THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: A war of attrition, one blown knee at a time

What a week!

We haven’t done a notes column on a single subject in quite a while, but madness — and a lot of bad news — around the NFL makes this one mandatory.

By the way, did you know the Seahawks were lucky that CenturyLink Field was empty Sunday night?

Sure, because if the usual mob of 69,000 had been present, the Patriots would have faced a cauldron of noise and committed a false start on that final play from the 1-yard line.

Pushed back to the 6 with room to throw, Cam Newton would have found slippery Julian Edelman for the winning touchdown.

Hey, I’m kidding.

It was a joke, OK?

Meanwhile…

ITEM: If Ben Kotwica is still working this week, it’s a miracle.

And totally unjustified.

Kotwica, if you’ve never head of him (I hadn’t), is/was the special teams coach for the Atlanta Falcons.

In other words, he would have been the man responsible for teaching his players to fall on an onside kick — whether it’s gone the required 10 yards or not.

At least three, maybe four, Falcons hovered over the Cowboys’ last-ditch onside kick as the thing slowly, slowly twisted and wobbled, yard after yard, long before reaching the necessary distance.

No Dallas player could touch it, or the game was over.

So why didn’t any of the Falcons just drop on the thing?

Obviously, Kotwica had never taught them the rules for an onside kick.

How on Earth can you fail to do that?

Every NFL has a minimum of 17 assistant coaches, and some have quite a few more.

What are all these guys doing with their time?

Kotwica needs a new line of work.

Is Arby’s hiring?

ITEM: With all the injuries sweeping across the NFL this past weekend, there has been a lot of conversation about the lack of preseason games.

The logic, such as it is, has something to do with players not being prepared for all the hitting.

I don’t buy it.

First of all, there already was one week of regular season play.

No starter would be involved in more snaps than that during an exhibition game.

The next thing is that most of the serious injuries last weekend were blown-out knees or badly twisted ankles.

There’s no way a couple of preseason games can get you ready for a teammate accidentally rolling up your leg, or a collision just catching your knee the wrong way.

If we were seeing a batch of hamstring injuries and various other pulled muscles, well…

Maybe you could argue that players haven’t quite gotten into game shape.

But knees and ankles?

Nah.

What MAY have contributed to some ugly injuries is the artificial turf at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey.

At least the 49ers seem to think so.

The Niners lost several players during their 31-13 win over the Jets — notably all-world defensive end Nick Bosa — to long-term injuries.

Bosa almost certainly is out for the year.

Several 49ers claimed the unforgiving turf caused several players to be dangerously vulnerable.

For what it’s worth, fields with fake grass do have a higher rate of serious injuries.

ITEM: That brings us all the way back to the Seahawks, who lost two starting defenders — and this after they finished 26th in the league in yards allowed a year ago.

Linebacker/rush end Bruce Irvin and nickel back/safety Marquise Blair both tore ACLs on Sunday night, and will be out for the year.

Suddenly, pressure mounts on second-year DB Ugo Amadi, who will take over at nickel.

And at rush end, for a team that hasn’t been able to generate much pressure on quarterbacks?

I wouldn’t be shocked if first-round draft pick Jordyn Brooks, a superior athlete with good speed, moves over from strong side linebacker — where he’s been the apprentice to K.J. Wright — and is quickly taught his trade on the other side.

Amadi has some backup at nickel, since both Tre Flowers and Quinton Dunbar have seen action at right corner.

Either could shift to nickel, if necessary.

For what it’s worth, Amadi came on to have eight unassisted tackles against New England — including one for a loss on which he read a misdirection play perfectly.

The two injuries aren’t exactly critical, but losing two starters on the second weekend of the season isn’t the greatest way to start a long and brutal slog.

Like many NFL seasons, this one already has turned into a war of attrition.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “Moments, Memories and Madness,” his reminiscences from several decades as a sports journalist, runs each Sunday.

Steve also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball, once per month during the offseason.