http://www.fieldgulls.com/2015/9/11/9311099/seahawks-rams-preview-3-things-to-watch
3 Things to watch for in the Seahawks matchup with the St. Louis Rams
By
Evan Hill
@evan_hill1 on Sep 11, 2015
Dion Bailey
It’s official. Kam Chancellor is missing the first game of the regular season. This comes as a shock to many (and even some within the Seahawks organization, it sounds like) – as many wondered if Kam would be willing to miss a game check of more than $267,000. Well, he hasn’t shown up...and Pete officially ruled him out this last week in a press conference.
Who knows when Kam will show up? But for now – we’ve got football to play. Dion Bailey will be replacing Kam at strong safety. He’s been one of the stars of training camp and the preseason – making play after play to prove that he deserves a shot with the starting members of the Legion of Boom. He’ll start alongside of Cary Williams, Earl Thomas, and Richard Sherman. The coaching staff seems really excited about Dion.
I'll be watching to see how Dion plays in coverage, and if he delivers any big hits reminiscent of the Seahawks' normal enforcer in Chancellor. He’ll have to make some plays to solidify his presence on the Legion of Boom. He’s got some big shoes to fill. Bring the boom, Dion.
Cary Williams
The Hawks signed Cary in the offseason to a three-year deal – replacing departing corner Byron Maxwell (who joined the Eagles). Cary is a big question mark entering the season. Plagued by his sour reputation from Philly, Cary will have a lot to prove entering the season. Can he hold up?
Watch to see if Nick Foles attempts to pick on him (is it possible for Nick Foles to pick on a corner? Is that a thing??). Either way, Cary will surely be tested on opening day as the starter at corner opposite of Richard Sherman. He’ll have to take away the deep ball and limit the catches on him if he wants to keep his job. If he doesn’t play well, there’s a decent chance fans will be clamoring for his replacement.
The entire offensive line (you knew this was coming)
The offensive line has looked good at times during the preseason – but also, occasionally horrific. With the Justin Britt switch to left guard, with Garry Gilliam replacing him at tackle, Seahawks OL coach Tom Cable may have found the winning combination. But that may be a little optimistic.
Many would say the Rams have the best defensive line in football. The Seahawks offensive line will likely receive their greatest test week one of the season. Watch to see how the line holds up in pass protection and if they give any holes to Marshawn Lynch. Russell Wilson will need a little time to throw if he wants to begin establishing his connection with Jimmy Graham in the regular season.
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Jeff Fisher on playing Seahawks this Sunday
Jeff Fisher on playing Seattle
He hints at what we can expect, hope the hawks have seen this.
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I expect the RBs to have a big day
not rushing the ball, but receiving. I think we’re going to see a lot of screens and dump offs into the flat to try an counter-act the aggressiveness of their D-line.
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It will be interesting to see if the Rams just bring 4 in this game and play containment with the LB’s. They have more than enough talent, like Seattle, to be disruptive with a 4 man rush and in the past they’ve been disciplined enough to play containment well to limit Wilson and the short screens.
I think the key in this one will be Lynch getting his touches and hopefully guys like Graham/Lockett/Baldwin being safety nets to make big plays. This might be a game where a couple big plays will produce enough points to win. Hopefully that will be Seattle.
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I'm definitely most worried about the secondary
I can’t say I’m optimistic about how I think Williams/Burley/Bailey will do. If Chancellor were in, I’d be a lot less worried, but after being spoiled the last 3 seasons, the drop off in talent for this current group might mean bad things. With that said, the improvement on what looks like will be a very good front 7 will hopefully mask the early deficiencies in the secondary until Chancellor eventually comes back and Lane eventually returns later in the season.
I’m not overly worried about the OL. I fully expect them to get pushed around in this game simply because of who they’re facing. I’ll hold judgement until later in the season unless Wilson gets sacked on every drop back. For me, the guys to watch are definitely Lockett and Clark. I hope we have 2 new studs on our hands rather than a preseason mirage.
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I'm ecstatic about the LB group and DL
Adding in Rubin, Marsh, and Clark along with a healthy Hill has me thinking this will be the deepest rotation yet. And all 3 LB’s finally seem to be entering a point in their careers where they’ll be peaking. That unit is downright freaky.
My optimism is that SF/CAR/etc have had very good front 7’s like this in the years past with big holes in the secondary and still been challenging for top 2-5 overall and Seattle still have 2 and hopefully 3 all pros in the secondary on the team.
Still, I’m a little worried about Thomas. He’ll be playing with a harness and none of us really know how he’ll be early in the season because of his injury. It shall be interesting to watch them. I have a feeling they’ll be in Foles’s face enough to really make things hard on him and I’m not sure I believe they’ll be able to run much against the Seahawks front with Mebane back.
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they might try and test earl but then i think about who the rams have outside of gurley that is like physically imposing on offense and i drew a blank
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They could try to run a TE at him
The 49ers have done that to him in the past with success. Another option would be to have Britt go deep middle. He’s a pretty big guy.
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I am hoping
the Hawks would have a good game plan, that plays away from the Rams DL…quick passes, screens…not forcing Lynch up he middle. I think F-Jack plays a key role as do the TEs.
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This isn't a concern, but rather something I'm excited to watch
It seems clear that the Seahawks consciously decided to go vanilla with Jimmy Graham in the preseason (not that the #1 offense did much of anything in the passing game). In fact, in his Wednesday presser Jeff Fisher flat-out acknowledged that we’d strategically kept him under wraps so far. So what wrinkles will we see on Sunday? Will they open up the playbook? Will they even have a chance to, given the expected pass rush of the Rams? I can’t wait to find out.
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graham has historically not performed well against the rams
no tds in the last three years against them i think.
we’ll definitely see some new stuff with jimmy in this game but i am thinking he won’t be a massive factor in this game except perhaps in the red zone.
ogletree is about as good as you could hope for outside maybe kuechly and levy as far as LBs to cover graham, and tj mcdonald is pretty durn good. ultimately i want to see us pass protect a little, attack the rams on the sideline, and run the ball well.
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The Rams are very good at covering TE's with their LB's
I won’t be surprised if Graham is largely a non factor and then has a breakout game against the Packers or Bears the following weeks. If he does find a way to do damage against the Rams, I think it will be easy to assume it’s going to be a very long year for defenses trying to game plan for Wilson/Lynch/Graham and the other underrated guys like Baldwin and perhaps Lockett.
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Shall be interesting to see their alignments
The Seahawks are fortunate that they have a freakish amount of weapons they can throw out and have to rotate them (Lynch, Graham, Willson, Baldwin, Kearse, Lockett, Matthews). I won’t be surprised if we see Wilson just tossing balls up to the big guys with the expectation they’ll win at least a few. That’s a style of play he hasn’t been able to do since coming to the NFL. I just don’t think the Rams secondary is good enough to cover Graham, Willson, Matthews, and let’s say a Lockett play after play.
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I've heard Rams fans are extremely pleasant to be around in their home stadium.
I don’t know if this is true or not.
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For us to lose this game I think the front 7 would have to be really disappointing
The Rams OL is probably worse than ours, we’ve got depth at every position, a lot of flexibility (especially if Clark can play DT on some snaps)…I know people will talk about Kam a lot if it’s a close loss but to me the front seven will control the game if they play like we expect.
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Not only is their OL probably worse than ours
Their QB is worse than ours, their WRs are probably worse than ours, their TEs are worse than ours, and their secondary is worse than ours.
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Three things I'm going to be looking for...
Will RW and JFG make the Rams pay for stopping Lynch…And will they hook up in the red zone for a score or two (or three)? I mean…Jimmy fucking Graham! He’s a Seahawk and the games count. I think we’ll see a BUNCH of stuff that wasn’t in the fake games.
Will the Seahawks front 7 on D get to Foles again and again? I think the Hawks pass rush may be on the verge of something really special. Imagine Irvin, Bennett, Clark and Avril all racing to see who can get to Foles first. Look! It’s a four way tie!
How will Tyler Lockett make my jaw drop this game? He’s done it every preseason game and I don’t see any reason for him to stop.
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One thing I haven't heard mentioned: how will Russ handling OL calls affect his play?
I was a little disconcerted to hear Bevell talk about the added responsibility Wilson will have with making the OL calls/adjustments. I’m hoping that his experience will allow him to do this without adversely affecting his play. The thing is, I’m not sure we’ll know what kind of effect it had, if at all.
I do think expecting Nowak and this OL to do well with the Rams and their inevitable blitzing is a bit much. I feel like they’re bound to have significant lapses, and I’m trying to prepare myself for that.
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This is my expectation for how the Oline will hold up:
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