.
Nick Foles hit 18-for-27 for 300* yards and he spread the ball to 5 different receivers - each of whom averaged 20 yards per catch. Every single one of the Ram receivers hurt us, badly. Dr. D is guessing that the Rams no longer feature 5 different wideouts of Torry Holt caliber. Those Ram WR's and RB's routinely had miles of separation and then rambled free with acres of space in the secondary.
Then you had the iconic replay of Deion Bailey stumbling and falling as he chased Kendricks up the sideline, futilely trying to stop an easy TD.
True that the very top QB's give the Hawks the most problems by throwing in front of them. Tough to imagine, though, the Legion of Boom getting sliced and diced quite that badly by Nick Foles and a cast of less-than-legendary WR's. And if that's the enemy game plan, to run drag routes and get yards after the catch, there are ways to overplay that. As the Seahawks did against Denver, and as they did even against New England, adjusting for injury.
I would imagine Kam's teammates being ... quite ... frustrated with him today. That's one they shoulda had. I didn't go into the game expecting to see the Seahawks miss Batman as much as they did, but ... that's what it looked like from here. Dr. D isn't angry at Kam Chancellor, but --- > he signed a long-term deal, cashed a bunch of checks, and now refuses to render services for payment accepted. For me, if he honors his contract the Seahawks are 1-0 today.
......
In the big picture, you had 350 net yards for each team, give or take ten yards. You had 20 first downs for each team, give or take one first down. You had 50% third and fourth down efficiency, give or take 5 percent, and one Super Bowl Justifying burial of Marshawn Lynch at the handoff. Marshawn never WAS a lock to convert a first. They key on him too much.
So it was just an epic war on the Rams' home turf. It's not as easy to win in the NFL as Seahawk fans have come to think it is. The Seahawks never lose by more than a TD, but ... on the road they seldom win by more than one, either. In 2014:
- Loss at Chargers, 21-30
- Win at Redskins, 27-17, tough game, coulda lost it
- Loss at Rams, 26-28
- Win at Panthers, 13-9, kinda got lucky
- Loss at Chiefs, 20-24
- Then they played really well the last three games
But it's easy to look back on a 12-4 record and figure you were never in trouble. Actually, every team in the NFL is in trouble, any time it's playing on the road.
......
The Seahawks have added some big weapons, and the hunch here is that Carroll will lengthen the leash on Russell Wilson, once he realizes that he has to. If the Seahawks hadn't scored 31 points Sunday, they wouldn't have been in the game.
Could be a different team without Chancellor. Hope not, but it's a possibility.
BABVA,
Dr D
