by VITO STELLINO , Florida Times-Union

The league has only four teams on the West Coast and none in Los Angeles. When the Jaguars face the Seahawks at Qwest Field today, it'll be the first time they've played in Seattle since 2001 and only their second trip here in their 15-year history.

It's also their first trip west of Phoenix since 2004 when the Jaguars played at San Diego and Oakland.

In a departure from most road games, the Jaguars departed Friday, a day early, on a five-hour charter flight to have more time to adjust to the long trip and time change. Coach Jack Del Rio also emphasized the need to hydrate and drink a lot of water.

"Anybody that spends a lot of time in the air knows that you get dehydrated when you travel in the elevation, altitude for a length of time. So we're going to push the fluids on the plane,'' Del Rio said before the trip.

Mo Williams is only one of two players (Brad Meester is the other) who was on the 2001 team that lost in Seattle, 24-15.

"You make sure you drink a bottle of water or Gatorade for every hour we're on the plane,'' Williams said. "It's a long flight. You watch a lot of movies, read books, play cards. Whatever you can do to make time the time go by a little faster.''

Sleeping is also a popular activity.

"Usually at the end of the week, some of the guys are looking to relax a little bit. You look around and in less than half an hour pretty much the back of the plane is asleep,'' Williams said.

Torry Holt is an 11-year veteran but this is his first cross-country trip because he spent his career in St. Louis before joining the Jaguars this season. He said leaving a day can be a positive or a negative, depending on the team.

"It gives you an extra day to get acclimated to the time zone, kind of get acclimated to the weather there a little bit,'' he said. "Obviously, there'll be an initial shock. It'll be chilly [today's high is expected to reach only 53] so it'll be a little different from what we're accustomed to."I think that has some benefits.

"Now I've heard some horror stories where for some teams it backfired [because the players had more opportunities to go out]. So I'm hoping it'll lean more toward a positive for us. If we go out there and be professionals and be men and handle it accordingly and know why we're there, we should be fine.''

Del Rio didn't say if he put a curfew in place during the trip.

"We'll have a good business trip approach,'' he said. "I've found that when a team has a good week of practice and goes out there with good focus, then it generally plays well. And that's what we're going to focus on, and not really concern ourselves too much with what time curfew is, what time little Johnny is getting checked in, whether or not he feels good or he doesn't feel good. We're just going out to play good Football.''

One advantage the Jaguars have is that they're going east to west. Coach Jim Mora said it's more difficult for the Seahawks when they travel east.

"It's easier going east to west because your circadian rhythm is less affected. It's easier to adjust to a later start time than an earlier start time according to sleep experts. Your body adjusts more naturally that way,'' said Mora, whose team travels more miles than any other team in the league this year - 29,054.

When Mora was asked how the Seahawks have coped with traveling, he said, "We haven't coped with it very well so far, but we're working on it. That's a tough question to answer because you have to address it, but you don't want to overdo it and make it a big issue. So what we try to do is make our guys as comfortable as we can while we travel and that's about it. That's about all you can do.''

Unlike the Jaguars , the Seahawks travel on Saturday for cross-country trips.

"I don't think it makes a difference,'' Mora said. "We'd rather get in and play and go home.''

vito.stellino@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4279

Jaguars : FEW TRIPS TO THE WEST COAST

The Jaguars have played only two games on the West Coast since Jack Del Rio took over as coach in 2003 (none since 2004).

How the Jaguars have fared in West Coast games in their history:

ARIZONA (1-0)

W 44-10 2000

OAKLAND (2-1)

W 13-6 2004

W 20-9 1997

L 17-3 1996

SAN DIEGO (0-1)

L 34-21 2004

SEATTLE (0-1)

L 24-15 2001

Note: Jaguars play at San Francisco for the first time on Nov. 29.

Copyright 2009 The Florida Times-Union
	Terms & Conditions     Privacy Copyright © 2009 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.