Message For Mora: Put It On The Seahawks, Not The Kicker

Jim Mora winced his way through Week Three, occasionally pausing to curse his field-goal kicker. Afterwards, he called out the same man, Olindo Mare, to pin the blame firmly at his door as the Seahawks floundered to 1-2, and losing 25-19 to Chicago. "We're not gonna fight our a** off and have a field-goal kicker go out and lose a game." Indeed this wasn't one of Mare's finer moments in a fourteen-year career. But was it necessary to call out a man who, in all honesty, was only needed due to Seattle inability to put touchdowns on the board? Aside from a fortunate score on their first drive—Julius Jones running through two missed tackles having taken a screen pass—the Seahawks barely troubled Chicago's end zone. One of Seattle's key components on offense, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, gifted the Bears excellent field position with a key fumble which eventually led to a Chicago touchdown. That's seven points, compared to the six Mare missed. ...