Hawks RB excels under the lights

Shaun Alexander does his best work under the lights.

He's been that way ever since he entered the league with an eye for the cutback and a nose for the end zone.

He scored his first NFL touchdown on a Monday night, ran for the most yards in his career on a Sunday evening and in his first seven seasons he manufactured quite a reputation as a prime-time player.

Alexander will not only be in the spotlight again Sunday when Seattle plays New Orleans, but he'll be under a microscope as well. Alexander is coming off his worst game in five years, his 25-yard pittance in Pittsburgh. He's wearing a cast on his wrist and playing against a backdrop of increasingly pointed critiques of his willingness to run through contact.

He has gone three games without scoring a touchdown, his longest streak without scoring in his eight years as a pro.

"I'm doing OK for the league," Alexander said. "And I think I'm doing a little bit below OK for me."

He's not the only running back who feels that way.

Plenty of the league's other elite backs are off to slower than normal starts. Alexander is only 8 yards ahead of New England's Sammy Morris, LaDainian Tomlinson is being outgained by Marion Barber III, and Larry Johnson has yet to find his way into the end zone.

Backs accustomed to running up big numbers are instead running into brick walls this season. Even San Francisco's Frank Gore, the guy who ran roughshod over Seattle last season, has yet to hit triple digits in a game this season.

"Teams are like, 'That's the key,' " Alexander said. "So they're stopping L.J. and L.T. and Frank. They're trying to hurt us, and I think it's smart because if we get the ground game going and we're rushing for touchdowns, we usually win."

Alexander, known for his vision on a football field, knows where he's sitting among the league's rushing leaders after five games.

"I'm either third or fourth in the conference," he said. "Eleventh in the NFL."

Yep. He's third in the NFC behind Arizona's Edgerrin James and Minnesota rookie Adrian Peterson, and Alexander ranks No. 11 in the league. Not awful, but not exactly overwhelming, either, Alexander pointed out.

"There's 21 other teams that wish they had that position in their tailback," Alexander said. "So I think that because we've been so hot and so good and so dominant for all these years people take something that's not as good and make it seem bad.

"We're not in a bad position at all. We're just used to being better. That's what hard work will get you. We'll get better."

Alexander is in the second season of his big-budget contract. Slowed by a foot injury last season, he's now playing with a cracked bone in his wrist. Alexander said it took some time to get used to running with a cast on his left hand, especially the first couple of weeks when he wore a heavier cast.

"I was just kind of off balance a lot," he said.

The Seahawks' entire ground game has been out of sorts, too. Coach Mike Holmgren said he'll mix in a few more carries to Maurice Morris this week. That has nothing to do with Alexander's health, Holmgren insisted, or his productivity. It's just adding another set of legs for a rushing offense that is a step or more behind where Holmgren wants it to be.

"We've got to get it going," Holmgren said. "We're committed to it, we're going to keep working at it, try and come up with some answers. Challenge the players, challenge the coaches, challenge myself."

Alexander is one of eight backs who rushed for more than 1,500 yards in at least one of the previous two seasons. None of the eight is on pace to reach that mark this season. Of those players, only James is outperforming his averages over the past two seasons.

"Any number of things can make it difficult on those guys," Holmgren said. "I probably would say they'll all have pretty good numbers."

Good, but can any of them rediscover the stride that made them great not all that long ago?

Alexander will try to find that groove again Sunday under the lights with the country watching while this city scrutinizes him.

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