Maybe they’re not that good

SEATTLE — To illustrate how dreadful Seattle played in a 38-9 loss to Buffalo on Sunday, consider that the Seahawks were booed three times by a justifiably restless Qwest Field crowd … on their first scoring drive.

It was that bad.

It was Miami multiplied, an Arizona encore and a 60-minute version of the fourth quarter October meltdown against St. Louis. It triggered multiple rounds of boos from the fans, at least the few who opted to stick around. The stands emptied in the second half faster than you could say, “Who’s in charge of this mess?”

That would be Mike Holmgren, whose team opened the season 3-0 but now sits at 6-5 and is fading faster than Matt Hasselbeck’s passer rating and Holmgren’s coaching reputation.

“This was as poor an outing as we’ve had in quite a while,” Holmgren said. “I am embarrassed by it. I didn’t do enough this week, clearly, to get our team prepared to play. It showed on the field.”

Actually, the Seahawks were no-shows on the field. They weren’t ready to play. They didn’t catch well-thrown passes and they couldn’t make the tough catches that Buffalo’s receivers did on numerous occasions. They couldn’t block Buffalo’s front four.

They couldn’t stop the run or put pressure on Bills quarterback Drew Bledsoe. They were asleep on an on-side kick to open the second half.

They lost the coin flip and promptly kicked the ball out of bounds. Then they were caught off guard by Buffalo’s no-huddle offense on the first series. New punter Ken Walter booted a 29-yarder on his first punt. He got booed, too.

“Every man that stepped on that field should be embarrassed,” Seahawks center Robbie Tobeck said.

Tobeck dismissed the suggestion that Seattle came out with no emotion.

“That’s a bunch of crap in my opinion,” he said. “I don’t know what everybody means by ‘oh, there’s no fire or this or that.’ It’s execution, nothing more, nothing less. We should be ashamed and embarrassed and it’s our own making.

“We didn’t execute, no one was confused. They did what we expected and I thought actually less than I expected them to do. But they didn’t have to do anything because we didn’t execute and we weren’t going to beat them.”

Probed further, Tobeck said something is getting lost in transition — from last year to this year, from the practice field to Qwest Field.

“No question we know what it takes,” he said. “What gets me sometimes is I don’t know if we think (because) we were sixth in the league (on offense) last year (that) all we need to do is turn it on. No, it doesn’t work that way. You don’t turn it on and off. It has to be something you live, something that you believe and you do day in, day out. I just feel that sometimes we don’t do that.

“We practice hard and usually our practices are pretty good. It’s that deal of carrying it from Kirkland to wherever we’re playing on Sunday.”

Some of that heavy lifting has to come from Holmgren. He has directed some of the best offenses in NFL history, but the Seahawks haven’t taken flight after a promising 2003 season. Same goes for Hasselbeck, who seems to lack confidence and is regressing on a weekly basis. He’s not completely healthy, but who is in Week 12?

“When the game starts, it doesn’t matter if you’re hurt, it doesn’t matter if you’re banged up,” said Hasselbeck, bothered by a deep thigh bruise. “You just have to find a way. I wasn’t good enough today. I wish I felt better; I don’t. There are a lot of guys in the NFL that probably feel the exact same way I do, so I’m not going to use that as an excuse.”

Holmgren didn’t sugarcoat his analysis, either. Asked about Hasselbeck’s performance, the coach said, “I don’t think there was much good that took place by anybody today.”

Asked about the remaining five games, Holmgren was realistic.

“We have reached the point of the season where there are a lot of teams clumped together,” he said. “Some will take off, some will wallow around and finish where they are and some will drop off the cliff. My personal feeling is that our goals are still reachable, but not the way we played today.”

Holmgren has always been a believer that, in the end, teams finish precisely where they should.

“We have five games left and we’ll probably still be tied for the division lead or maybe even have a lead,” he said. “Right now that doesn’t mean a lot to me. Right now, we just got it handed to us. You can’t beat anybody the way we played. Nobody.

“At the end of the season you have a certain record. It’s always been my experience that that’s the team you are. Regardless of what people think you are or how they elevate you or knock you down, at the end of the season that’s what it will be.”

Nearing the tail end of Holmgren’s sixth season in Seattle, the Seahawks have yet to win a playoff game and his record is 47-44.

In his words, the record speaks for itself.