Seahawks vs. Rams Week 5 Predictions

In the 10 months since these two teams met in the wild-card round of the NFC playoffs, both the Seahawks and Rams have undergone significant change.

Losing several key pieces along a league-leading defense and the coordinator who put it all together, Los Angeles has stayed afloat by reclaiming its status as an offensive juggernaut with quarterback Matthew Stafford now at the helm. Seattle, on the other hand, has gotten off to a bumpy start as it continues its search for a Super Bowl-winning formula.

With the threat of an unideal 2-3 record looming large, Pete Carroll and the Seahawks will look to do something they've accomplished just three times in nine tries: beat Sean McVay's Rams. Here are our picks for the Thursday night battle.

Corbin Smith: Seahawks 34, Rams 30

With the Rams coming off a humbling loss to the Cardinals, Sean McVay's team is going to be motivated to get back in the win column and Matthew Stafford guiding a loaded offense could be worrisome against a Seahawks defense that has been plagued by botched coverages and assignment execution woes. Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods, and DeSean Jackson will be a problem against D.J. Reed and Sidney Jones if Stafford has time to operate in the pocket. With that said, even with Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey still starring, this Rams defense isn't playing anywhere close to the same level as a year ago and Russell Wilson has been money on Thursday night games. This has the makings of a shootout between two high-powered offenses and home-field advantage will be the difference with the roaring 12s fueling Seattle to a narrow victory.

Ty Dane Gonzalez: Rams 27, Seahawks 23

Aside from the occasional coverage bust, the Seahawks have been fairly successful at keeping their opponent's offensive attack underneath. The problem is: this "bend-don't-break" mentality has arguably hurt them just as bad, allowing teams to methodically pick them apart, move the chains and eat up precious clock—leading to the worst average time of possession (24:35) in the NFL. With Matthew Stafford now at the helm, the Rams can take whatever Ken Norton Jr.'s defense gives them. They can air it out with ease or pound the middle of the field with Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods, Tyler Higbee and a complementary run game led by Darrell Henderson Jr. Going off the script of Seattle's last four games, L.A. may opt for the latter. At that point, possessions may be severely limited in this one and cause for yet another frustrating affair in which Russell Wilson and company are forced to play as perfectly as possible. Against an Aaron Donald-led defense, there are bound to be enough hiccups to spell doom for the Seahawks under the Thursday night lights.

Colby Patnode: Rams 28, Seahawks 24

The Seahawks are coming off a huge win last week, which bought them some margin for error. The offense was positively anemic in the first 25 minutes of Sunday’s game and now has to face Aaron Donald and the elite crew of defensive lineman with the Rams. They’ll like be without Chris Carson and while the defense was okay against the 49ers, I’m not yet ready to say they’ve found their identity. The mini-bye after tonight should help this team, but tonight, I’m taking the Rams to win 28-24.

Nick Lee: Rams 31, Seahawks 30

The Rams just flat out give the Seahawks trouble. They always have, even back to the Jeff Fisher days. Pete Carroll is 3-6 against Sean McVay. This will be a great game and the Seahawks always show out on primetime. However, Matthew Stafford scares me against this secondary. He’s a much better deep passer than Jimmy Garoppolo and will take advantage of things the 49ers simply could not. Seattle will be able to run the ball but in a shootout, you got to be able to keep up through the air. L.A.'s pass rush is solid and, while Seattle looked good against SF, it didn’t solve all its problems. This will be a close one.

2021 Prediction Standings

Lee 2-2

Patnode 2-2

Smith 1-3

Gonzalez 1-3

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