The first half of football wasn’t pretty between the (6-7) Seahawks and the (2-11) Rams. Only 13 total points, and the lone touchdown coming on special teams. The game, widely regarded as a dud to national audiences, probably saw the majority of its non-regional viewers change the channel somewhere around the middle of the second quarter. Both teams looked sluggish on offense early, and aside from the halfbacks, the game carried very little fantasy football implication. But for those of us that stuck it out, it turned into a mildly entertaining game especially from the Seahawks’ perspective.
Seattle scored a touchdown early when Doug Baldwin went unaccounted for to block his first career punt in the NFL. The Seahawk’s starting FB Michael Robinson then scooped the ball up for the score to take a 7-0 lead. The play was enabled by a blown assignment by Ram special teamer Chris Smith, who was making his NFL debut.
The next 2 quarters were largely uneventful. The teams traded field goals twice, Marshawn Lynch beast-moded a few trademark 11-yard runs, and Seattle CB Brandon Browner made an unusual interception with his right forearm.
Late in the 3rd quarter, Seattle’s offense started to find a rhythm. Tarvaris Jackson completed passes to 10 different Seahawks. His favorite target was rookie Doug Baldwin who caught 7, including a 29-yard touchdown just before the 3rd quarter ended. The Hawks followed that up with a Field Goal about 7 minutes later to go up 23-6.
In the 4th quarter, the Rams were finally able to move the ball a bit, aided by some of the Seahawks’ 9 penalties. Steven Jackson watched the Rams run 5 straight plays without him on the 1 yard line, before getting his number called and plunging into the end zone from 1-yard out behind right tackle. The Seahawk’s answered with a Lynch-heavy drive that resulted in a Lynch 16-yard touchdown scamper to seal the deal. The rush put Lynch over 100 yards for the 5th time in 6 games, and also marked his 9th straight game with a touchdown.
The special teams game was the real story here. Seattle had 2 long kickoff returns, and St. Louis had 1. Seattle also blocked the punt for a touchdown. Seattle’s kicker Steven Hauschka kicked 3 of 4 FG’s. And former Seahawk Josh Brown added a pair of his own. All of which culminated to the final score of 30-13 Seahawks.
The game featured two teams going very separate directions. The Rams have endured a plethora of injuries to their offensive lines and defensive backfields, and seem to be floundering. The frustration bleeds through on the offensive side of the ball especially, as the team has the least amount of points scored in the NFL. It has been quite the disappointing season for the Rams who narrowly missed last year’s playoffs. QB Sam Bradford has gone from Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2010, to just plain irrelevant. Many see the Rams cleaning house yet again this off-season, leaving the future of their once-prized quarterback in doubt. The Rams are 12-49 since 2008, the year former Seahawk Josh Brown spurned Seattle to become the highest paid kicker of all time for St. Louis citing that “it’s all about winning.” No joke here is necessary.
Conversely, the Seahawks have successfully established themselves as a gritty, tough, defensively stout, run-first team that plays hard-nosed, opportunistic football for 60 minutes. Quite the stark contrast from just two years ago at this time, when ex-49ers Head Coach Mike Singletary called the then Jim Mora led Seahawks “soft.” The Hawks have won 4 of their last 5 and hang onto slim playoff hopes in the NFC. But playoffs or not, it is impossible to deny the tremendous growth this team has accomplished this season. Coach Pete Carroll and GM John Schneider need to be given a mountain of credit for the job they have done in less than 2 years, while completely revamping the entire roster.
The Seahawks have made Tarvaris Jackson look like Trent Dilfer at times, they’ve made Marshawn Lynch look like Christian Okoye in Tecmo Super Bowl, they have developed a gigantic and talented secondary with 2 rookies and 2 sophomores, and let’s not forget that they are one of the youngest teams in the NFL. The Seahawks look to finish the season above .500 for the first time since 2007 with their next 3 games against a banged up (7-6) Chicago team on the road, home against the plateauing 49ers (10-3), then at Arizona (6-7) for the season finale.
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