Bates: It was a good three years. Pat Bowlen, a great owner. A nice organization, and I look forward to going back.

Q: What are the challenges playing in Denver?

Bates: You get good crowd support. It's going to be a challenge. They've got a good team right now, and they came off a tough loss. We're expecting their best out there.

Q: You didn't have to deal with crowd noise at home when you were at Denver because you coached the offense. How much of a challenge is it this time around?

Bates: Most of these guys in college played in loud stadiums. We played in Minnesota. We've got an experienced group playing together right now, and crowd noise at practice.. We've just got to stay together and play with poise and just battle the elements.

Is having a veteran quarterback like Matt Hasselbeck an asset in this kind of situation?

Bates: No question. His experience, you can't put a mark on it. He has seen every look. He has seen every front coverage and blitz. So he's way ahead of the game.

Q: How much of an asset do you think it is that people are seeing your offense for the first time in Seattle. Do you have an element of surprise?

Bates: It's still early. I think everyone in the offseason studies other teams, studies top offenses, top defenses, and then in OTAs they work on a couple new wrinkles, and then they go to two-a-days, and they keep doing that. The first month, you'll see a lot of new stuff from every team. They're experimenting and trying things and once that first month is gone, you can watch four regular-season games. But the first month, you're always expecting something new. A little twist. A little wrinkle. And I'm sure we'll see that Sunday.

Q: Stacy Andrews gets a tough assignment, stepping in and playing at right guard. ow tough is that?

Bates: He's had a great week of practice. Again, you're talking about a guy that has played in the West Coast offense so he has a lot of carryover from Philly. He's a good football player. He's a big man. He's athletic. We look forward to playing him on Sunday.

Q: You were in Denver a couple of years ago. I'm assuming you're familiar with some of the personnel, does that help in terms of game-planning?

Bates: It does. If you look at their personnel, though, since when I was there, they have really changed a lot of players. Different systems, the 3-4 system on defense, a little bit different system on offense. Coach McDaniels has done a good job there, and we look forward to seeing the Denver Broncos of this year.

Q: When you have worked with the running game before, is it something where you're struggling, struggling and all of a sudden something clicks and you have a breakout game. Is it is going to fix itself suddenly, do you think?

Bates: We're going to keep working at it. We're going to keep running the ball. You've got to be balanced in this league. It's tough to just be one-dimensional. I think our guys are coming together. We're still a new operation, but the communication and all that's working out and we're going to run the ball this weekend.