Here's the rest of Holmgren's Monday press conference:

(On deciding to give the players time off…) “I’ve done it both ways. It’s been my experience, if you give them time off, right now they’ve been pushing pretty hard for seven weeks, longer than that, and it’s OK to get away and kind of refresh, recharge the batteries, for players and coaches. ... When I first started and the bye first came into play ... I was afraid of guys getting away from my controlling nature. They would have a tendency to get in trouble or jammed up. Then I found out, over the years, I think that they’ve handled it pretty well for the most part. ... I trust this team. I think it has good leadership. I think it has pretty good maturity so I felt comfortable with it.”

(On getting a win before the bye week…) “Very important for us. I was going to do what I did, I think, anyway but it makes it all a little bit better and we feel a little better about ourselves. It was an important football game in the division.”

(On Matt Hasselbeck's oblique injury) “I think he’s going to be one of those guys that needs treatment but I think he’s OK."

(On Darryl Tapp…) “If he has the surgery the cast he can wear will not be as big and he can function a little bit better. I think you put all that stuff together I’m sure he’s going to decide, I would think he’s going to decide, just to have it fixed."

(On Seahawks 4-3 start to the season…) “We’ve been inconsistent, and you look at the film, any one game, you’ll see some really good things, some things that you scratch your head on because I think they are things we should do better and we’re not, and then you see some really things that have hurt us, badly. I felt our record should be a little bit better than it is now, my good friend Bill Parcells once said ‘you are what you are,’ and our record is what it is. The fact is we are leading the division, the division is close, I really believe our best football, particularly on offense, is ahead of us. Our defense is coming, they’ve shown flashes of being very good.”

(On the running game) “The thing that we’ve struggled with and struggled with yesterday is running the football. I want to say, I just looked at the film again, Shaun Alexander seems to be the lightning rod and I am here to tell that there are times that there is nothing there. We are not blocking very well at this particular point, that must improve, and he has been a little unfairly criticized in my opinion. I’m not going to talk about names, I’m not going to do that with individuals, but we must improve how we are blocking the run, assignment wise, edges, technique, everything to give our guys a chance. When there is something there we gain yards, but a lot of times I am not very happy with that part of it right now, to be honest with you.”

(Is the line's inexperience a factor?) “Partly, but it’s technique, it’s assignments, it’s preparation, it must be a lot of things because I’m reaching the point, other people have been trying to fix this, and I’m trying to delegate a little bit, but after yesterday and after reviewing the film, it’s going to get a little tense around here if I don’t see some improvement.”

(On Deion Branch being on schedule to return against Cleveland…) “I think so, again I haven’t had that meeting, but prior to the game yesterday I was told that was the timetable, and he told me the same thing yesterday.”

(On Marcus Pollard’s injury…) “I believe he is going to have surgery on his knee, and it will be a scope, I don’t think they’re going to find anything real dramatic in there, I hope not. The feeling is that they can go in and scope it that he’ll be ready to go, maybe not for the Cleveland game, but feel real good for the rest of the season."