The Seahawks are indeed on the cusp of getting almost everybody back healthy, but a return to winning after they complete their bye week is not guaranteed.

The Seahawks have one of the most difficult schedules in the league hereafter, the reason they wanted to get out to a strong start at the beginning of the season.

Instead, they went 1-2, losing to NFC West rival San Francisco, as they head into the meat of their schedule.

They return from their bye week to face the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants, who have started the season 3-0. On top of that, the Seahawks have to travel to New York, and they have a history of struggling when they travel three time zones away, as evidenced by the 34-10 loss they had in Buffalo in the season opener.

In fact, three of Seattle's next six games are on the East Coast, including games in Tampa Bay and Miami, about as far as the Seahawks can possibly travel in the continental United States.

For whatever reason, the Seahawks' defense plays extraordinarily well at home, where it is backed by the home crowd, but struggles on the road and has not yet figured out a way to rectify that situation.

Beyond New York, the Seahawks host the 2-1 Green Bay Packers, to whom they lost in the NFC Divisional playoff game last season.

Then they have two straight road games, at the Buccaneers and at San Francisco, which just beat Seattle at home and which currently shares a piece of first place in the division.

Seattle then faces a stretch in which it hosts Philadelphia, which appears to be one of the conference's premier teams this year, Miami, Arizona, which also is tied for first in the division, Washington and Dallas at Texas Stadium in a Thanksgiving Day game.

Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said he currently is focused only on New York, which also will be coming off its bye week.

But certainly he has to have looked ahead and realized that his team has to play at its best almost every week if it wants to win its fifth straight division title.