AP

Seattle Seahawks' Maurice Morris breaks away for a 44-yard run as Washington Redskins' Carlos Rogers gives chase in the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008, in Seattle.

SEATTLE - The plan all along was for Maurice Morris to start for the Seattle Seahawks, no matter what the public address announcer said.

And Morris had his best game of the season on Sunday, running for 103 yards on just 14 carries and catching a 4-yard touchdown pass in the Seahawks' 20-17 loss to Washington. But during the fanfare of pregame intros it was Julius Jones who was announced as the Seahawks starting running back.

"Everyone got kind of panicky there because no one ran out," coach Mike Holmgren joked.

But the plan was always for Morris to start and get a chance to establish himself against the Redskins. He did so early with a 44-yard run on Seattle's second offensive series, and averaged more than 7 yards per carry for the day.

"We knew it was going to be a physical game, so we were going to just hit them as hard as they hit us," Morris said. "We just went out there with a physical mentality."

The trade-off was a far more limited role for Jones, who had just two carries for 21 yards and played only a handful of snaps the entire game. The plan for most of the season was for Morris and Jones to trade off carries and then Holmgren would go with whoever was having the most success. But just getting two carries was a career low for Jones.

"When they have both been healthy ... if one guy is hot to start with it, we let him play a little bit more," Holmgren said. "Mo had a really fine game, I thought, running the ball today. (Against Dallas), it could be different. But that's how we tried to handle the both of them all year."

QUICK TURNAROUND: The Seahawks' players had Monday off while the coaching staff started game planning for Thursday's matchup with the Cowboys in Dallas.

For a number of players, the quick turnaround will be a first.

"I've personally never done that. I've been around for eight years and this is a first for me. I think you just go into recovery mode as fast as you can," Seahawks safety Brian Russell said. "Get some good rest, massage, hot tub, whatever it takes, because you got to go full-speed on Thursday."

Two years ago, Seattle played at Arizona on a Sunday, then returned home to face San Francisco on a Thursday night. That quick back-to-back wasn't very successful -- the Seahawks lost both games.

"It's going to be tough, but they have to do it, too," quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. "To be honest, I can't wait to play another football game, because (Sunday) was not my best efforts."

SEAHAWKS FLEXED: Seattle won't be getting a third national television appearance this season after its Dec. 7 game against the New England Patriots was moved Monday.

The Seahawks were scheduled to host the Patriots at 5:15 p.m. in the Sunday night game broadcast by NBC. Instead, the network used its ability to switch late-season games and moved the Washington Redskins-Baltimore Ravens matchup into the primetime slot. The Seahawks-Patriots game will now kick off at 1:05 p.m. and be broadcast by CBS.