The Rams are Designed to Beat the Seahawks
By Ben Renner
The Seahawks dropped their fourth game out of their last five with the Rams Sunday. It’s frustrating but try and take heart in this: the Rams are built to beat Seattle.
In the latest inexplicable loss to the L.A. Rams, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson couldn’t escape the pressure and repeatedly had to dump the ball off on desperation shovel passes or try to elude the relentless Rams’ pass rush on his bum ankle. Running backs Thomas Rawls and Christine Michael (who actually played well in spite of everything, except for his game-sealing fumble in the fourth quarter) routinely had to escape Los Angeles defenders immediately after getting the hand-off.
The result, of course, was the Seahawks’ fourth loss in their last five games against the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams, 9-3. You have probably seen the comparisons to the Mariners, who outscored their football-playing counterparts yesterday afternoon and no doubt you have screamed a few of these facts at the television already. And you probably already know this, being a football fan, but I’ll illuminate something for you anyway, because that’s what I do:
The Rams are Built to be the Seahawks’ Kryptonite
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The Pete Carroll era for the Seahawks has been marked by a few things: the first Super Bowl title in team history, a ravenous defense built on excellent man coverage and a good pass rush, Russell Wilson preaching celibacy and throwing absolute bombs on the run, and poor offensive line play. Everyone knows this, of course, and the Seahawks’ frankly embarrassing loss to L.A. was one of the worst performances of the offensive line in the Carroll era. And that’s saying something.
The Rams are known for different things in the past few years. Somehow L.A.’s head coach Jeff Fisher has managed to hang around the team despite endless 7-9, 6-10, and worse performances. One strength they have had since Carroll took over in Seattle in 2011 was their defensive line. Their carousel of quarterbacks has dogged the team for years, causing many losses each year, but not because of their defensive front, led by Aaron McDonald, Robert Quinn, and several other terrifying human beings.
The Rams know how to attack Seattle. Say what you will about Fisher, but he has watched the tape of teams who have beaten the Seahawks in the past and learned a great deal. The offensive game plan is to attack safety Kam Chancellor in coverage as much as possible and pick on whoever is opposite Richard Sherman on the other side of the defense. On defense, the gameplan is simple: attack the Seahawks’ weakest link–their Achilles’ Heel–the offensive line. Since the Rams’ defensive line is the team’s best asset, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to draw up this gameplan.
This plan has worked the past few seasons for the Rams, who seem to matchup perfectly with the Seahawks every time. The Rams’ defensive line overwhelms the Seahawks’ scrap heap of an offensive line. Usually, Wilson uses a healthy ankle and a capable running game to escape the flaws of his line up front. This time, like last time, and the time before that, the Rams had the answers.
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Against two tough defensive lines, the Seahawks won ugly and lost ugly in 2016 and they, like everyone else in the NFC West, have an ugly 1-1 record. It will get better.