Mora: Mare's missed kicks not acceptable
Posted By Eric Williams on September 27, 2009 at 6:00 pm
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Seahawks head coach Jim Mora said the Seahawks have a small margin for error with nine projected starters for the 2009 season not on the field at the end of the game for his team.
He praised quarterback Seneca Wallace, saying he played admirably under the circumstances, keeping plays alive with his legs but making some costly mistakes that could have extended drives for the Seahawks.
However, Mora saved his anger for kicker Olindo Mare, who connected on four of six field goals today, but missed wide left from 43 yards at the end of the first half. Mare also pushed a 34-yarder wide left that would have given Seattle a 16-14 lead midway through the third quarter.
Both kicks were missed heading toward the north end zone, where there's usually a little wind in the kicker's face. But Mora didn't want to hear any excuses.
"If you’re a kicker in the National Football League you should make those kicks – bottom line," Mora said. "End of story. Period. No excuses. No wind, doesn’t matter. You’ve gotta makes those kicks.
“Espcecially in a game like this, where you’re kicking and fighting and scratching your tail off and you miss those kicks, it’s not acceptable. Not acceptable. Absolutely not acceptable."
When asked if he would consider making a change at kicker, Mora said the team will look at making changes everywhere on the team.
“We’re not going to fight our ass off, and have a field goal kicker go out there and miss two field goals and lose a game. It’s not going to happen.”
On the game-winning touchdown by Chicago, when Jay Cutler connected with Devin Hester on a 36-yard slant route for the go-ahead score, Mora said the Seahawks were in man coverage and Hester just made a play, beating cornerback Travis Fisher and avoiding a hit from Deon Grant.
On the third-and-1 call early in the fourth quarter where the Seahawks tried a reverse to Deion Branch that resulted in an 8-yard loss, Mora said he thought it would be a great play for his team, but the Bears were in the right defense on the play.
And on the unsuccessful challenge of wide receiver Johnny Knox's 7-yard touchdown, Mora said he thought he saw Knox's foot touch the white part of the sideline before he got in, and decided himself to challenge.
"I knew that I had a limited chance to get that, but sometimes you challenge to give your team a chance to take a breath," Mora said. "That necessarily wasn't the time, because it was either going to be a touchdown or not. That's what I was thinking right there."
On the injury front, Rob Sims injured his oblique and will be evaluated. Ken Lucas re-aggravated his groin, and Brandon Frye suffered a groin strain but played through the injury.
Mora said things would have gotten interesting if Frye had to go out, because Sims was his backup. So Max Unger would have switched to left tackle, and Steve Vallos would have went in at right guard.
Mora also said Deion Branch served as the team's third quarterback, but only knew a handful of plays. Brian Russell had served as the team's third quarterback in the past in situations like that.
Even though the Seahawks have lost two straight and our 1-2 heading into a game at Indianapolis, Mora said his team is not panicking.
"As gloomy as I feel, I will say this to you," Mora said. "The sky is not falling. We are about to get some really good football players back playing football for us. We just have to weather the storm, and the way you do that is you hang in there together."








Why do I have visions of Dallas Clark trucking over our secondary mutiple times for an NFL record for TE's with Manning easily tossing him the ball. This game coming up scares the hell out of me, obviously it gonna be a loss, Hass out, Eastern Time Zone, ridiculous play calling, 3 and outs, defense hanging in for a minute, but then just can't take it any more. This game could make the Hawks look like more of a joke than what most of people around the league think right now. God I hope I'm wrong. This one's going to be ugly, st8 up.
Well, the good news is that you've just freed your Sunday up to do whatever it is defeatists do. Seriously though, Indy has a great offense that is also playing great, right now, but they're not unbeatable. No one is. There is a reason they play the games and I can guarantee you, win lose or draw, the Seahawks won't be going into Indy scared. Watching the game, we don't need to be either. This game is great opportunity.
Anything can happen, I will still be watching and rooting for the hawks. I'm just nervious it's going to get out of control.