Hawks Notebook | Fixing miscues the special way
KIRKLAND - Mike Holmgren made sure his team understood the importance of good special-teams play this week after a series of mistakes Monday night, two of which cost the Seahawks six points.
Two Josh Brown made field goals were wiped off the board with a holding penalty on tight end Will Heller and a false start on center Chris Spencer. Also, linebacker Niko Koutouvides was flagged for fair-catch interference, moving the ball up 15 yards after a short punt.
Holmgren fumed on the sideline after the penalties on the field goals. The Seahawks won 24-0, but special teams was a hot topic.
“Any time you’re in a close ballgame, the Cleveland game or any game, three or four other games we played last year where Josh [Brown] kicked field goals to win the game,” Holmgren said, “what if one of those things would have happened last year in those games we had won? You’d be sick about it.”
Holmgren said he had to let the team know he was not happy about the errors.
“You can’t just say, ‘Oh, well,’ because we won the game, you can’t let it slide by,” Holmgren said. “I was very unhappy with how we did a number of things in that game.”
Holmgren added that he didn’t like how long snapper Boone Stutz snapped the ball, and that return man Nate Burleson has to understand that he can’t catch a punt inside the 10-yard line, which he did Monday in the first quarter when he made a fair catch at the 6.
“You have a rule. Don’t field a punt inside the 10-yard line,” Holmgren said. “You can say what you want about aggression, the want-to [make a big play]. It’s exciting but no, no. It’s like parents and children. I am the adult. You are the kid. These are the rules; do it that way.”
“There’s times where I might say, ‘Golly, I should have fair-caught that, or I should have let that one go,’ ” Burleson said. “But then there’s times when I take that risk, boom, 94 yards, big play for my team. It’s just one of those things you really have to balance out and use discernment, but it comes with time.”
Weaver lauded
Holmgren singled out fullback Leonard Weaver for his good blocking Monday. Weaver’s best block of the night might have been the one he delivered on the Seahawks’ first drive of the game, in which he physically lifted a 49ers defender off his feet on a play-action pass that was completed to Burleson for 12 yards on third-and-two.
“He’s a tough guy and he’s a big man, but he really hasn’t played a lot of football,” Holmgren said of Weaver. “I think as he plays and gains more confidence, he can deal with a tongue-lashing on occasion. He’s growing up, and it shows.”
Remember the Bears
The Bears and Seahawks are the two most recent NFC champions, but Chicago has fallen on some hard times this season at 4-5 entering its game with Seattle Sunday.
“I know we have a bull’s-eye on our chest right now. Everybody seems to get up and play better for us,” Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher said.
The Seahawks lost twice to the Bears last season, one a 37-6 blowout in the regular season and the other a bitter 27-24 overtime loss in the NFC Divisional playoffs at Soldier Field. Those games are still in the Seahawks’ memories.
“But it’s nothing that we’re looking to use as a momentum game,” wide receiver Deion Branch said. “It’s in the past … That team went to the Super Bowl last year. I don’t know their record, but it’s not what it was last year. And we’re not where we want to be, but we’re working and progressing.”
Note
• LB Leroy Hill (hamstring) practiced Thursday, his first practice of the week. He missed Monday’s game
Jose Miguel Romero: jromero@seattletimes.com