Only, they still have one more game to play.

So even after Holmgren took a final lap at Qwest Field to thank the fans and the players sent him off with a victory, Holmgren and his coaching staff were required to show up at the team's practice facility on Monday morning and begin preparing for a game against the Arizona Cardinals.

"The closure was with a different group," Holmgren clarified. "The closure was with the fans at Qwest. I have not had closure with the players."

That will come next Monday, after Holmgren has coached the final game of his Seahawks' tenure.

For now, he must get his team ready to play against a Cardinals team that has been soundly beaten by a combined score of 82-21 in its last two games and has lost four of the last five.

He said it will not be tough to get his players' intensity up, even though the game means nothing other than ending the season on a three-game win streak.

"Last week, I really didn't dwell or (say) one single thing about me when I addressed the team," Holmgren said. "My approach to last week's game was the same approach I used the week before and the week before that: We're not in the playoffs, but how we finish the season is very, very important for the organization, for them as individuals, and so on. I'll repeat that again. We're going to go down and play the team that beat us in the division, that won the division. We have to approach it a certain way. I'm not going to come in with some gimmick."

Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt swears that he was playing to win against the New England Patriots on Sunday. And he swears that he will try hard against the Seahawks as well, rather than winning the NFC West with an 8-8 record and a swoon that would put them on their heels.

Still, Holmgren says the Seahawks have their hands full, in part because they continue to trot out onto the field only a skeleton of what they were in training camp.