How's this for anti-climax? Mike Holmgren has announced that Matt Hasselbeck will return a week from tonight when the Green Bay Packers come to town. (Sando) The Coach also indicated that center Robbie Tobeck was expected to play against the green and gold as well.
The coach's Monday afternoon press conference contained the by-now common explanation of the malaise epidemic now polluting the Seahawks' bench:
By the way, not to rub salt, but Steve Kelley of the Times pretty much sums up how I've felt over the last 24 hours about this whole Seahawks thing:
We've been tricked by the mushy schedule. We've been hoodwinked by the rhetoric into thinking everything was right again in Hawks Nation after home wins against Oakland and St. Louis.
But these Seahawks aren't those 2005 Seahawks. This team is missing something that last season's Seahawks had in spades. This team is softer than last season's team. It doesn't do the basics well, like blocking and tackling...
Last season, there wasn't one instance where the opposition appeared to want the game more. This season there has been Chicago, Minnesota, Kansas City and San Francisco...
The Hawks will argue that they will get their quarterback, Matt Hasselbeck, back next week, after missing the last 4? games. They will argue that Shaun Alexander, who rushed 37 yards in his first action since Sept. 24, will get stronger.
They will argue that Robbie Tobeck will return at center. And Sean Locklear will return at left tackle. And Bobby Engram will return to wide receiver.
But they don't play defense. They didn't allow 416 offensive yards to the San Francisco 49ers. And nothing that happened at Monster Park should make us think the return to health of these five starters will staunch the here-today-gone-next-Sunday inconsistency of these Seahawks...
The Seahawks should have cakewalked through November. Last year's team did.
But something is missing this season. The Seahawks are losing games that Super Bowl teams should never lose.
This is just what I need for that little "seattlesucks" creep to get back on here and -- note the dripping, nay, flooding irony -- butcher English spelling and grammar rules.