No more promise for Seahawks in 2009

GLENDALE, Ariz. — They promised us so much more this season. They told us last season was an anomaly. They talked confidently about a new system and a new attitude and a return to the elevated place they'd occupied for most of this decade.

This season was supposed to be about a seamless transition from former coach Mike Holmgren to new coach Jim Mora.

These Seahawks were going to win games on the road. They could go into a place like University of Phoenix Stadium and beat a team as good as the Arizona Cardinals.

At the very least — the very least — they would compete with the Cardinals for the NFC West championship.

Those were the promises of spring and summer and early fall.

Now for the real story.

"The bottom line is, the team we played today, they're ahead of us," Mora said after the Seahawks blew a 14-0 lead and lost to the Cardinals 31-20.

The road to the NFC West title no long runs through Seattle. In truth that road dead-ended a month ago when the Hawks lost at home to the Cardinals.

The Hawks are 3-6 and because they've lost both games to the Cardinals, they ostensibly are four games out of first. Say good night, Seattle.

"We'll look back at this film and we'll be disappointed," said Hawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.

They're going to look at this season and be very disappointed. This game was just a reflection of everything that has happened before it.

Even with this week's healthier offensive line, the Hawks couldn't protect Hasselbeck. He was sacked four times and hurried on almost every throw he made.

And while Hasselbeck was under siege, Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner was untouched. He threw for 340 yards, two touchdowns and had a passer rating of 120.5. He looked as comfortable in the pocket as Tiger Woods appears over a 5-foot putt.

There are no moral victories in the NFL. There is no reason to celebrate when the team plays, as Seattle did in the desert, better than it has in weeks.

For the first 30 minutes, the Cardinals, who already have lost three home games, looked eminently beatable. The Hawks had awakened. They were partying like it was 2005, or at least 2007.

They went ahead 14-0, and the Arizona crowd booed the Cardinals as if they believed ownership was going to move the reigning NFC champions back to Chicago.

"There's a silver lining in there somewhere," Mora said.

But the Hawks had no knockout punch. They had no staying power. And because time stood still when Warner stood in the pocket, the Seahawks' suspect secondary eventually was immolated by the 38-year-old quarterback.

The Hawks played better and still lost by double digits. That's how far they've fallen. That's how down they are.

"I don't feel good. I don't feel good at all," Mora said. "I feel awful."

Still, Mora tried to put a brave face on this fourth loss in four road games.

He pointed to the improved offense. He talked about finding some continuity after searching for it the entire first half of the season. He liked the way backup running backs Justin Forsett and Louis Rankin ran, after Julius Jones left with a broken rib.

"It doesn't feel like it right now ... but I saw some things that indicated progress on our part," Mora said, "so we're going to try and build on that."

But through his postgame news conference, Mora sounded like a coach who had shifted his priorities from winning this season to building for the future. He sounded as if he had shifted his emphasis from the promises of last spring to the hopes for next autumn.

"We're not counting ourselves out of anything," Mora said, "but we've got to continue to get better. I see growth on this football team. I thought coming into this season we would see growth after we got some continuity."

In the last gasp of the fourth quarter, just inside of the two-minute warning, Hasselbeck bobbled an errant snap from center Chris Spencer.

The Hawks had called a shovel pass from the Cardinals' 3-yard line, but when Hasselbeck belatedly tried to shovel the ball to Forsett, he side-armed it into the stomach of Arizona safety Adrian Wilson.

And everyone in the building understood that this season of promise for the Seahawks officially was over and next year in Seattle was about to begin.

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