--The Seahawks on Wednesday placed defensive end Patrick Kerney on injured reserve, ending the Pro Bowler's season. He had a shoulder injury that would not seem to heal. "Every time you start to put your head up, somebody knocks it back down in the hole," Kerney said. "From an injury standpoint, it's as bad as I've seen in my 10 years. Hopefully, I'll be the last one."

--Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said that he will not start to play backups in place of starters now that the Seahawks' season is essentially over. "I'm not going to do that," Holmgren said. "We're trying to finish up here strong, and win some down the stretch. To do that, you play with the guys who should be playing. If there's an injury or something, and you can go with the younger guy and take a look (at him), but really, once you start doing that, you are really planning for next year, and I don't think that's real fair to the guys who are still going really hard this year."

--When these teams played in the playoffs last season, the game turned on one play decided by the rulebook. Washington had taken a 14-13 lead. Their ensuing kickoff was short and landed between Seattle's return men. The Redskins picked up the ball and scored a touchdown. But the officials ruled a muffed kickoff can't be advanced. Seattle forced a field goal attempt, which Washington missed wide left, and the Seahawks went on to score the next 22 points.

--The end of the Seahawks' playoff victory over Washington was punctuated by a 78-yard interception return by Marcus Trufant, followed by a 57-yard interception return by Jordan Babineaux.

--Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren recalled the day former QB coach Jim Zorn, now Washington's head coach, brought a slip-and-slide out to practice to teach the quarterbacks how to get down while scrambling. "He said, 'You're going to look over there and you're going to see us doing this,' and my first reaction was, 'Why are we doing this?' And he really said, 'Well, Matt, when he decides to slide, he's really just a train wreck, so we have to kind of get him used to it.'"

--Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said he must take into consideration that Washington coach Jim Zorn knows the Seahawks' offense so well. "I think you absolutely talk about that in your offensive meetings anytime you go against a coach that knows it well-the language, how you're going to call things, how you're going to audible," Holmgren said.

--Seahawks linebacker Lofa Tatupu said it will be an odd feeling to see Shaun Alexander on the opposite sideline. "You always associate Shaun with the Seahawks, and vice versa," Tatupu said. "Whenever you talked about the Seahawks, the one guy everybody knew was Shaun. So it will be tough to see him out there like that. I'm just happy he's with another team now, and I wish nothing but the best for him."

BY THE NUMBERS: 8-2 -- Seattle's record in its past 10 games against NFC East opponents, including 3-0 in the playoffs. However, the two losses have come this season.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "It's hard. It's tough, yeah. You come in with certain expectations and then it hasn't gone the way you wanted it to, but there's a lot of reasons you play. I just tried to tap in on some of those, remind the players of some of those this week." -- Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren on becoming a spoiler instead of a contender this season.