The answer for Seahawks: More Mo

Just when we thought all of the questions had been answered and all of the clouds had lifted and the doubts expunged, the Seahawks flopped as badly as "Gigli."

Against the Carolina Panthers last Sunday they played a game that left scars and worry lines, and left us wondering just how good this team is and just how far it might go in next month's second season.

The Hawks rushed for all of 44 yards. On one third-and-one, Shaun Alexander lost 6 yards. On another third-and-one, Maurice Morris lost 1.

"It wasn't us," quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said after the 13-10 loss.

Was it? Or wasn't it?

The Seahawks may have clinched the NFC West, but they haven't proven anything. And they have two games and maybe 120 offensive downs left to answer a couple of serious questions.

Can they run the ball? Should they run it?

This late in the season, a mere three weeks from the postseason, is there any magic left in Alexander's 30-year-old legs?

And, after he rushed for just 17 yards against the Panthers, should the Seahawks continue to force-feed the ball to him when his productivity has dropped so dramatically?

Two games. One hundred and twenty downs. One looming question.

Alexander, or Morris?

By now, the answer should be obvious.

The Seahawks don't need a breakaway runner, which is good news, because they don't have one.

They need a guy who can find 2 yards when the offensive line hasn't moved 2 feet. They need a back who can push a stone wall, who can find light in the darkness inside the trenches.

Truth is, the running back the Hawks need now is Ricky Watters, circa 1998. Nothing fancy, just a couple of yards — when those yards are the difference between punting and keeping a drive alive.

Alexander? Or Morris?

Does coach Mike Holmgren keep Alexander in the lineup, looking for signs he can play like the MVP of 2005?

The answer is no.

The strategy of running-back-by-committee hasn't worked. The loss to Carolina proved that again.

Holmgren has to settle on the one back who can give him the most production in the running game and in the passing game. He doesn't need spectacular. He needs versatile.

He needs what Morris gives.

The Hawks need a back who can get them 2 or 3 yards, instead of losing them 6. They need north-south, not east-west ... east-west ... . Morris hits the hole at full speed; Alexander still dances.

And, even more important, they need a back who can catch the ball, because they're going to be throwing it all over the field.

The Hawks aren't all of a sudden going to become the 1961 Packers. They aren't magically going to find a consistent running game, when it hasn't been there since before Pittsburgh in early October.

That doesn't mean they can't win.

Teams have won Super Bowls without super backs. Holmgren won one in Green Bay with Dorsey Levens getting just enough yards to complement Brett Favre.

The New York Giants won the 1991 Super Bowl with journeyman Ottis Anderson at running back. And San Francisco's leading rusher when it won its first Super Bowl in the 1981 season was Ricky Patton, who gained a mere 543 yards.

Seattle will have to win with Hasselbeck's arm and Bobby Engram's hands. It will have to win with four wideouts, with Deion Branch, Nate Burleson and Morris catching passes and breaking tackles.

Third-and-short. Third-and-20. Every down is a throwing down. And every run should be used just to move the chains and move the clock.

"We've got to throw it," Holmgren has said.

The problems with the running game aren't all age and Alexander. After all he has done for this franchise — his next rushing touchdown will be his 100th — it isn't fair to lay all of the blame on him.

Sisyphus could appreciate the frustrations Alexander and Morris have felt running behind guards Chris Gray and Rob Sims and center Chris Spencer.

(Paging Alan Faneca, Pittsburgh's free-agent-to-be Pro Bowl guard: If you want to come to a place and be the difference-maker, if you want to be a hero, the player who can undo the mistake the Hawks made two years ago when they lost Steve Hutchinson to Minnesota, Seattle is calling.)

Despite all of the hand-wringing this season, the Hawks will finish 11-5. They will play at least one home game in the postseason.

They've won without the run, won with defense and passing. It has been their formula since September, and it's too late to change now.

They have two games remaining against two really bad teams — Baltimore and Atlanta. They have 120 downs to decide on a running back.

But the answer, by now, should be obvious.

Better go to Mo.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com