Firing On All Cylinders, Seahawks Seeking Revenge Against High-Powered Rams

RENTON, WA - Amid a disappointing 2021 season in which the Seahawks fell five games under .500 and plummeted to the bottom of the NFC West, everything started to unravel during the team's Thursday night prime time matchup with the rival Rams at Lumen Field in Week 5.

Interestingly, Seattle entered halftime nursing a 7-3 lead thanks to a touchdown pass from Russell Wilson to DK Metcalf. A red zone interception by safety Quandre Diggs helped send Matthew Stafford and company back to the sideline without any points early in the second quarter as well. At the time, everything seemed to be working in the team's favor, particularly on defense.

But coming out of the break, all of that momentum disappeared in a matter of minutes. After a promising drive sputtered for the Seahawks near midfield, Stafford marched the Rams 96 yards on eight plays and running back Darrell Henderson plunged into the end zone from five yards out to give them their first lead of the game.

Then on their ensuing possession, disaster struck for Seattle. While following through on a deep ball intended for receiver Tyler Lockett, Wilson's right middle finger struck defensive tackle Aaron Donald's arm and he suffered a ruptured tendon as well as a dislocation fracture. He tried to stay in the game after the Rams extended their lead to 16-7 with another touchdown drive, but with him unable to grip the football properly, he soon gave way to backup Geno Smith.

"That game kind of messed up the flow of that season in the early part of the season," Seahawks coach Pete Carroll told reporters on Wednesday, specifically citing Wilson's injury as a major setback for the team.

While Smith led two scoring drives to keep his team within striking distance in the fourth quarter and filled in for Wilson valiantly, including throwing a touchdown to Metcalf, Stafford and his talented receiving corps proved to be too much for Seattle's defense to handle in a 26-17 defeat. In the second half alone, the star signal caller completed 12 out of 18 passes for 234 yards and a touchdown, averaging 13 yards per attempt and posting a 128.2 passer rating.

After that heartbreaking Thursday night defeat, the Seahawks wound up losing two of their next three without Wilson under center. Even when the quarterback returned, they lost three straight contests to fall to 3-8, nearly eliminating themselves from playoff contention before December.

As Carroll noted, however, a great deal has changed for Seattle heading into Sunday's much-anticipated rematch at SoFi Stadium. Playing much better the past two weeks in wins over San Francisco and Houston, Wilson has found his rhythm now more than eight weeks removed from finger surgery. The team also ranks fifth in the NFL in points allowed thanks to a much-improved defense that has seemingly turned the corner since that first encounter in October.

"I think we are back firing with the chance to fire on cylinders," Carroll assessed. "The defense is playing well, they are doing a lot of good things, numbers wise they are doing all kinds of great things with their consistency and situational play. The balance that we saw last week is really what we’re shooting for."

Things have changed quite a bit for the Rams as well. Only a few days after signing Odell Beckham Jr., the team lost Robert Woods for the season when he tore his ACL on the practice field. An already sputtering offense has missed the do-it-all receiver, though they seemed to find their groove in a 30-23 win over the Cardinals on Monday Night Football to stay in the hunt for a division title.

Looking back at the first matchup in Seattle, the Seahawks were unable to generate much pressure on Stafford, allowing him to sit comfortably in the pocket and providing his receivers ample time to get open. In particular, Woods and superstar wideout Cooper Kupp carved up the middle of Seattle's defense with deep crossing routes behind the linebackers and the quarterback consistently delivered the ball on the money to them in stride.

As a result, Woods produced six catches for 83 yards in the half, while Kupp added three catches for 69 yards. Between the two of them, seven of those nine catches moved the chains for first down conversions. DeSean Jackson, who has since moved on to the Raiders, also caught a 68-yard pass on an underthrown deep ball by Stafford, allowing the Rams to score 23 points in the final two quarters.

To prevent the Rams from replicating such success in Sunday's rematch, linebacker Bobby Wagner believes playing deeper zones will be pivotal to taking those throws away from Stafford. When he inevitably decides to check down to shorter throws, the Seahawks have to be ready to swarm to the ball and limit yards after the catch.

“I think we have to play with some depth. I think that’s the biggest thing," Wagner said. "With some of the routes they were running, up until that point on film, they weren’t running it as deep as they were running it in our game. We have to be conscious of those particular routes, and make sure we play a little bit deeper this game. Also, be ready to be ready to come down and rally to the pass. Do a good job of taking what you give them. If you jump a short one, they’ll throw it over your head. If you stay back, they’ll take the five-to-seven-yard gain. It’s one of those games where you’re just going to have to be patient, and you’re going to have to keep making tackles and keep making tackles and capitalize when they make a mistake.”

The injury to Woods should, in theory, help Seattle's efforts in that regard. Prior to going down in Week 10, per TruMedia, the ninth-year veteran made his money in the middle of the field running crossers, slants, digs, and hitch routes on 50.7 percent of his routes. Against the Seahawks in particular, exactly 50 percent of his routes were crossers or digs working between the hashes.

On the other hand, though he currently sits on the reserve/COVID-19 list and his status remains uncertain for Sunday's game, Beckham's presence may complicate matters for the Seahawks. If he can suit up, the former All-Pro already has three touchdowns in four games with his new team, and while he isn't the same player as Woods, he offers a different skill set that could pose a new set of problems for Diggs and the rest of the secondary.

"Bringing O [Odell Beckham] in, you can tell that O has his juice. He’s still doing things at a high level," Diggs commented. "He plays different than Woody [Robert Woods] though, so I think now they’re having to try to figure out guys that can do some of the things Woody was doing. O is predominately an ‘X.’ He’s an ‘X’ receiver, so he’s not doing jet sweeps like Woody. He’s not really sealing off the edge and taking the boots and stuff like that. I think they’re just in the way of trying to figure out who they can get to replace some of the things Woody was doing.”

Illustrating Diggs' point, per Pro Football Focus, Woods played 35 percent of his snaps in the slot and also saw some action as an inline tight end and in the backfield. Beckham has played 82 percent of his 139 offensive snaps with the Rams on the outside and rarely been utilized anywhere else formation-wise, so he has not been a natural replacement in coach Sean McVay's offense.

But what Beckham has brought to the Rams' aerial attack is an outstanding route runner who can tie cornerbacks in knots with double moves and still win as a vertical threat. According to TruMedia, McVay is already playing to that strength, as Beckham has ran 26 go routes through four games, which equates to 25 percent. In comparison, Woods ran only 46 go routes in nine games.

Showing he's far from washed up and can still be an electric playmaker capable of taking the top off a defense, Beckham has been rejuvenated by a change of scenery, already grabbing a 54-yard touchdown in a loss to the Packers and making a 40-yard reception on Monday against the Cardinals. He also has fit into the Rams scheme well running his fair share of dig routes and hitches.

“He’s an amazing weapon that you’ve got to be conscious of," Wagner said of Beckham. "He’s not going to do all the running over the middle like Robert Woods does, but he’ll run a crazy slant and go because you’ve got to honor his slant. As soon as you jump that, he has the speed and the athleticism to take the top off. I think they’re finding little ways to put him in different spots that maybe Robert Woods had all of it. They’re going to find a way to get him the rock. He’s really good when he gets down the middle, so they run a couple over routes with him. They’ll use him as kind of decoy for Cooper Kupp to run it underneath. It’s just another weapon we’ve got to be conscious of.”

In addition to Beckham and Kupp, Los Angeles has received solid contributions from second-year Van Jefferson since Woods went down. The former Florida standout has seen more action in the slot over the past three games and emerged as another reliable, explosive target for Stafford, averaging north of 17 yards per reception while scoring three touchdowns, including hauling in two touchdowns of 50-plus yards.

With so many weapons to worry about and one of the top offensive gurus in McVay calling the shots on the sideline, the Seahawks know this will be a great litmus test to see how far their defense has come since the first time these two teams faced off. Undoubtedly, even minus Woods, this will be the best arsenals they have played against in several months.

But after posting second half shutouts in back-to-back victories, Wagner remains confident the Seahawks improvements following a rough start to the season will carry over into Sunday's rematch. With his team still alive in the playoff race, he's eagerly awaiting the opportunity to prove themselves in a game against a familiar, talented foe in a game that could serve as a different kind of turning point this time around.

“I think we have a good grasp of what works for us, and I think we also are a lot more attention to detail. It took some of those scars early on in the season to realize the level of play that we had to have consistently over a period of time to beat any football team, regardless of their record. We’ve grown a lot in those areas. Although we haven’t gotten off the field as much as we would like, there’s a lot of key areas that we’re doing well at. Third down, red zone, things of that nature that good defenses have. We just have to continue to try to improve. This is a great challenge to figure out if we’re doing that.”

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