The Seattle Seahawks must simultaneously end two trends to beat the Los Angeles Rams at Lumen Field on Sunday. ( 1:25 p.m., FOX TV, KIRO Radio).
The first, and most top of mind for Seahawks coaches, players and fans, is the team’s four losses in five games after 3-0 start. Despite the recent struggles — including last Sunday’s 31-10 demolition delivered by the Buffalo Bills — The Seahawks still find themselves in a three-way tie for first place in a tight NFC West.
It wouldn’t take much to turn the division upside down. If the Rams win and Arizona loses Sunday, Los Angeles could move from last to first in one afternoon.
Which brings us to the other recent trend. The Rams have won five of their last seven over Seattle, including a two-game sweep last season.
The Seahawks lead the all-time series 27-26, though much of Seattle’s success came during the second half of the Mike Holmgren era and the early part of Pete Carroll’s tenure. The Seahawks went 16-2 against the Rams from 2005-2013.
Since then, the Rams have won more often, even in situations when it seemed they shouldn’t. The Rams are 14-7 against Seattle since 2014.
It’s just one midseason game, but a Seahawks loss on Sunday will make for a tough bye week for a last-place team with San Francisco looming Nov. 17. A win, and everything seem possible again. Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald believes his team is ready to put up a better fight than last week.
“The guys really had a great week of prep,” the first-year head coach said. “It was a fun three days of us getting after it, executing, playing fast.”
The quarterbacks, Matthew Stafford and Geno Smith, will of course be the preeminent factor in the outcome. The running game is also likely to play a major role in the winning team’s arsenal. Both teams have struggled to stop the ground game. Seattle, which was outgained 164 to 32 against the Bills, ranks 30th in the league in rushing yards allowed per game (148.4). The Rams are not much better. Their 139.1 allowed per game on the ground puts them 23rd in the league.
Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde said sometimes it comes down to players trying to do too much and getting outside of their gap responsibilities.
“I just think sometimes when you get in those situations where it’s later on in the game and kind of a mistake comes up … they get some leaky yards,” Durde said. “Like last week there were a lot of leaky yards in the run game. So it’s like once someone does that, you can’t push plays. You can’t make a play necessarily outside the system that aren’t yours to make.”
“You’ve got to trust your understanding, your fundamentals, and your technique and they will get you to the ball.”
When the Seahawks have the ball, will they run it? Seattle has thrown the ball 66.27% of the time — the highest pass percentage in the NFL. They opened the Bills game with three straight passes for a total of 1 yard. When they tried to run it, they didn’t get much. Starting running back Kenneth Walker III finished the game with nine carries for 12 yards. Geno Smith scrambled for 13 yards on a play, and the team otherwise ran it 16 time for 19 yards.
“I think we’re just trying to gel up front a little bit and make sure our points and our counts are consistent,” offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said. “I think, honestly, there were quite a few runs that obviously didn’t hit that the points were good. They were on target, and for whatever reason, point of attack, there was a few critical plays that we just messed up on.”
The pick: Though the Seahawks may see the return of George Fant at right tackle, they’ll be without two important targets, receiver DK Metcalf (knee) and tight end Noah Fant (groin). I need to see an improved run defense before I believe it. Stafford makes just enough plays at the end to pull out a 28-24 Rams win.
Categorized:Seahawks
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