The Seattle Seahawks have survived a lot of adversity this season. First, they had to deal with the controversy surrounding Joey Galloway's early-season holdout. Now, the Seahawks are trying to put the breaks on a two-game losing streak. Still, Seattle is in first place in the AFC West coming down the stretch.

	Seattle's Jon Kitna has directed his squad to first place in the AFC West.

Seahawks quarterback Jon Kitna, a recent guest of Gary Miller's on ESPN's Up Close, says his team will be fine.

"We realize that we are on a two-game losing streak and the last two teams we have played have played flawlessly," Kitna said. "They have had two penalties between the two teams for 10 yards total. We just picked a bad time to have turnovers, a rash of turnovers the last couple of weeks, 10 total in the last couple of weeks. It just was a bad time."

An edited transcript of Kitna's comments follows.

Miller: After losing two games in a row, what is the mood of the team now?

Kitna: Our attitude is very positive; still, our coach (Mike Holmgren) does a good job keeping it positive. We realize that we are on a two-game losing streak and the last two teams we have played have played flawlessly. They have had two penalties between the two teams for 10 yards total. We just picked a bad time to have turnovers, a rash of turnovers the last couple of weeks, 10 total in the last couple of weeks. It just was a bad time. Coach told us from the beginning of the season that this division was going to come down to the last day or the last week, and that seems to be the case right now; we just got to get right against San Diego this week.

Miller: Do you still think it will come down to the last week?

Kitna: We feel like we can win every game, and this week is no different. Going to play San Diego, we feel like we match up pretty well; they beat us down there, we got a little something to come back and try to get back even with them. We feel like we can win every game and we have four games left. If it does come down to the last week, then so be it, but hopefully it doesn't, you just have to be prepared to battle to the end.

Miller: The Tampa Bay loss, where you threw five interceptions, was very tough for you to get over, wasn't it?

Kitna: Yeah, that was a tough one, but really, once practice started on Wednesday it was out of my system. I don't doubt my abilities at all. The interceptions, sometimes at quarterback those things are going to happen. The ball is in your hands a lot, you just are going to have to play smarter, and take care of the football and get back to the things that I was doing early in the season: make better decisions, get things rolling and understand that if we don't turn the ball over we are going to have a better chance to win. I just have to get back to that.

Miller: What was it like the night after the Tampa Bay game; it was the worst game of your career&

Kitna: It was tough, you want to talk about other things, but you can't think about anything else to talk about, because you are just replaying the game in your mind. That happens to me, win or lose, but you don't want to talk about the negative things. You just have to take the good with the bad in this league, understand that 16 games is a long season, and you are going to have little bumps in the road like this. You try to minimize them, don't let them linger on and move on from it.

Miller: What did it mean to you to have Mike Holmgren come in and tell you that it was going to be your team to lead?

Kitna: I was excited when he got hired as a coach and general manager and all the other titles he has. I was excited about it, because of the history that he has, not just with the quarterbacks individually, but with the teams, because they win. He brings a different attitude, so I was excited. He never came out and said, "this is going to be your team." He just said, "be ready to compete," and that was the only thing I was looking for: an opportunity to compete, and once that was secure and I had a chance, I felt fine about my chances. That is all you can ask for in this league, especially from where I came from. I was just excited to absorb everything he can say, and I'm sure there were times that he got tired of me asking him questions, but it has been a lot of fun so far and hopefully it will be a fun relationship.

Miller: Did he make you watch a lot of Packers tapes?

Kitna: Not really, you know, we went back and watched a lot of them ourselves, just because that's the best way to learn the offense, to look at what it is supposed to look like. You have your own little pre-conceived ideas of what a play is supposed to look like, but when you go back and watch the Packers and the success that they have had on certain plays, you say, "Wow, this guy is always open on this play, but we don't ever seem to find him." You start to look for these things, and watching Brett Favre and the way he executes the offense in six or seven years, it was a lot of fun to see that.

Miller: What does Holmgren say that is different than most coaches say, and what will he say this week going into the San Diego game?

Kitna: Well, we haven't met with him too much, just Monday a little bit and we just kind of re-hashed from the Raider game. He just really focuses on the positives and takes the positives out of every situation. Understand, you don't really have to kick us right now, because we have lost two and it has put us back and kind of humbled us a little bit. We've just got to get ready to kick it in gear at the right time and peak at the right time. We have said it all the way up to this point, we don't feel like we have played our best football yet. Coach doesn't mind when we go into Green Bay Monday night, knowing that a lot of us haven't played on Monday night or haven't played in Green Bay: he said, "Enjoy it, it is going to be an atmosphere like you have never seen before& Green Bay is a totally different place, take that in, but understand that we are there to do a job." He just sets everything on the table, he doesn't try to hide things, he doesn't try to pull any punches, he just puts it right on the table and challenges you.

Miller: How has Holmgren dealt with the feeling of Deja December with the players? The Seahawks recent history has been to fade down the stretch.

Kitna: I don't think that's a prevailing attitude on our team at all. Really, I think that anything that might have been said was just in a frustration of a loss. I don't think anybody truly believes that, on our team, I think everybody knows that the attitude is totally different on our team now. We know that going into each game, we have a chance to win; that wasn't always the case here, this little bump in the road shouldn't make us doubt ourselves at all. As I said, we played two teams that executed to a T and they did everything they had to do, every chance they had to make a turnover, they did. Any loose ball they got their hands on, they didn't make any turnovers, they didn't have any penalties, and we just picked a bad time to have our worst games. We've got a lot of confidence in Coach Holmgren, he is going to come out and ride this ship and we are going to just be on board and sail right along with him. I don't think anybody is doubting that, and coach just came out last game and said, "If anybody has any doubts, don't. We are in this together, we are going to do it, and the thing we have to realize that, at the beginning of the season, if somebody would have told us that after twelve games we would have a one-game lead, we would have been perfectly happy." So you can't get caught up in the last two weeks, we just have to understand that this is just a little low we went through and we still have a one-game lead and we've just got to get right against San Diego and be ready to push at the end of the season.

Miller: Tell us the story of the circuitous route you took to get to the NFL.

Kitna: The most unusual road I think. Coach (Dennis) Erickson's nephew played for us at running back my senior year (at Central Washington) and coach (Erickson) came to a couple games. I don't think he saw anything special there, or anything to hang his hat on. He brought us in to work us out a couple weeks before the draft and he was just trying to do us a favor. There were other scouts in town at the University of Washington and he wanted to give us a shot with somebody. He invited all the scouts over to the complex to work us out, and we are sitting around for about two hours and nobody showed up, not even his own scouts. So then he came downstairs himself with the running back coach, and they worked us out that day. After about a hour of throwing to his young son, who I believe was about 15 at the time, just standing there in spots out there on the field. He decided to bring me in for another workout a couple weeks later with actual receivers there, and all the offensive coaches were there. Then they signed me as a free agent after the draft.

Miller: Do you feel some strong allegiance towards Dennis Erickson?

Kitna: Well I wouldn't have been in the NFL if it wasn't for coach Erickson. I would have been fine with that, but I am very grateful to him for giving me the opportunity and for seeing something that nobody else saw. My first training camp, I didn't even deserve to stay on the team, I had a rough time. It was hard for me to adjust: I had a hard time even standing there playing catch with Joey Galloway and just guys like that. I had never been around anything like that. We didn't have TV or anybody coming out to our games at Central. We figured 5,000 was a packed stadium, and we would be working on hand signals and things because the receivers couldn't hear you. It was something I never expected, but coach Erickson gave me opportunity. I really felt like one could play and it was just a matter getting comfortable. From day one he said, "Just come in and relax the worst case scenario, you will be on practice squad. Then he sent me over to the World League and that is where everything kicked off.

Miller: What happened with John Elway on the field after a game last year?

Kitna: There are not many guys who play professional sports and especially in football. I'm not a big autograph seeker, and I don't put a lot of guys on pedestals, and there are not a lot of guys I look up to, but John Elway was one of them. Growing up in Seattle, it's tough to say that 'cause he kicked our butt a lot of times. But he was just somebody I really felt like, that I wanted to get his autograph, and you never know when you are going to have another opportunity. I thought it would be neat for my son to see. At the end of the game, I took a ball out there and my own Sharpie, which I got from one of the equipment guys. (Seahawks QB) John Friesz gave me a bad time about that and he really could not believe that and said he hadn't taught me anything. That is just kind of the person I am, really.

Miller: What was it like being without your star player, Joey Galloway, for most of the year?

Kitna: The thing is that Derrick (Mayes), Sean (Dawkins), and Mike Pritchard played so well all year, and then you have Joey coming in. We just have to find ways to get him integrated, and you don't necessary want to take balls away from Derrick and Sean 'cause they have played so well. You also have to understand that Joey is a game-breaker and you want to find different ways to get him the ball. The good thing is we have a really good coaching staff, and coach Holmgren is going to find ways to give him the ball. This past week, we had a couple special plays just for him& I think he makes everyone better he makes every phase of our offense better, the running game and the passing game, everything, because of him and having him on the field.