Week 5 Thursday Night Football - Rams @ Seahawks

Rams (3-1) @ Seahawks (2-2)

This is a proverbial Throw Out The Records game – if it were much later in the season. As it is, these teams' records reflect exactly who they are:

What happened to The Rams last week? I'm trying to figure out how this game goes differently for Los Angeles, so I go back and watch what I can of what happened with them against the Cardinals. By the end of the first half, they're already down 11 points at 24-13, and the Cardinals' lead feels insurmountable. You can see McVay look at the scoreboard and make a sour, Now what do we do? Face.

So what actually happened? The Cardinals scored on 9 of their 12 possessions. And one of those possessions was Victory Formation. Oof. This Cardinals team might be really really good.

But we're not here to talk about the Cardinals, are we? We're here to talk about the Rams and the other NFC West bird team: the Seahawks.

So instead I'm going to talk about the 49ers. (Wednesday might have to be a reaction day; scheduling actually rewatching the games on Thursday is going to burn me out real quick. And you, too. You don't want to hear about last week – you want to hear about tonight, Sunday, and Monday. And I'm not leaving myself any space to react to yesterday's trades and cut. Sheesh. Get gud, bro.)

Jimmy G looked good. Decisive. Cutting the Seahawks defense to shreds. ...On the first drive. He was late to make reads/identify the blitz across/from the middle the rest of his playing time. Three straight drives end on third and short because he can't get the ball to the open guy. Eats a sack when he's got Deebo on a screen with blocks set up cus he wants to cheat deep. Late and contested deflections across the middle. Not great. Shoulda had him up 10, though. Missed field goals hurt so bad in these divisional contests.

Seahawks looked like a 1-3 team in the first half. Couldn't move the ball. Russ is late making his throws when he doesn't end the play under 300 pounds of lineman. God, Bosa was eating his lunch in the first half. But DK Metcalf fixes a lot of problems. A guy that tall, that fast, that strong – he covers up a lot of flaws in your gameplanning and offensive line play by always being open. He did have that drop that killed the drive in the second half. He was open. Russ hit the target. Can't body catch on the sidelines. Have to get your hands on it and pull it in – I say like I know wtf I'm talking about.

Teams don't often overcome fumbled kickoff returns. Not with their backup, rookie quarterback in the game. Not when you're already down 7 and the next play makes it 14.

You can see that Shanahan just wanted to get his game over with by that deficit. Run it. Don't let your young qb throw it to the wrong jersey. He's already made a third down attempt late across the middle that could've been picked. Salvage your pride and get home.

So how is the game tonight going to go?

I wish I could say I had a good feel for this one. It's such a cliché to talk about the NFC West and how crazy that division is. But we saw it last week: Cliff Kingsbury breaks the crazy losing streak Arizona has had against LA. So there's probably some nutty streak like that going on between these two teams. Don't the Rams always struggle against the Seahawks? Or is it the other way around? Were the Seahawks the only team Jeff Fisher could beat with any consistency?

Blugh. I should have more of this knowledge just available at my fingertips. But then I'd have to have access to NFL Network and watch ESPN – and frankly I'd rather choke to death on a spoon that watch ESPN all day.

These teams aren't exactly evenly matched, statistically. The Rams have top-ten marks in offensive production, including 4^th in total passing yards. The Seahawks have statistically the worst defense by whatever metric NFL.com is using here. 

Do I think the Rams and Cooper Kupp are going to go nuts in this game?

I've thought that every week of the season because through three they were. Then they started playing in-division and I've lost all faith in their ability to be the same team week to week.

Against the Cardinals, their lack of a game-changing runner really stood out. Matt Stafford might have a lot more to overcome with this team than we thought.

Does that mean I think the Seahawks are going to be doing whatever thing Seahawks are known for doing? (Stealing your sandwich on the pier? idk) I don't know, man, I whine petulantly.

This feels like so much of a toss-up.

I don't think the Seahawks are a legitimate 2-2. I think if Jimmy G had remained in the game they would have lost it. So a 3-1 team that's played well, just shot themselves in the foot a few times against a potentially great opponent versus a team that took advantage of a better opponent's mistakes and rookie, second string quarterback....

I have to go with LA in this one. I was ready to not be a Rams fan anymore through three weeks. I'd felt like I'd seen enough of them. Now It's week 5 and they're playing the Seahawks, and I'm ready to be a Rams fan for at least one more night this season. Anything to see the Hawks at the bottom of the division.

And I do actually want to see Matty Stafford win the West. Let's get that guy in a playoff game without making him bite his nails week 18, whaddaya say?

So, let's predict it.

Both teams are going to forget the run game. After 3 weeks of trying to make it work on the ground for Seattle, they're going to let Russ cook – because they're going to have to. Stafford has started each of the last four weeks out of rhythm and off-sync with his receivers. They're the Away team in Seattle. This feels like a much more familiar environment for Stafford - than having fans actually excited to see their team in their stadium.

Look for him to start in-rhythm tonight. Then look for the points to start raining down.

The Rams defense haven't done much this season. I think it's time Ramsey had a crazy night, something like 8 solo tackles, 3 for loss, 1 sack, 1 interception, three passes defensed. One of those kinds of nights where you wish defensive players contributed individually to your Fantasy score.

Seattle start out slow, falling behind 10 points while they try against my suggestion to get the run game going and instead end up getting Russ sacked again. But then it's all Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf from there, with the 12s chewing their quicks the whole way to a 33 – 29 Seahawks loss at home. Dropping their record below .500, where it really oughta be for this season.

The storylines after the game are going to be how good Stafford has finally looked for four quarters, how they have got to get him a running game if they're going to win some of these games closer to 25 than 40 points, and how the Seahawks are in trouble and the offense looks like it only works when Russ is playing off-rhythm – again.

I don't expect either of these teams to try to make major moves before the trade deadline. I can't imagine the Rams have many more assets left to trade away for help now.

Hey - that's it for this piece. Thanks for checking me out - hope you like what I've been doing with my calves. Anyway, I'll you'll see more from me, probably today. I'm going to try to consume all the games and see if I can't find 32 things I got wrong about these teams. Then I'll be organizing my Game Rankings. Maybe I combine the two ideas. We'll see. But really, thanks for making it this far. I'm having fun, I hope you are too.