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Seahawks @ Rams 10/15/06
When the Rams schedule came out this year before the season started I had my eye on this game. I was hoping this matchup would mean alot more than a rivalry game. Well my hopes have been answered. This is a big game for our Rams and even bigger for the Seahawks. Win and we are in the NFC West driver seat 1 1/2 games ahead of the Seahawks, not to mention the playoff implications of a 5-1 team. Lose and we drop 1/2 game behind the Seahawks which is not the end of the world. Still a solid playoff hopeful. Being a divisional loss would hurt as we would be 1-2 in divisional games. 2 losses in our own division would probably be 1 to many. Let's face it the Seahawks are the team to beat and really the Rams are the only team in this division that are capable of beating them. So it's up our Rams as far as taking control of the NFC West goes.
The Seahawks feel like they finally got that perverbial "MONKEY" off their backs last season when they came into the Dome and beat the Rams. Then followed that up later in the the season by beating us a QWEST Field.
The game at the Dome was very close despite the Rams losing the turnover battle 0-2. The last turnover (Shaun McDonald fumbled punt return with 3 minutes left in the game) being the final nail in our coffin. The real weakness of the game for the Rams was the ineffective punting game. Punter (Hodges) had an average of 33.2 yards on 5 punts. Which resulted in the Seahawks playing on a short field for the better part of the game. The Seahawks had drives that started at the St. Louis 47, 44, 35 and 50 yard line. All 4 of those drives resulted in points, 2 TD's and 2 FG's. Despite that weakness the Rams hung tough but eventually lost 37-31.
The game at QWEST Field saw Interim HC Joe Vitt bring the Rams into town.
This game was closer than the final score of 31-16 indicated. The Rams had plenty of opportunities in this one. We ran a fake fg that failed and finished the game 1/5 in the red zone. The Rams "D" had a tough game. They just couldn't stop the Seahawks on many critical 3rd down plays. The Seahawks finished the game 10/15 on 3rd down conversions.
Coming into this season both teams have made some personell changes. I don't see that the Seahawks have improved their team at all. If anything the loss of Pro Bowl LG Steve Hutchinson has hurt them more than they realize or want to believe. On the otherhand the Rams have made changes that have definitely improved our team. A 4-1 record is proof of that. It's a good thing the Seahawks have had the extra week to prepare for our Rams. No more Mad Mike, the Rams have a new approach to the game of football.
Our common opponents have been the Cardinals and Lions. The Rams and Seahawks won those battles.
Of course the all important "Power Rankings" have the Seahawks at #8 and the Rams at #14.
The Seahawks are 3-1 coming into this game. However in the last 6 quarters they've been outscored 64-13. Even though the Seahawks are basically the same team as last year they haven't shown the dominance over their opponents like a year ago. Are Alexanders' injury and the loss of Hutchinson effecting them more than they want to believe?
Basically what I'm leading up to is that the Seahawks are coming into the Dome as a 3 point favorite, based on what?
The Seahawks squeaked by the Lions 9-6. Followed that up with a 21-10 win over the Cardinals at QWEST, home of the 12th man? They seem to hit their stride at QWEST by pounding the Giants to a tune of 35-3 at half. Not! it's all been downhill since then.
In my opinion this is a very winnable game for the Rams. In fact we should be the favorite with the book makers by at least 3 if not 6 points.
Bottom line is that we will be 5-1 with a 27-24 win with the help of our 12th man the Edward Jones Dome.
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