Needless to say... neither fan base expected this

[Hasselbeck8MVP]

Greetings all, it's the out of town Seahawk fan that pops in every year for Rams-Hawks week.. and I wish this week had two teams that were 2-0 and feeling great about the rest of the year, but neither team is particularly happy right now.. and the loser of Sunday's contest will likely be behind the 8-ball for the rest of the season

Admittedly enough, I haven't followed the Rams very closely this season. Just hear you guys have gotten off to a very rough start out of the gates. What I can do though is provide insight to the Seahawks.. and why we are 0-2.

At the beginning of training camp, I believed the Rams and Seahawks would be the the two strongest teams in the division with the Cardinals a close third.. and the Whiners a distant last. While this is still possible with 14 games left in the season, a lot will have to change quickly for both sides.

Here are some things to look for on Sunday from Seattle's end.

Positives
* Mike Wahle filled a giant hole left by Steve Hutchinson at left guard, and for the most part has played spectacular. He will never be confused for Hutch, but he won't be confused for Sims/Spencer either.. the left side of the side (Hasselbeck's blind side) is no longer an issue. The right side however, different story.. and I'll address that later.

* John Carlson looks to be the real deal. We finally have found a tight end that catches the football (anti-Stevens) and blocks (again anti-Stevens).

* The defensive line still gets good pressure on the QB with just a 4-man rush. However, that came at home and not on the road against the Bills.. luckily Sunday's game is at Qwest.

* Olindo Mare hasn't made us miss Josh Brown yet. He's 4 for 4 on field goals (2 of them from beyond 40 yards) and has done very well on kickoffs. Sadly.. the same can't be said about the rest of our ST unit.. more on this soon.

* Julius Jones actually looks like he's playing with a chip on his shoulder. I was against bringing him in (thought we should have drafted either Stewart or Chris Johnson) .. but he's swaying my opinion of him slowly.

* Despite our top .. erm .. 6 WR's being injured (3 for the season) .. none of them have been hit by a car yet.. so that's always a positive right?

Negatives
* I hate to be the guy that blames everything on injuries.. I mean after all injuries are a part of the game.. but I have never seen a team lose SIX FREAKIN WIDE RECEIVERS BEFORE WEEK 3.. sorry for the caps, but, are you kidding me? I thought the Rams injury situation was bad last year.. ours is becoming almost comically bad. I know we would have beat the Whiners with Engram and Burleson in there.. but what's done is done.. on Sunday expect to see the fearsome quartet of Koren Robinson (welcome back to 2003), Michael Bumpus, Billy McMullen, and Keary Colbert. Courtney Taylor will be there too.. but don't worry about him, he's useless.

* Special teams have been getting destroyed. Week 1, you all probably saw Roscoe Parrish pull a Madden 2009 esque return, all while breaking about 16 tackles .. and no one covering a defensive end split out wide on a field goal.. Week 2 you might have saw a blocked punt and a couple of breakdowns in coverage leading to outstanding field position for the Whiners. The anti-special teams unit may have cost us the game in Week 1.. and led to OT in Week 2. Dante Hall could be a major factor Sunday.

* Our secondary is very inconsistent. Trufant looks like the real deal, Jennings looks to have regressed. Josh Wilson has been getting torched (Issac Bruce abused him). Deon Grant has played well, but Russell isn't doing anything special. So basically.. if you give Bulger time, he should be able to move the ball.. unless these guys start playing like they should.

* The right side of the line is brutal. Ray Willis has done a decent job filling in for Sean Locklear (likely out Sunday).. but Spencer and Sims were terrible in Week 1... and Pork Chop Womack was merely average in Week 2. I'd be shocked if Haslett didn't draw up blitzes to confuse Spencer (which is pretty easy to do).


Good to be back here talking football.. good luck the rest of the way (just not Sunday and on December 14th)

- Hass8MVP

[MauiRam]

Who would have thunk we would be battling you guys for last place in the division? Should be an interesting game .. We Ram fans have had to witness the thorough drubbing of our team for 2 weeks in a row. Hopefully this time around we'll at least be competitive ..

[Ramblin` Ram]

whats up seattle dude..

like you not really followed the opposition for sundays game,but no mention of your LB`s...in the negative or positive...i thought they were good before this season but not seen them this year...how are they doing so far?

[Hasselbeck8MVP]

whats up seattle dude..

like you not really followed the opposition for sundays game,but no mention of your LB`s...in the negative or positive...i thought they were good before this season but not seen them this year...how are they doing so far?

Kind of in between.. they haven't been anything spectacular, but they haven't been terrible either.

[RedArcher7]

John Carlson looks to be the real deal. We finally have found a tight end that catches the football (anti-Stevens) and blocks (again anti-Stevens).

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Seatle fans aren't real big on Stevens. Being a Notre Dame fan, I'm glad Carlson is doing good. Being a Rams fan I'm angry Carlson's doing good.

Rough losing that many WRs. Injuries suck eh?

Thanks for stopping by bro

[r8rh8rmike]

Dante Hall could be a major factor Sunday.

The 2008 version of Dante Hall looks slow and indecisive, so I'm not sure he'll be much of a factor. Now if Donnie Avery is given a chance to return a few, that might well be a very different story. The Rams need to put speed on the field and Avery fits the bill. I would love to see this game be his coming out party.

[laram0]

Welcome back Hasselbeck8MVP.

Great post by the way, thanks for filling us in on the Seahawks.

We haven't been playing very good. Although we did see some improvement from week1 to week2.

Most areas of our team have been struggling so far but I guess we have to take into consideration the 2 teams we've played.

Our strengths in both games was kicking. Punting and FGs.

Our biggest weakness has been the inability to get pressure on the opposing QB. (we did sack Eli twice last week) The lack of pressure has led to our secondary getting torched. The game coming up against the Seahawks could be just what the doctor ordered for our defense. Especially our secondary.

We also seem to be struggling with Al Saunders new offensive system. Hopefully real game play will correct that in the very near future. We are ready to bust out.

Good luck Sunday and hopefully the game is injury free for both sides.

GO RAMS!!!

[Hasselbeck8MVP]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Seatle fans aren't real big on Stevens. Being a Notre Dame fan, I'm glad Carlson is doing good. Being a Rams fan I'm angry Carlson's doing good.

Rough losing that many WRs. Injuries suck eh?

Thanks for stopping by bro

Thanks for the welcome.. yeah we hate Stevens.. especially after Super Bowl XL and all the antics in between.

The 2008 version of Dante Hall looks slow and indecisive, so I'm not sure he'll be much of a factor. Now if Donnie Avery is given a chance to return a few, that might well be a very different story. The Rams need to put speed on the field and Avery fits the bill. I would love to see this game be his coming out party.

That's okay.. Allen Rossum's like 48 and we made him look like Devin Hester a couple of times.