RENTON — Jim Mora made a statement to his team before he ever addressed his players after Sunday’s 21-point loss in Dallas.

Mora said something by keeping quarterback Matt Hasselbeck on the field in the fourth quarter of a game Seattle trailed by more than 20 points.

“You send the wrong message to your football team if you pull him out,” Mora said Monday.

Pulling the starting quarterback is tantamount to surrender. No mas, as Roberto Duran once said, and acknowledging the likelihood of losing was a concession Mora was unwilling to make Sunday, so Hasselbeck stayed under center until the very end.

After the game Mora made a statement that was not nearly so metaphorical during a postgame speech described as his most impassioned of the year.

“Coach Mora was very blunt about our performance,” Hasselbeck said.

It was a my-way-or-the-highway moment in Seattle’s locker room.

“If a man’s willing to stand here and fight, and give his all, and come to work every day with great resolve and great determination and great toughness and accountability, then I’ll fight with him,” Mora said Monday. “But if someone reveals himself not to have those traits, then by the end of the season, there’s a good chance he won’t be a member of the Seattle Seahawks.”

Mora backed up to explain that he hasn’t seen a lack of effort from his players, hasn’t witnessed any finger-pointing and hasn’t judged anyone to be dead weight. But Seattle is 2-5 for the second consecutive season and while the Seahawks might not make the playoffs, they will be making plenty of decisions about the future of this roster.

“We’ve definitely been put on notice that the scrutiny is going to go up,” Hasselbeck said.

Mora’s demeanor in his customary news conference the day after a game made that clear. He was stern and unflinching as he explained exactly that weak people become losers in the face of adversity, looking to escape scrutiny or dilute responsibility for what has happened.

“I’m not saying that I see that, because I don’t,” Mora said. “But if I do, there’s doors out of here.”

A line has been drawn. Mora made that clear with more than just his words.

To take Hasselbeck out of Sunday’s game would have been a signal of surrender the quarterback didn’t want any more than his coach.

“I wasn’t considering coming out,” Hasselbeck said.

Mora wasn’t thinking about it.

“I’m not going to take Matt Hasselbeck out when we’re down like that and there’s probably very little chance that we’re going to win,” Mora said. “I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to send that message to this football team or anyone on it, or our fans.”

Notes

Seattle released veteran cornerback Travis Fisher on Monday and signed Roy Lewis from its practice squad.

Lewis played at Washington and was on Pittsburgh’s practice squad last season.