The Rams are a joke, so don't seriously think the Seahawks are back
Seattle just isn't the force it used to be on defense, and it sure misses Beast Mode
By
Bill Reiter
•
4 min read
Let's not be fooled by the 24-3 mauling that the Seahawks laid on the Rams on Thursday night.
This wasn't a re-emergence by the Seahawks, a public announcement that after their debacle in Green Bay last week that they're back, or some kind of grid-iron proof they remain one of the NFC's top threats as the playoffs creep closer.
Nope. This was just another football team, hardly a special one, playing a hapless opponent incapable of mounting even a semblance of a fight.
Yes, Seattle went to 7-0 at home with the win to clinch the NFC West, and no team in its right mind wants to head to the northwest come the playoffs. But if you have to -- if you're, say, the Bucs or the Giants or the Falcons -- you can do so knowing that this year's Seahawks team isn't the force to be feared it was in years past.
Russell Wilson has lost some of his magic, and it's not just, or even, the five-interception nightmare in Seattle's loss in Week 14 to the Packers. Maybe it's a lingering injury and he's playing through the pain like a true winner. Maybe it's an offensive line that's been neglected because the Seahawks' brass leaned too heavily on the notion that Wilson can scramble around such problems.
Whatever it is, and as good as he still is, something is missing. Don't count on Wilson carrying this group to greatness.
Maybe part of what is missing has to do with Marshawn Lynch. Yes, Thomas Rawls has had his moments, but he rushed for just 34 yards on 21 carries on Thursday night. There's obviously no Beast Mode in what he does, or in Seattle now, and that's a physical and an emotional loss. Lynch was the heart and soul of his teams. With him missing, so is some elemental aspect of his former team.
There's more. The defense is still very good, but it's taken a step back. There's tenacity in it, sure, but no terror. Last year that defense allowed 291.8 yards per game, the second-fewest in the league. This year's defense was giving up 330.2 yards per game before they played the JV offense the Rams throw out there, good for eighth in the NFL -- respectable, to be sure, but no longer utterly dominant.
Which sort of sums up this team: Good, to be sure, but not longer utterly dominant. Not anymore. Not even after the illusion of excellence that comes from playing the 2016 Los Angeles Rams.
Even Jared Goff looked good at times Thursday night, despite what the box score tells you. He had a scramble toward the end of the game that might have been a touchdown had Richard Sherman not emerged from nowhere, laid a vicious hit on the rookie QB and knocked him out of the game. Yes, it was past the point that it mattered, but it also underscored how bad the Rams are: All that punishment and effort was for naught. A holding call wiped out the play, a perfect metaphor for L.A.'s season.
All game, with Goff looking sharp and his team dropping balls, I thought, Where is Seattle's stifling defense against an overmatched rookie QB? Where's the feared 12th Man? What limited the Rams offense wasn't either of those things. It was those drops and mistakes, like when rookie Michael Thomas butter-fingered a wide-open, beautifully thrown ball from Goff that would have been a 59-yarder worth six. Or Todd Gurley, once considered a rising star at running back in this league, unable to muscle his way to a first down on a key fourth-and-1.
So don't be fooled. The Rams are a horror show posing as a professional football team, and on Thursday night Seattle was a pretty good but not great football team posing as a dominant force because of its opponent.
The Falcons and the Lions and maybe even the Giants and Washington could be Seattle's equals in the NFC. Clearly, the Packers are. The Bucs held Seattle to five points a few weeks ago. Playing the Rams is one thing. Playing these other teams is something else entirely.
Am I wrong?
Is Seattle going to again round into form and storm through the playoffs?
I hope so. The league is better when Seattle is great. It's hard to root against Wilson, the fervor and passion of Seattle fans or the excellence this organization has forged for itself the past few years. And historically speaking, it's a mistake to underestimate Pete Carroll, Wilson or this team once December gives way to January.
But the takeaway from Thursday night's game isn't that the Seahawks need to be feared. They don't. Not like they used to.
The takeaway is, if you play the Los Angeles Rams in a football game, odds are you're going to look like a champion. It's an illusion that's more about L.A.'s incompetence than it is their opponent's supposed excellence.
