Kerry Carter (ribs) practiced and should play Monday. Game-time decisions include DE Chike Okeafor (ankle) and CB Bobby Taylor (knee), and Holmgren said yesterday that LB White (hamstring) has "an outside chance" at playing.

José Miguel Romero: 206-464-2409 or jromero@seattletimes.com. Staff reporter Greg Bishop contributed to this article.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More Seahawks/NFL headlines...