Making the Grade By Getting a 'D'

To fill the void at middle linebacker, Ruskell stunned everyone in football trading up in the second round and drafting USC's Lofa Tatupu, a player who had been targeted as a third-round pick at best. He also chose outside linebacker Leroy Hill in the third round, a choice that barely drew any notice.

But as it turns out, both players are starting and Tatupu has become the long-lost leader in the middle of the defense.

Suddenly the team that everyone could run on with ease has the fifth-best rushing defense. Teams are still able to throw on the Seahawks, but part of that is because of midseason injuries to Dyson and fellow cornerback Marcus Trufant. And by stopping enough of their opponents' running games, they have forced teams to attempt to convert long third downs, thus preventing the long defensive stands it seemed Seattle was always making.

There's a new attitude in practices. Haskell notices it in the way the defense now harasses his players, knocking balls from their hands, intercepting passes rather than just shadowing receivers.

They have done all this without changing schemes, leaving the same base defense designed by defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes -- only Rhodes is no longer coaching them. Earlier in the year he suffered two health problems, one later described as a mild stroke, the other as hypertension. Holmgren told Rhodes, who was the Redskins' defensive coordinator in 2000, to cut back his hours and put the defense in the hands of linebackers coach John Marshall.

If such a thing might have ruined last year's unit, it barely fazed this group. If anything, it got better in Rhodes's absence, putting up shutouts on "Monday Night Football" in Philadelphia and against San Francisco on consecutive weeks in December.

For a team that couldn't stop anybody in previous years, this was a startling statistic.

A one-sided team no more.