Seattle, St. Louis won’t mince words
SEATTLE – Instead of filling the week with the usual blabber about this being no bigger than any other game, the St. Louis Rams and Seattle Seahawks have refreshingly junked those tired lines.
Or maybe Scott Linehan is still new to coachspeak.
“This is the biggest one of the year for us,” said St. Louis’ Linehan, the former University of Idaho quarterback who is in his first season as a head coach in his 18 years of college and NFL football.
Clearly, Linehan is not so new that he doesn’t realize the unusually large significance to today’s game. His 21-year NFL coaching counterpart does, too.
“Everyone understands what’s at stake, the ramifications of winning or losing the football game,” Seattle’s Mike Holmgren said.
As veteran Seahawks defensive end Grant Wistrom, a former Ram, said, “If we win this, we’re up two games on them in the division. I don’t think you can overstate the importance of that.”
OK, so that importance of the slumping Rams (4-4) meeting the treading-water Seahawks (5-3) is confined to the wholly mediocre NFC West, where as long as you aren’t the Arizona Cardinals, you have a chance.
Yet for playoff runs and keeping the latter half of the season relevant, this one matters far more than most games played weeks before turkeys get carved.
A Rams upset would end their three-game losing streak and the snickering that a 4-1 start came against opponents with combined records of 6-18. More important, it would push St. Louis back into a tie with Seattle atop the division.
A fourth consecutive win for the Seahawks in the series would essentially give them a three-game lead over St. Louis with seven games remaining. They would own the tiebreaker because they would have swept the home-and-home series. Seattle won in St. Louis last month on Josh Brown’s field goal as time expired.
“I think Seattle is showing that they’re hitting their stride,” said Rams receiver Torry Holt, a main concern of the Seahawks defense. “I guess our backs are kind of against the wall – three losses in a row, all the stuff that’s been said about us the past couple weeks. So, (there’s) a great deal of emphasis to be put on this game.”
The Rams are 35-16 within the NFC West since 1999. Only Indianapolis (36-15) has a better record against its division in that span. But St. Louis is just 2-7 over the last two seasons against the West, including 0-3 against Seattle.
The Rams’ recent flaws include a defensive line with two new starters. Rookie fourth-round pick Victor Adeyanju is at right defensive end and Jimmy Kennedy is the first-year starter at nose tackle. St. Louis has allowed 355 yards rushing to LaDainian Tomlinson and Larry Johnson in its last two games.
But the Seahawks will play their sixth consecutive game with Maurice Morris running instead of league MVP Shaun Alexander, whose left foot remains broken. Morris ran for a career-high 138 yards Monday night against Oakland, but Holmgren isn’t convinced his recently sickly running game is well again.
“I think it’s a little early, but I can feel better about it,” said Holmgren, who acknowledges a tendency to abandon running for passing too quickly in games.
“Now, we’ve got to just keep going, keep going and stay with it.”
Perhaps they should today, because Pro Bowl quarterback Matt Hasselbeck remains out with a sprained right knee ligament. In St. Louis last month, Hasselbeck’s deft passing and managing of the hurry-up offense allowed Seattle to drive from its 17 with 1:44 remaining and no timeouts to get the win. Today, Seneca Wallace makes his third NFL start instead.
Seattle isn’t thinking its shutout of woeful Oakland was a cure-all.
The Seahawks have allowed 17 plays of at least 30 yards, including Holt’s juggling, 67-yard touchdown late in the Oct. 15 game that got safety Michael Boulware benched and Jordan Babineaux starting.
The Seahawks blitzed far more than usual while getting nine sacks against the Raiders, partly because Oakland’s offensive line is so bad, partly to aid Seattle’s suspect secondary.
That blitzing may be the best chance to disrupt precise Rams quarterback Marc Bulger. Bulger has thrown 290 passes this season with just one interception.
Holt thinks that’s because Linehan is coaching him to be more careful than freewheeling predecessor Mike Martz did.
“I think the key with Marc is just how smart he is with the football,” said Holt, who has caught a pass in a team-record 113 consecutive games. “He’s always been told in the past to jack the ball down the field to make something happen, put it up to the receivers and make something happen.
“I think now with Coach Linehan, what he’s asking him to do is to manage the game and to be better with the ball.”
Bulger is also adept at beating blitzes with improvisational crossing routes to Holt and Issac Bruce.