Seahawks
Seahawks notebook: Coach says passion not issue

By José Miguel Romero
Seattle Times staff reporter

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KIRKLAND — Mike Holmgren's face changed color and his eyes narrowed into slits. A reporter's question about the Seahawks playing without passion irked him enough for the coach to interrupt.

"That's bunk," Holmgren shot back. "Who's saying that? You?"

The reporter rephrased. Passion or a loss in confidence?

"First of all, we don't lack passion," Holmgren responded during his media conference yesterday. "That's a lazy way of interpreting something, in my opinion. You can't play the game without passion or you'll get killed. You can play other games without passion, I suppose, but not this game."

These are the kinds of inquiries Holmgren and the Seahawks are faced with because the team is coming off a bad game and has not performed to the level of expectations heaped upon it.

"Now, the confidence thing is a possibility," Holmgren continued. "Any time you have young people playing — you can look at our defensive roster and who was starting — they are more susceptible to having doubt creep in and losing some of that swagger or confidence. Now, we have to coach to that. They're not robots, these guys. The players are human. But it's not passion. There could be a confidence factor there."

The Seahawks are busy this week trying to fix what went wrong in a 38-9 home loss to Buffalo. The fixing began in earnest with the week's first practice yesterday.

Holmgren also had to answer a question about players' attitudes in the locker room after losses. He said he used to think that players should be mad and upset after a big loss, but that he has seen differently since becoming a coach.

In his first season as an NFL assistant, 1986, Holmgren's 49ers lost to the New York Giants 49-3 at the Meadowlands. Holmgren recalled feeling silently upset and thought the players would, too. But the flight back to San Francisco changed his perception.
 
"It was a grand old wingding back there," Holmgren said. He had to sit in the back of the plane with the players. "I had to learn. I learned. Listen, those guys, the players, they gave everything they had. They were hurt, and they sacrificed, and now it was over. Now they were thinking about other things. So to go and rip out the seats on the airplane and gnaw on the barf bags, they all react differently. I've learned over the years: How a player reacts, that's how he reacts."

More tickets available

The Seahawks have made about 1,000 extra tickets available for Monday night's game. Call 888-635-4295 or go to www.seahawks.com. Temporary bleachers have been installed near the Hawks Nest section, as well as in the south end zone upper-deck plaza. The seats are $50 each.

Notes

• The Seahawks signed CB LaTarence Dunbar to the practice squad, filling the spot left open after CB Jordan Babineaux was signed to the active roster last week. Dunbar, 24, played in five games with the Browns as a wide receiver last season, though the Seahawks used him as a cornerback in practice.

• DE Chike Okeafor (sore right ankle), CB Bobby Taylor (sore right knee) and KR Kerry Carter (sore ribs) did not practice yesterday and are questionable for Monday's game. LT Walter Jones did not practice because of a left thumb injury, but he is probable.