Recent Stories with tag jim mora

We had a short holiday week here on The SunBreak, but the news never stops--tragically, in the case of the double homicide on Beacon Hill that left a mother and her daughter dead, and the father, Daniel Thomas Hicks, the lead suspect.

The place to go for unsavory details on WaMu's demise continues to be the Puget Sound Business Journal: "Documents released by JPMorgan in response to the subpoena now show that JPMorgan had a plan to acquire WaMu from regulators more than two months before the government signaled it planned to seize and sell the Seattle thrift." Meanwhile, Nordstrom's is consolidating its Seattle office space in the old WaMu tower, a big win for the Seattle Art Museum, and Seattle in general, says Jon Talton.

Ironically, the Boeing Philip M. Condit Professor of Business Administration at the UW's Foster School of Business, Dick Nolan, argued that Boeing's global outsourcing strategy may have been a huge competitive mistake.

The weather hasn't stopped, but it does seem on a break, with what Cliff Mass calls a "classic mid-winter ridge" creating dry, low wind conditions. Local areas are seeing a good deal of morning fog, and in fact Mass advises you to book your SeaTac flights late in the day this time of year, to avoid fog delays.

In local health karma, an unvaccinated King County woman contracted measles after a trip abroad: "People who might have been exposed to the disease would be expected to develop the characteristic skin rash of measles December 18th and January 10." Most of you have been vaccinated and have nothing to worry about.

Fueling our transit obsession, Mayor-elect Mike McGinn let drop that he's considering putting a light rail extension up to a vote in 2010. The Seattle Transit Blog approves. They also have the rundown on new transit fares and payment options in 2010: As of January 1, "all King County Metro fares (except for the ages 6-18 fare) will go up 25 cents. For most of us that means $2.00 off-peak, $2.25 one-zone peak, $2.75 two-zone peak."...

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The trials of life are supposed to lead us to greater heights. I like how Scottish crank Thomas Carlyle put it: "Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with."

When adversity comes to Seahawks head coach Jim Mora, he reacts by uttering nonsense, blaming others, and, lately, trying to rewrite history. He's no jewel. Unless you're talking about nose gold.

Mora, with his hat pulled low after Sunday's loss. If I were him, I'd try to hide too

After an ugly loss to one-win Tampa Bay on Sunday, in a game even the Bucs coach didn't think his team could win, Mora was in full backtrack mode.

"We were a four-win team last year," Mora said in his post-game media remarks, adding in some finger thrusts for effect. "Let's not lose track of that folks. We were a Four. Win. Team." (Actually he said "four team win," but we know what he meant.)

Funny, I seem to remember thinking that Mora was never going use 2008 as an excuse. I wonder why I would've thought that?

"I'm ready to officially shut the door on 2008 and never talk about it again."--Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke, January 2009.

Oh right, that's why. Mora's first press conference as Seahawks coach, when he, GM Tim Ruskell, and Leiweke told fans to forget about the '08 debacle and gird up for a run at the playoffs. Said Leiweke: "We believe we're gonna regain our winning ways, the excitement in this building is real, and you're gonna feel it every game next year."

Said Mora in that January press conference: "Every single year is about winning the world championship."

Said Mora after Sunday's game: "We had a chance to double our win total."

Huh?

Mora then: "We're not going to rebuild."

Mora now: "We're in the stages of trying to build something that was broken."

Wha?

Mora then: "We're going to develop a scheme that fits our players."

Mora yesterday: "It takes time to come up with schemes that work for your players."

Zuu?

Hasselbeck: No hat, no blame game

Perhaps Mora was shielding us from the truth (aka, lying) in January. Maybe he knew that the Seahawks didn't have the talent, and that his schemes wouldn't work right away. In that case, why is he blaming his players?

Alternately, maybe Mora really did think that the Seahawks had the talent to win, and that his schemes would work. In fact, the players suck, and the schemes suck. So why hasn't Mora taken responsibility?

To see how a real leader handles adversity, you just had to wait at the presser until Matt Hasselbeck took the podium. Hasselbeck made his share of mistakes in the game: a foolish lateral attempt recovered by the Bucs and four interceptions. But three of those interceptions were on passes to Deion Branch. Branch fell down on the first, leaving the ball for a Bucs defender. Did Hass try to shift blame to the hopelessly inept Branch? Not a chance.

"I just feel like I let a lot of people down today," he said. "It's my fault. It's on me and I'll improve." Now there's a jewel.

I'll leave it to the Bible to sum Mora up: "If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small."

During the waning moments of the Seahawks' atrocious loss Sunday to one-win Tampa Bay--perhaps the worst home defeat in team history--my friends and I proposed possible post-game press conference questions for Jim Mora.

We all hoped someone might ask about the playoffs, in hopes of inspiring a repeat of Jim Mora Sr.'s famed rant. David had a suggestion: "This isn't really a question, but...I hate you? You ruined my fall?"

But for me, this is the one question I really would love to see Mora answer. Verbatim from Office Space:

Mora's post-game comments made no sense

Seahawks head coach Jim Mora after yesterday's 34-7 loss to Houston: “We're going to take a microscope and look at everything.”

Huh?

Let's leave aside the fact that looking "at everything" is an utterly insane way to manage an organization. Say you really were going to try it. Is a microscope really the best tool?

Mora's Seahawks are a disaster, and he seems to have no idea why. "We practiced well, we were ready to go, we came out and we got off to a horrible start," he told reporters after the game.

Actually, Mora did single out one possible scapegoat, center Chris Spencer, who is playing with a cast on his right hand, forcing him to snap with his non-dominant left. Spencer caused three muffed exchanges in the game.

"I’m not quite sure why he still has a cast on his hand--but he does," said Mora (video).

You don't know why your starting center has a cast on his hand? Doesn't that seem like important information?

"We're going to find out who deserves to be part of the process going forward," Mora said.

Mora himself is probably not among that group.

"I can't see Jim Mora escaping such an embarrassing loss," writes John Morgan of Field Gulls. "It was always unlikely Mora would stay.... [Mora] has not earned much respect in his short time here. Fiery is fine. I see desperation. The look of a man that thinks he can yell his way out of failure."

"Mora won't fool me anymore," writes the Seattlepi.com's Jim Moore. "I can already hear him after the Seahawks beat Tampa Bay next Sunday. He'll be talking about positive steps that were taken against the Buccaneers--never mind that Tampa Bay is 1-12."

"Even if the Seahawks are playing hard, they're not competing with purpose." writes the Times' Jerry Brewer. "They have neither grasped nor fully embraced the new offensive and defensive schemes. The coach and his staff must accept some blame for that."...

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Ruskell: GM for the Seahawks' only Super Bowl season

Seahawks president Tod Leiweke: "Quite simply, we didn't win enough games."

Dave Boling, Tacoma News-Tribune: "The scouting report on Ruskell is that he had some big hits on some draft guys, especially Lofa Tatupu, Leroy Hill, Brandon Mebane, Josh Wilson and others. But his first-round picks have been mostly disappointments, as have some of the aging free agents or trades brought on board in the past few seasons. Yes, injuries have been a factor in the recent decline. But it's fairly clear the Seahawks don't have enough talent on the roster to be competitive. That’s on Ruskell."

Jim Mora: "My heart goes out to Tim and his family. Tim's a good man, and a good football man. And I'm disappointed that we couldn't perform better and give him the help that he needed."

Chris Sullivan, Seahawks Addicts: "[Ruskell] had been so hellbent on 'cleaning out the locker room' and filling it with 'leaders' and "character guys' that we now have a charity softball team playing in the NFL."

Tim Ruskell: "We did turn this culture around, and we got people to believe in themselves. We realized the value of everybody. So that was a great thing. I think that had a profound effect on how the team performed, because of the atmosphere."

Nate Burleson: "We're all family. So when you have a family member leaving it's tough to deal with."

John Morgan, Field Gulls: "Losing Ruskell does not bother me much. If it was my decision to make, I would consider doing the same thing....In business, one must be ruthless. Whether Ruskell could build an offense or not, it was never known to be his strength. Hiring an offensive specialist, just as Ruskell was hired as a defensive specialist, is a practical, considered maneuver."

Steve Kelley, Seattle Times: "We can list all of Ruskell's draft mistakes and free-agent blunders, but the philosophy that mattered most, the belief that sealed his no-deal, was his idea that announcing Holmgren's heir apparent, the season before Holmgren was gone, would lead to a seamless transition....[The Seahawks] changed the offensive and defensive schemes. They changed their approaches to practice. They changed the culture of the team. And it didn't work."

Deion Branch: "I think all this stuff falls back on the players. He's done everything he possibly can to put this team together and to line things up the right way as far as people put all the blame on him, I think that's wrong." (Catches one yard pass, falls out of bounds, jumps up and shouts into camera.)...

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Ruskell: Quitting

News came last night that Tim Ruskell will resign as general manager of the Seattle Seahawks at 10 a.m. news conference.

One reporter has already spoken to Ruskell, ESPN's Mike Sando. Sando reports that Ruskell left because he hadn't had his contract renewed yet, and felt that was affecting his ability to do his job.

"We were getting ready to go into those meetings about free agency and the offseason. If I am not going to spearhead those meetings and it wasn't going to happen no matter what our record was, you become a lame duck. And I did not want that."

Sando says he thinks the Seahawks will promote someone on an interim basis for the rest of the season (as the Mariners did after Bill Bavasi's firing in '08) and commence a wider search in the off-season.

I'll have more tomorrow, once the sports literati weighs in, but a few thoughts:

1) This is bad news for Jim Mora. A new GM will arrive with his own ideas on how to run a team, which may not mesh with Mora's defense-and-running-game philosophy. Mora has three years after this one left on his contract, but another losing season and he'll be gone. Under Ruskell he would've had a longer leash.

2) It's bad news for some Seahawks players, especially small fast ones. Ruskell's defensive philosophy is based on speed; guys like Kelly Jennings and Josh Wilson may not fit in a new GM's scheme.

3) Will the Hawks go for an offensive mind now? It was clear that Ruskell's hiring was an attempt to get a defense-building expert in the fold after so many years of Holmgren's offensive needs dominating the organizational mindset. Now with the defensive-minded Mora as head coach, will the Hawks look for an offense guy? (The most obvious name that comes to mind, of course, is one Mike Holmgren.)

Didn't start out so well--the Seahawks began yesterday's game down 17 points after a fumble, interception, and failed fourth down conversion gave the Lions' three chances in Seahawks' territory.

Then Matt Hasselbeck brought the Hawks back, delivering one of the finest performances ever by a Seahawks quarterback.

Hasselbeck completed 39 passes, breaking his own franchise record. He had a string of 15 completions in a row. He threw balls that led receivers into space. He dumped balls at their feet when they weren't open. It was a masterful, intelligent Sunday of work, made all the more impressive because Hasselbeck is playing with a broken rib.

Said coach Jim Mora of Hasselbeck: "He showed his true leadership to me. He showed everything that he is. I don't know if I have any more respect for any player that I've ever coached than I have for Matt Hasselbeck."

Video!

 

 

After Detroit got their 17-0 lead, Hasselbeck lead the Hawks to scores on six of their next seven drives. The defense...

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Seahawks head coach Jim Mora threatened his players' jobs after Sunday's loss to Dallas. Hoo boy, accountability was going to be a bitch for many underperforming Seahawks.

I wondered which players GM Tim Ruskell would deem responsible for this season's 2-5 start: Deion Branch, the multimillion-dollar receiver with just fifteen catches? Darryl Tapp, the pass-rush specialist who's recorded just one sack? Lofa Tatupu, the supposed team leader whose been outshone by his backup?

Yesterday the axe fell, and the following heads were pulled out of baskets: Two backups and a special teamer.

Um. I feel a rant coming on...

Here's the thing -- if you preach accountability, you need to hold the correct people accountable. Not just a random selection of guys who barely play. On a list of people responsible for the Seahawks' dismal start, the three guys they cut today would be somewhere beneath Ken Behring and Sea Gal Lindsay.

If team management doesn't want to hold anyone accountable for the team's performance, they themselves...

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There seemed some reason for optimism yesterday as the Seahawks got one of their top players back from injury. Cornerback Marcus Trufant's back was healed enough for him to play against Dallas. He probably wishes he'd taken another week. Trufant picked up three pass interference penalties trying to defend Dallas' receiver Miles "Always Smilin'" Austin, who still ended up with a touchdown catch. The Seahawks lost 38-17.

The only trouble Austin encountered all day was on his attempted "dunk" attempt of the football over the ten-foot-high crossbar after his touchdown catch--Austin didn't quite have the ups to make it and flipped the ball over the bar at the last second.

By the end of the game, Trufant was getting inside help on Austin, which is not the scenario you envision for a guy with a six-year, $50 million contract.

Meanwhile, the Seahawks offense was fighting itself. T.J. Houshmandzadeh's frustrations at not being more of a focal point in the offense have reached the "openly-second-guessing-his-quarterback" point. At this point, Hasselbeck apparently has to explain after every play why he didn't throw to Housh.

"He needs to get in line," Jim Mora said of Houshmandzadeh.

The bright spot for the Seahawks was the play of middle linebacker David "The Heater" Hawthorne. Taking over for the injured Lofa Tatupu, Hawthorne played like the Tatupu of old, recording five tackles, two sacks, and forcing a fumble. At this rate Tatupu may end up getting Wally Pipped....

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When I tell you that the highlight of the Seattle sports weekend was giving a standing ovation to a third-place team, you may think it wasn't much of a weekend. But it was epic, notably for our sports teams getting the worst Indiana lambasting since the Kerry campaign.

Notre Dame 37, Washington 30 (OT)

As I headed to Teddy's to watch Washington vs. Notre Dame (live from South Bend, Indiana), I wondered exactly how empty the bandwagon would be. Coming off the USC win, the bar was packed for Stanford. But after losing that game, how would it look? Let's let pictures tell the story:

Crowd at Teddy's for UW/Stanford

Crowd at Teddy's for UW/Notre Dame

So--yeah, Seattle sports fans, you are some fairweather sons of bitches. And you missed an amazing game, one that will always be remembered for the stunning inability of the Huskies to score one touchdown from twelve tries inside the one-yard-line. If you have a Husky fan at your office, I recommend putting his morning coffee three feet behind a white line and see...

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Matt Hasselbeck dove toward the end zone during Sunday's game at San Francisco. As he did, 6-1, 240 lb., 24-year-old San Francisco linebacker Patrick Willis charged into his back.

Like Matt Hasselbeck, I am in my early 30s, and I will tell you what would happen if a 6-1, 240 lb. 24-year-old charged into me. I would start to be a little more discerning in my dating choices. Ha! No, seriously, I would lie on the ground until the sun absorbed the earth.

Hasselbeck sent this photo via Twitter

Hasselbeck, who is a football player and a Republican, not a writer and Obama supporter like me, actually stood up. He put his hands to his head, signaling that he was coming out of the game. Then he motioned more frantically with his hands that his replacement should arrive. Then, he collapsed into the arms of Seahawks trainers. It was terrifying.

The Hawks' QB didn't play the rest of the game, but afterwards sent a halfway reassuring Tweet to fans. "Going to be alright," it read, and was accompanied by the photo at right....

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Jim Mora attained his first win as Seahawks coach, and even more important than beating a division rival was demonstrating to his players that he and his staff have a winning plan.

"When you ask players to do something new," Mora said after the game, "when you ask them to practice a different way, focus on different things--when you can come away with an impressive performance like our defense did today then guys start to buy in a little bit. And they buy in a little bit more every time that happens. So you gain credibility. And as a coach, credibility with your players is extremely important--very important."

 

The game didn't start out looking like either team would emerge with credibility. Perhaps Qwest Field suffered from lingering putridity left over from Saturday's awful Wazzu/Hawaii game, which featured 11 turnovers and 19 penalties. Sunday's Seahawks/Rams game started with the Rams fumbling the kickoff, and the Seahawks added a fumble and two interceptions of their own by the end of the first quarter.

I watched the game with a Seahawks-fan-heavy crowd at Teddy's on Roosevelt, and they seemed to be in a wait-and-see approach after last year's debacle. People were waiting for the team to show them something. In the final three quarters, they did.

The Seahawks shut the Rams out despite being without talented linebacker Leroy Hill (groin injury) for almost the entire game, and without Lofa Tatupu (hamstring injury) for most of it. Backups Will Herring and David Hawthorne took over, and the defense didn't suffer at all. Said Mora: "I think one of the indicators is, do you notice a drop off when new guys take the field? Quite frankly, I didn’t notice a drop off in play.”

High praise for Herring and Hawthorne, and perhaps a wake-up call for Tatupu and Hill, both of whom underachieved last year. Neither's injury was considered serious, though we'll know more today.

On offense, the new Seahawks regime showed a commitment to getting the ball to the team's most talented offensive players--something that didn't happen in Mike Holmgren's scheme. Nate Burleson had seven catches, tying his career-high as a Seahawk, and John Carlson savaged the Rams' secondary with 6 catches for 95 yards and 2 TDs. If you have John Carlson on your fantasy team, you are almost assuredly a winner this week (unless you also have Jay Cutler).

Matt Hasselbeck had a very shaky start--four of his first six passes were touched by Rams defenders--but he settled in and finished with 25 completions on 36 passes for 279 yards and 3 TDs.

If there was a dark cloud, it was the Seahawks running game. Yes, Julius Jones had 117 yards, but most of that came on one 62-yard TD carry. Take away that run and Jones had just 55 yards on 18 carries, barely a 3-yard-per-carry average. Edgerrin James was worse, getting just 30 yards on 11 carries. The Seahawks' top backs must be able to run the ball better.

Next week, the Hawks will play at undefeated San Francisco in an early battle for division supremacy. The winner will hold a one-game lead in the NFC West race.