updated 11:25 a.m. ET Feb. 7, 2006

DETROIT - No appreciation or consolation in Seattle for the Seahawks, at least not yet.

Nope, they were still stuck in frustration.

The post-Super Bowl parties went into early Monday morning as the Seahawks at least tried to celebrate their season, instead of their somber Sunday. Later, coach Mike Holmgren tried to refocus the team, momentarily, on what it had done and what it still may do.

“We’re all a little disappointed this morning,” Holmgren said at the team’s hotel in suburban Dearborn, just before the team returned to Seattle and hours after the Seahawks’ mistake-filled, 21-10 loss to Pittsburgh. “But I’m very, very proud of our football team, what we accomplished this year. We’re going to come back firing away next year.”

After flying home, they went directly to a rally of a few thousand fans at Qwest Field. They came to celebrate a franchise-best 15-4 season, a team-record 11-game winning streak and their first playoff win since 1984 as best they could.

The civic pick-me-up was intended to move the team and its city past Seattle’s Super Bowl implosion. But because the Seahawks feel they squandered the NFL championship, the future isn’t foremost in their minds.

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“It’s hard, man,” defensive tackle Rocky Bernard said.

And he didn’t mean the pulled right hamstring he sustained late in the Super Bowl.

“I mean, if a team just goes out and overpowers you, then you’re like, ’Hey, we got beat.’ But I think we beat ourselves,” Bernard said.

So did most of his teammates — and even the perspective-filled Holmgren.

“I know they’re not OK with it,” the coach said of his players. “I wanted them to keep their heads up. There’s no need to apologize for anything. We lost the football game and we lost it because of the reasons you lose most games ... mistakes.”

The best team in Seahawks history was in no mood to revel in its accomplishments.

“Nah, man,” linebacker D.D. Lewis said. “I thought about that last week.

“I’ll spend the next weeks thinking about getting back here.”

And the Seahawks were still stinging from a few officials’ calls that went against them, such as Darrell Jackson’s touchdown catch that was taken away by a penalty and a disputed TD run by Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger.

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“We knew it was going to be tough going up against the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Holmgren told the fans at Qwest Field. “I didn’t know we were going to have to play the guys in the striped shirts as well.”

The Seahawks have some rock-solid building blocks to pull that off: Three Pro Bowl offensive linemen leading a balanced and potent offense and a young, fast defense.

But that foundation has two, potentially gaping voids that need filling.

Team owner Paul Allen, team president Tim Ruskell and salary-cap architect Mike Reinfeldt don’t face the possible 16 free agents they did a year ago. But they do have the contracts of league MVP Shaun Alexander and guard Steve Hutchinson expiring.

If the don’t re-sign Alexander before March 3, he will become one of the league’s most coveted free agents.