Damn!! Time's running out for Mike Holmgren in Seattle
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=750 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class="" vAlign=top width=560><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=7><SPACER type="block" width="1" height="1"></TD></TR><TR><TD class=yspsctnhdln>
Seahawks: Seahawks fans' discontent gathering like a storm</TD></TR><TR><TD height=7><SPACER type="block" width="1" height="1"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>The Seattle Times
September 11, 2005
>To Seahawks coach
Mike Holmgren</PERSON>, on the occasion of the beginning of his seventh season in Seattle:
>As Tropical Storm Ophelia swirls like a metaphor offshore, to the northeast of the lovely resort that has been the weekend home to your football team, another storm is gathering in <LOCATION>Seattle</LOCATION>.
>Seahawks fans want more out of the Seahawks.
>They want a January to remember. Making the playoffs isn't good enough anymore, especially the way it happened last year with the team stumbling into a home game as unsteady as a deck hand on a storm-tossed whaler.
>The city is tired of broken promises, false Septembers that dissolve in wasted Decembers. False starts that raise false hopes that end in nightmarish playoff losses in January.
>One year
Alex Bannister</PERSON> breaks off a route that leads to an
Al Harris</PERSON> interception and a first-round loss in <LOCATION>Green Bay</LOCATION>. And last season sure-handed
Bobby Engram</PERSON> drops a would-be, game-winning pass and the Hawks lose at home to <LOCATION>St. Louis</LOCATION>.
>Hawks fans are weary of all the losses to the Rams. They're tired of the blown fourth-quarter leads.
>Today
>Seahawks @ <LOCATION>Jacksonville</LOCATION>, <CHRON>10 a.m.</CHRON>, Ch. 13
>Hawks fans are angry, Mike. Surely, you hear them when you jog off the field after a home loss.
>Rebuilding wasn't supposed to be this difficult.
>By now, after six seasons in <LOCATION>Seattle</LOCATION>, you and, more important, the city's football fans expected Super Bowls. You were expected to mold the Seahawks into something akin to what Bill Belichick molded in New England.
>After all, you were Belichick before Belichick.
>In your second and third years in <LOCATION>Green Bay</LOCATION>, you won wild-card playoff games. In your fourth year, you got to the NFC Championship Game and in your fifth year, you won a Super Bowl.
>In <LOCATION>Green Bay</LOCATION>, you experienced a winter wonderland. In <LOCATION>Seattle</LOCATION>, you've experienced winters of discontent. After six seasons, you are a mere four games over .500 and 0-3 in playoff games.
>Now, you get another start. Another season. Another opening. Another big show.
>But once again, you start with a defense as unpredictable as Ophelia.
>You start with a rookie, Lofa Tatapu, at middle linebacker. You open with a second-year defensive tackle,
Marcus Tubbs</PERSON>, who has started all of three games.
>Even you called it a "no-name" defense in last week's news conference. It's as untested as a 2-year-old Thoroughbred and thin as a javelin. Once again, the defense is the great unknown in a season of great expectations, and you're left praying nobody gets hurt.
>Such a great unknown can be exciting. There is nothing more compelling than a good mystery. But it's also as dangerous as tightrope-walking across Qwest Field without a net.
>This is another season of ifs.
>What if
Marcus Trufant can return to the injury-free cover corner he was in his rookie season of 2003? What if defensive end
Grant Wistrom, who injured his knee in mid-October of last season, returns to give the Seahawks a full season of a pass rush?
>What if linebacker
D.D. Lewis' shoulder really is repaired and he can begin to put together the kind of season that was expected from him two years ago? And what if safety
Michael Boulware</PERSON> really is ready for stardom?
>This season will open today in <LOCATION>Jacksonville</LOCATION> with your defensive coordinator
Ray Rhodes</PERSON>, back in <LOCATION>Seattle</LOCATION>, recovering from recurring dizzy spells. The lack of defensive success has taken a toll on Rhodes, who takes broken coverages and missed tackles personally.
>Rhodes' health and the hope for a full recovery will be on all of our minds today. But after six seasons, all of which ended in disappointment, there can be no excuses this year.
>It's winning time.
>You keep telling us at the end of every season that the franchise is taking steps forward. But compare your steps to New England's or Philadelphia's.
>It's winning time. No more epidemic of dropped passes. No more disappearing double-digit fourth-quarter leads. No more Januarys that end with a chilly whimper.
>It's time, Mike, to turn <LOCATION>Seattle</LOCATION> into your next <LOCATION>Green Bay</LOCATION>.
>In fact, it's past time. And the storm in <LOCATION>Seattle</LOCATION> is building.
>Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or
skelley@seattletimes.com.
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