Game 8: Rams vs Seahawks

[Danny Darko]

VS.



Monday Night Mayhem

The Rams couldn't pay old man Favre-Beans enough to come out of retirement after losing Sam Bradford. I wouldn't want to get myself blown up by the Legion of Boom on Monday Night Football either. The Seahawks can't afford to lose any games with the 49ers still in the Hunt, though. Trap game?

Injury update:



Seahawks

Out

FB Derrick Coleman (hamstring)
OT Breno Giacomini (knee)
SS Jeron Johnson (hamstring)

Probable

RB Christine Michael (illness)
WR Golden Tate (shoulder)
MLB Bobby Wagner (ankle)



Rams

Questionable

RB Benny Cunningham (ankle)
CB Cortland Finnegan (thigh)
C Scott Wells (thigh)

Wells was limited in practice on Saturday, when Cunningham and Finnegan did not practice.


Danny's .02 Keys to the game

1. Russ's beat down ratio.
Too many weeks in a row of bad pass protection. Paul needs to anticipate edge rushing better, Bowie needs to stay engaged to his assignments and we need to run more. Why not up the carries for Turbin and Michael?

2. Wagner back 3 weeks early
We looked pretty good without him. I'm hoping that isn't the reason he rushed back and more-so that it's not putting him in danger of further injury.

3. WR's on notice
Harvin is only going to watch one more game before eating up someone's minutes.

4. Turnovers
Too many fumbles lately. That is a direct result of the punishment RW3 has taken obviously, but that tends to be what keeps all these other teams we should destroy in games.

5. Mike Robinson
The Real Robinson is back on the field. Can he come back off a virus and start paving the way for some extended beast mode?


Predictions-
Seattle 24 Rams 9

[Sweezo]

Rough start so far for the offense. Sweezy's been caught on two huge penalties so far. And we had to burn a timeout.

[Sweezo]

Ha...Bruce Irvin with a pick?

[Brandon-Clyde]

It's looking like it is up to the defense to win this game tonight

[Brandon-Clyde]

Sherman with the pick and big return to put the offense in good position

[Brandon-Clyde]

Seahawks score the td but it seems like they made it more difficult with some strange play calling

[Sweezo]

Our offensive line should be ashamed of this performance. Can't run block, can't protect Russell. Hell, ESPN wasn't able to show a replay of a sack without another sack happening in real time. Why can't they give Bailey a chance at LT? I don't think he can do any worse than McQuistan.

[Brandon-Clyde]

When is Okung due back?

Also next draft the Seahawks really need to look at improving the o-line

[Brandon-Clyde]

We need to put an extra blocker in somehow. Maybe play a TE as a FB

[Sweezo]

We need to put an extra blocker in somehow. Maybe play a TE as a FB

I don't know what you do. On the near safety, they left BOTH RB in to block and they still had someone come free up the middle. If you leave in two RB to block and a TE, who are you going to target downfield?

[Brandon-Clyde]

We need to put an extra blocker in somehow. Maybe play a TE as a FB

I don't know what you do. On the near safety, they left BOTH RB in to block and they still had someone come free up the middle. If you leave in two RB to block and a TE, who are you going to target downfield?

It is a dilemma though I would hope a TE would prove to be a better blocker than a RB

[Brandon-Clyde]

Stupid of Tate to taunt when 1) You haven't scored yet 2) Even with the score the game is far from over

[Sweezo]

TD TATE!!!!! Could do without the taunting but I'll take it!

[Sweezo]

Just call everything you can against Browner. What the ****?

[Brandon-Clyde]

The defense needs to force a turnover here

[Sweezo]

The Rams are carving up our predictable late game zone defense. Pardon the cliche but we're getting out coached tonight. On offense we have zero answer for their pass rush, and now there offense is finding the holes in the zone. The zone. You have the best set of man-to-man/press corners in the league so you switch to a zone late. Bad goddamn coaching.

[Brandon-Clyde]

We lucked out. Far from our best game. Still I'll take the win

[Sweezo]

What a demoralizing win. They survived, but boy...doesn't every other team in the league steal that blueprint for how to beat us?

I should revisit this and give the defense some credit. They were on the field for 38 minutes and they had enough to fight all the way to the end. A lesser effort and that's a loss.

[Danny Darko]

no more backup tackles... this is jacked up. i can't stand to see Wilson beat down week after week. Who wants to bet he's playing with more than one injury from this crap protection and has been for weeks?

[Sweezo]

no more backup tackles... this is jacked up. i can't stand to see Wilson beat down week after week. Who wants to bet he's playing with more than one injury from this crap protection and has been for weeks?

I'm not sure how long anybody could be expected to withstand that kind of punishment. NFl.com's webpage indicates the Seahawks have allowed 50 QB hits on the season. While some teams have allowed more, average that out over a full season and that would've been top 5 in the league last season for most QB hits allowed. Russell's built thick as a brick, but he's taking solid shots this season.

On a positive note, how good did Bruce Irvin look last night? He pressured the QB and came up with a great sack/fumble last night. But we know he can do that from last year. He made plays in the middle of the field. We know he can maybe do that too as he's shown flashes in his other three games this year. But dropping into coverage, getting a pass defended and an interception? I didn't expect him to flourish in that role.

The LB corps has really shown me something this season. With Irvin showing a surprisingly well-rounded game and Malcom Smith excelling in pass coverage, how is it that KJ Wright is suddenly losing snaps? Unexpected.