{"id":531285,"date":"2025-11-17T03:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T03:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/531285\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T03:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T03:53:11","slug":"give-us-more-rams-seahawks-please-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/531285\/","title":{"rendered":"Give us more Rams-Seahawks please \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

INGLEWOOD \u2013 Yes, I realize it doesn\u2019t work that way, but don\u2019t you wish you could go ahead and place your order right now for the NFC Championship Game on Jan. 25?<\/a><\/p>\n

More Rams vs. Seahawks, please.<\/p>\n

Right now, there\u2019s still quite the scrum at the top of the NFC. The Rams are at the top of the list at 8-2 following Sunday\u2019s pulse-racing 21-19 victory over Seattle<\/a> at SoFi Stadium, an afternoon that ended with hearts in throats as the Seahawks\u2019 Jason Myers missed what would have been a game-winning and career-high-tying 61-yard field goal at the end.<\/p>\n

The Seahawks are 7-3. Philadelphia entered the Sunday night game against Detroit at 7-2. Chicago is also 7-3, San Francisco is 7-4, Green Bay is 6-3 and the Lions were 6-3 as well before Sunday night. So there\u2019s a lot of territory to be traveled before we get to Jan. 26, the last step before Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara.<\/p>\n

But if Sunday afternoon in Inglewood was any indication, the two teams at the top of the NFC West are more than capable of battling for that spot \u2013 and once there, they\u2019ll likely keep us on the edge of our seats. They managed to entertain and thrill and frighten those among the ticket-holders (75,323 distributed) who were in attendance Sunday \u2026 and sometimes engendered all three emotions on the same play, with nothing more tangible than the division lead at stake in the first of the teams\u2019 two regular season meetings.<\/p>\n

And if you are a Rams fan, coming away with a W on an afternoon when the offense was less productive than usual had to have been a good sign, because it meant that the defense was doing way more than its share.<\/p>\n

Consider: The Rams won despite being outgained by 165 yards and despite running only 50 plays to Seattle\u2019s 79, including one stretch of the first half where they ran 19 plays to the Seahawks\u2019 36. Efficiency helps, and the Rams came away with two touchdowns in that stretch, on a Kyren Williams<\/a> 2-yard run and a Davante Adams\u2019 1-yard reception<\/a>, while Seattle settled for three Myers field goals.<\/p>\n

Those touchdowns were both historic. Adams\u2019 score was his 1,000th NFL reception, making him one of 17 receivers in NFL history to reach that milestone. And Williams became the fourth Ram to reach 40 touchdowns from scrimmage over a three-season span, joining Marshall Faulk, Eric Dickerson and Todd Gurley II. Also, Williams entered the game needing 26 rushing yards to pass Wendell Tyler and move into 10th all-time among Rams running backs, and he got it all and more on his first carry, a 36-yard run on the third play of the game.<\/p>\n

But Colby Parkinson\u2019s score, a 6-yard touchdown pass from Matthew Stafford<\/a> early in the fourth quarter, was more important. That one gave the Rams a 21-12 lead, and Seattle\u2019s Kenneth Walker II scored on a 2-yard run off right tackle, finishing off an 11-play, 84-yard drive with 2:23 left to cut the lead to 21-19 and create the late-game suspense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely things we can clean up here and there,\u201d said Stafford, had been on an MVP-level pace but had something of an off day Sunday (15 for 28, 130 yards). \u201cBut we battled. Just got to find ways to end the game with the ball in our hands. That\u2019s what we always want to do. And we had our opportunity to do it. We didn\u2019t get it done. So that\u2019s frustrating. But shoot, we found a way to win without playing perfect football against a really good football team. So you know I\u2019ll take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately for the Rams, this was the defense\u2019s day. Or, to look at it from another vantage point, Sam Darnold\u2019s nightmare.<\/p>\n

Darnold, the former USC star<\/a> who resurrected his career in Minnesota last year and had completed 71.1 percent of his passes and thrown for 17 touchdowns in nine games with Seattle this season, threw for 279 yards Sunday but only drove his team to one score and tossed four interceptions. Kamren Kinchens picked him off twice<\/a>, and Cobie Durant and Darious Williams got one apiece.<\/p>\n

Adams all but said he saw that coming during the week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just the way they prepped all week,\u201d he said. \u201cYou could feel it. I mean \u2026 the attention to detail, the communication, all of it. And then for (safety Quentin Lake) to go down (with an elbow injury) and then to still uphold that standard \u2026 That\u2019s why I love this team, to be honest with you.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat this is about is the next man mentality. We\u2019ve had that on offense all year. You know, Puka (Nacua) goes down, next guy jumps in there, we don\u2019t even blink. We continue to do our thing and keep running.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even the punter had a highlight play Sunday, or at least a highlight that didn\u2019t involve a forward pass. Ethan Evans booted a 50-foot punt<\/a> that bounced out of bounds on the Seahawks\u2019 1-yard line with 1:41 left and the Rams clinging to their 21-19 lead, and he received a hero\u2019s welcome when he returned to the sidelines.<\/p>\n

Still, it took a freaky play for Seattle\u2019s Myers to even have a chance at a game-winner. With five seconds left when the ball was snapped, Darnold hit Rashid Shaheed with a pass at the Rams\u2019 43. Shaheed went to the ground to catch the ball and the nearest defender didn\u2019t touch him to stop the play, probably assuming that time would run out. But the clock stopped at one second anyway, enabling the Seahawks to call timeout and set up the final field goal attempt.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it was,\u201d Rams coach Sean McVay<\/a> said when a questioner noted how weird that was. \u201cYou know what? I think (referee) John Hussey always does a great job. He said the guy gave himself up, and so that left one second.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019m not too upset about it because they missed the kick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, but stay tuned. These teams will play a Thursday night game next month in Seattle \u2026 and if we\u2019re lucky, they\u2019ll have one more shot at each other Jan. 25.<\/p>\n

jalexander@scng.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD \u2013 Yes, I realize it doesn\u2019t work that way, but don\u2019t you wish you could go ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2081],"tags":[7,24414,58,6,238,237,261,2635,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-531285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-seahawks","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jim-alexander","10":"tag-los-angeles-rams","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-seahawks","13":"tag-seattle","14":"tag-seattle-seahawks","15":"tag-seattleseahawks","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115563017282021626","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}