Steve Kelley / Times staff columnist
Another hope-filled day turns out empty for Hawks

ROD MAR / THE SEATTLE TIMES Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck gathers himself on the sideline on a day in which he completed only 15 of 36 passes for 172 yards and had a costly first-quarter interception at the goal line.

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ST. LOUIS — Bing-bing. Bing-bing. Easy as a 7-on-7 passing drill.

St. Louis quarterback Marc Bulger throws to Isaac Bruce for 21 yards. And to Torry Holt for 15 yards. He throws to Bruce again for 16, and to Kevin Curtis for a 15-yard touchdown.

"It was like their receivers were out there by themselves," Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said.

Doink. Doink. Doink. Like the first day of mini-camp.

Matt Hasselbeck runs into Shaun Alexander on the day's first handoff and suffers what Holmgren calls "a charley horse" above his right knee.

And Hasselbeck's first pass, intended for Darrell Jackson, is tipped by Leonard Little. And his first throw for the end zone is picked off by Jerametrius Butler.

"I don't think they (Rams) are better than us," Jackson said after the 23-12 loss. "But maybe they're more polished than us."

Looking for a quality win The Seahawks are 5-4, but all five victories have come against teams with records under .500. Combined win-loss records for the teams they've beaten and the teams they've lost to. Teams that Seattle beat 8-24 (.250): New Orleans, Carolina, Tampa Bay, San Francisco (2) Teams that beat Seattle 14-10 (.583): St. Louis (2), New England, Arizona

Another Seahawks Sunday disappointment. Another morning that dawned with hope and ended in a heap. Another Sunday when the Hawks had so much to gain, only to lose. When the disparity in polish between the Hawks and their opponent was wider than the disparity in talent.

Just another manic Sunday.

After blowing a 17-point lead in the last eight minutes in their first meeting last month, it should have been expected that the Hawks would have begun this game with all the fire of January.

Instead they played as if it still were August and they had all the time in the world to make things better.

They trailed 17-0 before the first beer had been spilled. It was New England all over again. Another rerun on a Sunday that was supposed to feel like prime time.

It was awful. And it was awfully familiar.

Rams receivers were running as free as cheetahs on the Serengeti. And the Hawks' offense was killing itself with poor passes, dropped throws and missed blocking assignments.

"We have to finish these games," Hasselbeck said before remembering his team was down by 17 points after 18 minutes. "First we have to get in them. We didn't start the game well, and when we got back into the game, we did not take advantage of our opportunities. If we can take advantage of these opportunities, we can win these types of games."

All of this — the mistakes, the missed opportunities, even the soundbites — are becoming annoyingly familiar.

The Seahawks would like you to believe they are a work-in-progress. They will remind you that six of these first nine games have been played on the road.

They will take solace in the fact they still are tied with the Rams at 5-4 on top of the NFC West and the remainder of St. Louis' schedule is more difficult than theirs. But they still haven't won a meaningful game.

They like to talk about their lofty goals and their postseason possibilities, but they have given no indication they will do anything but swoon in the face of any opposition stiffer than, say, Carolina or San Francisco.

	ROD MAR / THE SEATTLE TIMES Hawks linebackers Orlando Huff (57) and Anthony Simmons sort out confusion just before a snap. Seattle was down 14-0 barely eight minutes into the game after giving up TD drives of 71 and 73 yards.

Hobbled Hasselbeck was bad in a big game again. He completed only 15 of 36 passes for 172 yards and a rating of 45.1. He isn't having anything close to the season expected of him.

"I'm not very pleased with how we threw the ball," Holmgren said.

Against a battered Rams offensive front, the Hawks managed almost no pass rush, even after Pro Bowl tackle Orlando Pace was tossed from the game in the third quarter.

Holmgren will tell you the Seahawks still are a team in development. He talks, almost mystically, about the inevitable "hump" game they will win that will take them past their present mediocrity.

"At some point, I'll call it a hump game," Holmgren said. "This team will win a game like this. Against a good team, on the road, in a hostile place, the same as New England. When we do that, it will be very important for us."

Promises. Promises.

"We knew we could expand the lead in our division today. Everybody knew what was at stake," said Hawks receiver Jerry Rice. "But it just didn't happen. The Rams, they played better today."

The Rams played better, but they aren't better than the Seahawks, and that's the riddle of this team and this season.

"There are days like today when nothing is going right and still you've got to find a way to win that game," said Rice. "You've got to find a way to pull it out somehow. We had chances to get into the end zone today, and it didn't happen. And when you keep making mistakes, eventually it's going to end up biting you."

Championship teams, like those on which Rice has played, find ways to make a difference. But after all these years, the Seahawks still find ways to break your heart.

This was just another Sunday when we expected fire, but instead we got ice.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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