NFC Game Of The Week
Seattle Seahawks at Los Angeles Rams
Seahawks: Prior to their loss on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers, they were playing some really good football as of late and many weren’t discussing it. This year, they’ve shown me some flashes of the teams that won the NFC and played in back to back Super Bowls and what I mean by that is they’ve been able to run the football once again, something they haven’t been able to do since the Marshawn Lynch days. Ever since he left the Seahawks, it’s been a running back by committee situation in Seattle and they’ve been through quite a few but now, I think they have their guy in Chris Carson and he’s stayed healthy which has been another issue and running the football also takes a tremendous amount of pressure off of Russell Wilson which leads me to my next thought. It’s been incredible to see how far he’s come as a quarterback and right now, he doesn’t mind taking a game over with his arm (when he’s given the time to throw the football). In a conference that’s wide open at the moment, watch out for the Seahawks because they’ve been here before, they can go on a run and experience is always a key. They’ll look to get back to the winning side of things on Sunday in a divisional showdown in Los Angeles.
Rams: It was definitely a tough week for them and I can say that I wasn’t impressed with how they looked in their last two games. The Packers truly gave them all they could handle and in the end, the Rams were “lucky” to slide by them to get their record to 8-0, but I knew the next game against the Saints was no cakewalk because going to play in the Superdome has never been easy. They definitely made things interesting in that game on Sunday and got themselves back into it, but in the end, there was simply too much of the Drew Brees factor and the undefeated record of the Rams finally came to an end. But here they are at the moment at 8-1 and they have their division on hold with a really comfortable cushion. That all may sound good right now, but last Sunday taught me a lot about the Rams and one thing is their defense isn’t as great as people have made it out to be. Of course, the engine of that defense is Aaron Donald and he’s by far their best player but on Sunday in New Orleans, the Saints did a great job limiting him and keeping him from wrecking their entire offensive gameplan which then put pressure on the linebacking core and secondary to make stops and they couldn’t do it. The secondary has struggled all year, especially Marcus Peters who just gave up over 200 yards receiving. I have some concern about them now and if this were the playoffs, they’d be one and done because it can’t be all on the offense. Let’s see if they can bounce back on Sunday back at home.
Seahawks Player To Watch: Tyler Lockett– He’s the explosiveness of their offense and when he’s on the field, he’s able to do so much and when the ball gets to him, he’s a threat to take it to the end zone for six points. He brings a different dynamic to the Seahawks offense.
Rams Player To Watch: Dante Fowler Jr– He was acquired to help this linebacking core and once he knows Wade Phillips’ entire scheme, he’ll have a bigger impact than expected. I remember how much hype surrounded him when he came out of college. He’s been injury-riddled early on. I hope he can stay healthy and get the chance to show why he was selected third overall in 2015.
Final Analysis: Their first battle was a fun one to watch and Seattle gave the Rams a scare but fell short by two points. It’s always a close game when they play. The Rams will enter this game with a big chip on their shoulder after their first loss on Sunday. The Seahawks need to get back to running the ball, they got away from that against the Chargers last week. Can the Rams defense show up? You can’t depend on the offense to bail you out every time.
Prediction: Rams 30 Seahawks 23
