By Mike Kahn
CBS SportsLine Executive Editor
Nov. 5, 1998

SEATTLE -- They are on opposite sides at the line of scrimmage, but they might as well be looking into a mirror.

As

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the second half of the NFL season begins Sunday for the Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs, one team is going to leave the Kingdome hanging on in the playoff hunt. The loser can begin making off-season plans.

Nobody would have figured either of these two talent-laden squads would be in such dire straits at this point of the season unless Mark Knopfler was playing quarterback for the Chiefs instead of some guy named Elvis (Grbac) and the Man in the Moon was quarterbacking the 'Hawks as opposed to Warren Moon.

"Yeah, the obvious disappointment is we're 4-4," Chiefs coach Marty Schottenheimer said. "The real issue isn't where we are right now, but -- more importantly -- where we want to go and where we're going to go."

THE RHETORIC SPUN OUT OF CONTROL from there in the form of cliches that only come from experienced coach-ese. Schottenheimer is a classic, although he was indeed correct with the reality that many teams start out hot the first half of the season fizzle and there are others who struggle, then get hot. That's the nature of sports. Nonetheless, the Seahawks and Chiefs figure to be two of the grandest underachieving teams in the NFL at midseason.

The difference between the two is, Schottenheimer still has job security. There might be some discontent among the fans there, and yet there is this fixture status of Schottenheimer. His Midwestern roots from Pittsburgh fit in Kansas City, and he has been a fine regular season coach, despite underachieving in the playoffs.

That's not the case with Dennis Erickson. In the fourth year of a five-year deal that new owner Paul Allen and president Bob Whitsitt inherited from the Ken Behring regime, Erickson is 27-29. A local native of nearby Everett and former coach at Washington State, his early popularity has waned with such mediocrity.

More important, Allen and Whitsitt have drained reams of money into this team. His first two years, there wasn't talent. Now there is. It's big time. Along with that ingestion of money and talent come big-time expectations. The only problem is there has been no improvement, which points the finger directly at the coach.

"There's always pressure and that's the way it is," Erickson said. "Obviously, we're in a situation now with the pressure where there doesn't get much more than this. That's part of the game and now we have to fight our way out of it. You can't worry about the pressure.

"You always have concerns. I think the biggest thing is you can't worry about that. There's speculation out there. I can read. People have speculation and opinion. That doesn't bother me. Everybody has an opinion. All I can do as Dennis Erickson is do my job, and that's to coach this football team and get them ready to play this game. I don't even worry about that (making the playoffs) right now. I'm worried about winning the fifth game."

BOTH COACHES ARE FOCUSED ON THIS game, as well they should be. The similarities with regard to what's wrong are startling in many respects.

Both

There have been too many down moments for Greg Favors and the rest of the Chiefs. (AP)

teams have big-play defenses, with the Chiefs more consistent if only because of tradition and experience. The starting quarterbacks for both teams -- Grbac and Moon -- each have been out of kilter because of injuries. Adding to that inconsistency has been awful running games. The Chiefs are 10th and the Seahawks 12th out of the 15 teams in the AFC.

A more telling statistic is third-down efficiency. The Chiefs are tied for last at 29.8 percent, and the Seahawks are one slot ahead at 30.1. There is no confidence in either offense, and that has been apparent all along.

The good news for one of these teams is somebody has to win Sunday. This game is particularly essential for the Seahawks, who play three of their next four games on the road and all three against teams with winning records. Seattle's four victories are against teams that are a combined 9-23.

The first week of October in Kansas City, the Chiefs prevailed 17-6 in a monsoon both coaches called an aberration. But after Sunday's 31-18 loss to the Raiders in the Kingdome, players and coaches began to show a severe case of unrest. Erickson called this week's game with the Chiefs "double do or die."

"I was just looking for something to say actually," he said, tongue-in-cheek, hoping to break the tension. "I mean, it's a key game. The winner gives himself a pretty good chance. The loser digs himself into a hole that some miraculous things are going to have to happen.

"I don't feel real good about this right now. Obviously we expected more. We let some games get away from us, so we backed ourselves into a corner. We're at the halfway point, and we'll see what happens when we've got our backs to the wall. There's eight football games left and we've got some time to straighten some things out. We've got to quit talking about it and get it done. We've had a lot of opportunities and now we're playing a team that's a good football team that's in the same situation we are."

At least for now. Sunday it will change. It might be a tad premature, and yet it wouldn't be a reach to say Erickson's future beyond this season is riding on it.

"That's for the media to say," Erickson said.

And ownership to consider.