Seahawks staring at NFL leader Chris Johnson

RENTON — A few hundred feet and the Seahawks' pride are all that will stand between Tennessee's Chris Johnson and history this Sunday.

The NFL's leading rusher is 128 yards away from becoming the sixth player to rush for 2,000 yards in an NFL season and 234 yards from becoming the single-season record holder.

So what Sunday's game lacks in playoff implications, it will make up for with historical possibilities that Seattle wants very much to avoid.

"We don't want to be on highlight reels for the rest of eternity," Seattle coach Jim Mora said.

Remember O.J. Simpson's opponent when he became the NFL's first 2,000-yard man in 1973? Mora does. It was the New York Jets.

Just like he recalls that San Francisco was playing the Bears when Terrell Owens, then a 49er, caught 20 passes to set the single-game receptions record that stood until this year.

This is a season the Seahawks would just as soon forget, and it will conclude with a chance to immortalize a second-year player drafted out of East Carolina who is one of the league's fastest running backs. It took him 4.24 seconds to run 40 yards in 2008. Combine that speed with the patience he's shown and he's downright predatory out of the backfield, surveying the field for the hole and then pouncing.

He has rushed for 1,872 yards this season and hasn't been held under 100 yards rushing in a game since Week 5. Seattle is the last line of defense in stopping him from joining some pretty elite company.

"It's exciting and it's a horror at the same time," linebacker Leroy Hill said. "He's a dynamic player and he's been ripping up the league all year."

There haven't been many bright spots for Seattle this season. Kicker Olindo Mare has made a franchise-record 18 consecutive field-goal attempts, punter Jon Ryan averages 47.1 yards per punt, third in the league and Seattle's defense hasn't allowed an opponent to reach 100 yards rushing since Week 2.

"You've got to have something to hang your hat on," defensive tackle Colin Cole said.

Seattle's rush defense has been the one thing this team can count on despite facing some of the league's best backs. Minnesota's Adrian Peterson is second to Johnson in rushing yardage, and he failed to reach 100 yards against Seattle in Week 11. St. Louis' Steven Jackson is third in the league in rushing yards, and he has twice been held under 100 yards by the Seahawks.

Are the Titans going to force feed Johnson in pursuit of making him a 2,000-yard man?

"It just remains to be seen," Titans coach Jeff Fisher said. "We're going to try to win the football game, and we'll probably run it and probably throw it."

The last NFL player to rush for 2,000 yards in a season was Jamal Lewis in 2003. He finished with 2,066 yards for Baltimore.

The league's single-season record of 2,105 yards rushing was set by Eric Dickerson in 1984. Johnson would need 234 yards to eclipse that, and the Seahawks have never allowed an opponent to rush for more than 221 yards in any game.

Seattle did, however, give up 207 yards rushing to San Francisco's Frank Gore in Week 2. Gore logged two of the six longest runs in the league this season in that game, scoring from 80 and 79 yards out.

Take out those two runs and Seattle is allowing 3.8 yards per carry, which would be sixth-fewest in the league. But statistics don't work that way because a defense is only as good as its biggest shortcomings, kind of like last week when the Seahawks controlled Packers running back Ryan Grant except for his 56-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

"Except for (that), it was good," Mora said of the rush defense. "Like it has been this year. You know what, you can't eliminate the 'except-for' so it wasn't good enough."

And as Seattle concludes its season against one of the league's most exceptional backs, it doesn't want to be remembered as a fairly solid run defense except for Johnson's history-making finale.

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