Seattle has great incentive to avoid letdown against Titans
By beating the woeful Titans on Sunday, the NFC West champs clinch a first-round bye for the playoffs, tie the franchise record for most wins in a season with two games left and secure the club’s first 10-game winning streak.
If the Chicago Bears lose Sunday night to Atlanta, the Seahawks would also clinch home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. It’s something Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander calls “crazy important.”
“Everybody talks about how you give yourself the greatest opportunity to have home-field advantage in the playoffs, even if it’s one game. But then, to have it throughout the whole playoffs is probably the most important thing we can get right now,” Alexander said.
If the Seahawks (11-2) keep playing the way they did against Philadelphia and San Francisco, winning by a combined score of 83-3, they won’t have any problems with a team that hasn’t scored an offensive touchdown in nine straight quarters.
That doesn’t mean the Titans (4-9) don’t have some motivation. Pulling off the improbable upset would give them their third victory in four games.
“People wonder what we’re going out to play for. It’s one of those things you take whatever you need into this game mentally to prepare to stop this offense,” Titans linebacker Keith Bulluck said.
It won’t be easy. Alexander needs only 104 yards rushing to become only the fifth NFL player with consecutive 1,600-yard seasons. If he scores four touchdowns against a team allowing 25.3 points per game, he ties Priest Holmes’ NFL record of 27 touchdowns.
The Seahawks also are healing with the return of receiver Darrell Jackson, who will start his first game since Oct. 2 following surgery to fix cartilage in his right knee. He will play as long as possible opposite Bobby Engram.
Jackson returns to an offense among the NFL’s best, averaging 375.3 yards per game.
“Now when we put four wide receivers or maybe even five wide receivers on the field, we really get a huge advantage by doing that,” Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said.
Seattle fans may be looking ahead to that game with Indianapolis, but coach Mike Holmgren has been working his Seahawks even harder despite their blowout victories.
“I would not anticipate anything less than a good effort,” Holmgren said.
Seattle’s lone weakness is in the secondary, with injuries keeping out cornerbacks Andre Dyson (ankle sprain) and Kelly Herndon (knee) and safety John Howell (hamstring). Linebacker D.D. Lewis hasn’t practiced to rest his knee for games.
“They’ve got a lot of depth, and they’ve done a nice job putting their secondary together,” Titans coach Jeff Fisher said.
To beat a team with a winning record for the first time this season, the Titans must score touchdowns, and that won’t be easy. Steve McNair has had lots of dropped passes since losing two receivers for the season and his leading receiver, tight end Erron Kinney, in the past three weeks.
Both running backs ? Chris Brown (elbow) and Travis Henry (ankle) ? are questionable, as well.
“We have to keep the football away from them and do the things that you put down on paper: convert third downs, throw touchdown passes, and you have to do those things to beat this team because that’s what they do,” Fisher said.
The Coliseum has been a difficult place for teams making their first visit, with the Titans 21-4 in such games. Holmgren and his Seahawks are prepared for a loud crowd, but the stadium has been barely half full the past two games.
If fans fill the seats, they’ll likely be more interested in seeing how the Seahawks might stack up against Indianapolis.
“We don’t care who shows up,” Alexander said.
Just as long as the Seahawks do.