Seahawks edged out of first in NFC West

KIRKLAND — The Seahawks woke up Monday and found themselves in the middle of the division they've dominated for so much of the past three seasons.

The view's not what Seattle grew accustomed to atop the NFC West, the quarters a little more cramped.

Welcome to second place, Seahawks. The question now is how long they will be staying as they sit tied with Arizona at 1-1 and one game back of the division-leading 49ers.

"The division is still wide open," said quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. "San Fran is 2-0. They're off to a great start. That's all I would say."

But two games is enough to see things have changed in the NFC West. The division Seattle locked into a full nelson the past three seasons is suddenly frisky. The Seahawks went two years without losing a game in the NFC West, but Seattle's loss in Arizona on Sunday was its fourth in a row to a divisional opponent going back to last season.

So what happened?

"Two things," coach Mike Holmgren said. "I think it's a sign of the other teams getting better and it's a sign that we were very injured last year in some of those games."

Backup quarterback Seneca Wallace started in San Francisco on Nov. 19 last season, Shaun Alexander returned from a broken foot to play his first game in almost two months and Seattle lost to an NFC West team for the first time since Nov. 14, 2004. A 10-game winning streak in the division ended that afternoon, and afterward Holmgren got so hot he said some things to his team that compelled him to apologize to his players the next day.

They haven't won a game in the NFC West since, losing four in a row and having an opposing back surpass 100 yards rushing in each of those losses. Twice it was San Francisco's Frank Gore, and twice it was Edgerrin James, who gained 128 yards on the ground Sunday against Seattle even with the Cardinals starting an undrafted rookie at center and a second-year player at guard.

"I thought we could do a little better job against their offensive line than we did," Holmgren said. "They had some young guys in there, and they blocked us."

Just one more example of the NFC West catching up to the front-running Seahawks. The Cardinals spent years stockpiling the talent they have on offense while the 49ers rebuilt themselves under coach Mike Nolan and are 2-0 for the first time since 1998.

"It put a little pressure on us," linebacker Julian Peterson said, "but we created it ourselves. We had an opportunity to win the game so it's going to just test the character of our team."

The four teams in the NFC West combined to allow the most points of any of the NFL's eight divisions in 2006. Two games is too soon to draw any conclusions, but it's enough time to see things will be more competitive. Three divisional games have been played, none won by more than three points and all decided by plays in the final 90 seconds.

"It's going to be that type of year in our division," Holmgren said.

The Seahawks are right in the middle of it. But after spending so much of the past three years atop the division, the Seahawks aren't used to finding themselves in the middle of anything in the NFC West.

Danny O'Neil: 206-464-2364 or doneil@seattletimes.com