Game Overview ::
By mike johnson >>
- Seattle is in the thick of the playoff race while the Rams season fades into the abyss.
- Several key Rams players on both sides of the ball appear likely to miss this game and possibly be shut down for the season.
- The Seattle defense has given up nearly 1,000 total yards in the last two weeks but gets a reprieve against the Rams 27th-ranked offense that will be without their top 3 offensive players.
How seattle Will Try To Win ::
The Seahawks lost a heartbreaker in overtime in Week 12 to the Raiders, as they were destroyed on the ground by Josh Jacobs and torched through the air by Derek Carr. Seattle is now a game behind the 49ers in the NFC West and is right in the thick of the wild card hunt with several other teams. This game against a fading Rams squad that has a skeleton crew of player personnel is one that the Seahawks must take care of if they want to be a playoff team. Sometimes it is easy for the public to overlook games like this based on records, but Seattle has no such luxury. Good teams beat the teams they are supposed to beat, and while on paper this looks like an easy matchup, in reality, these are professional athletes who need to go take care of business.
The Rams defense will be without all-world defensive lineman Aaron Donald, possibly for the season, which is a huge blow to a previously formidable unit. Even last week, the Rams defense was able to hold Patrick Mahomes and company in check for the entirety of the game, as the Chiefs never scored more than seven points in a quarter. Without their best player and emotional leader, the Rams defense may be vulnerable, and the Seahawks should look to pounce on them from the start and potentially squash any energy the Rams start with. The Rams play a heavy amount of zone coverage, tops in the league, actually, and have the league’s 2nd lowest pressure rate. This should provide Geno Smith, the most accurate QB in the NFL, plenty of time to sit back and carve up the Rams secondary. The loss of Donald should only increase the time to throw for Smith, and he should be able to pepper his premier receivers as well as his tight ends in the underneath areas of the field that the Rams soft coverage leaves open. The Seahawks pass at the 8th highest rate over expectation in the league and play at the 13th fastest pace, slightly faster than league average, numbers that we should expect to hold early in this matchup against a Rams defense with a very good run defense that should still be solid even without Donald. The Seahawks running game has been very up and down with Kenneth Walker as the feature back. He has had some very good games but has often been reliant on big plays to pad his overall numbers, and many of those plays come late in games as they are closing things out. I would expect the Seahawks to be aggressive early to build a lead against the Rams weakness and vulnerability in the secondary and pass rush and then lean on Walker to close things out.
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