http://www.seahawks.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=139811&sid=9278e66058e354bff356a0b6506914d5
Game Of The Year?
Okay that's hyperbole on my part but you have to admit, this next game against the Rams is HUGE. Suddenly, the Rams are a thing. They started out 3-1 last year only to implode. This year feels different. New young coach that the team is buying into. Goff has settled in to a legitimate threat. Gurley is having a great start. We all know how their defensive front gives us fits.
If we beat the Rams - which I am leaning towards a loss prediction fyi - we are tied with them at 3-2 for first place, and things are looking up. If we lose, the Rams are 4-1 and we are a very ugly 2-3. Suddenly the thought of the division being handed to us is laughable.
So yeah, this is a MUST WIN game. What say ye?
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nothing would blow the wind out of the rams sails like losing to the seahawks right now.
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With the trouble the Rams have presented the last few years, I wonder how much of it was Fisher? In past years they couldn't beat anyone consistently but regularly got up for and played Seattle tough. I think Fisher considered it a successful year if his team beat the Seahawks.
Now I'm not disputing anything they have done this year. In fact, I have looked for them to be pretty good the last couple of years with the talent they have. It looks like they might finally have put it all together and have the right coach to do so. That being said, do they still have the mindset of completely getting up for the Seahawks game or is this just another game this week.
I believe we have the better team top to bottom. Fisher had a very unique way of out coaching Pete every damn game. How many of those losses the past few years came down to gimmick plays? I think this will be a win as the offense looks to be able to score some points now and maybe the defense has figured out their issues. Time to start the 2nd quarter of the season firing on all cylinders.
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I'll go along with "game of the year pre-bye".
A couple reasons I would advise a Hawks win:
The Rams beat up a Colts team to start the year who were playing with a baby NFL QB who also had been with the team for what? A couple weeks? Maybe a month? We posted a nearly identical victory when that QB had been able to work with the offense for a couple weeks and was coming off a victory.
Then week 2 they lost to the Skins. They needed a classic johnny hekker fake punt pass to keep the final scoring drive alive. They gave up 229 yards on the ground that day and had 3 fumbles and a pick.
Week 3 they gave up 39 points to San Francisco. I don't even feel the need to say anything else. The 49ers put up 39.
Week 4, the supposed coming out party win kinda falls flat when you consider two important elements: Injuries and timing. The cowboys were without Sean Lee, nolan carroll, and Awuzie.
Dallas was missing key cogs to the defense and oh by the way, they just played an intense road game on Monday night football, whereas the Rams were coming off a Thursday night game. 3-4 days rest (depending on how you measure it) more than your opponent is going to have its effects.
To summarize, don't expect to see anything different. The Rams are still the Rams. They didn't find magic beans this off season. Their "maturity" will be canceled out by our experience. Book the W!
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This will only be a big game if they lose it. I don't see us as a championship caliber team, so to me this is just another game to see if we make any progress.
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The Seahawks are a championship-caliber team. Regardless of record and slow starts, top to bottom, there's not a lot of teams in the NFL better than the Seattle Seahawks. Now if they play up to their potential will remain to be seen, but yes they are most definitely a championship-caliber team.
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It's certainly going to be a measuring stick of a game for both teams and it's looking like even more of a flip-of-the-coin game than previous years.
Rams under Fisher had a great defense and an awful offense. This year the Rams are by far the highest scoring team in the league through 4 weeks and their defense has looked abysmal under Wade Philips as DC -- totally opposite of what pretty much everybody thought was going to happen this year.
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Rams are good. They have had the talent the last couple years, but their coaching was TERRIBLE. This year, that seems to be fixed and the coaching is helping the immense talent live up to its potential. The NFC West is theirs for the taking.
This game is huge, and I agree that this could be the game of the year for the Seahawks. They have not won an away game against the Rams in a while...and that was before they were good.
If the Seahawks can somehow pull off a win, that would be a pretty big statement.
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First must-win game of the season? I think so if they want to win the division.
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Big game for sure. Losing Avril and Carson was huge, and maybe Lane as well.
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The Rams are 2-0 on the road for the first time in what feels like forever..
Given that, I think this game is more important for the Hawks than the Rams. If the Rams go to 4-1 and 2-0 in the division, seems like the odds would be in our favor to win the West (can't believe I just typed that..)
For the first time ever, this game will feature strength versus strength and weakness versus weakness - with both our weaknesses, at times, strengths (ironic that the two best players in this game belong on the weakness sides..).
We're not going to play a better defense, so seeing the offense will be fun this week. And defensively...no offense, but if there's an OL you want to play when your defense is underperforming, it's Seattle's.
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I mean, obviously to date this is probably the most important game of our season. Would not say it's must win in Week 5 though. That's kind of over the top. But a big road win (which has sadly become rare again the last few years) against a team with a lot of confidence right now to get a share of 1st place heading into the bye would be great.
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We need to win this game for two reasons: divisional win, and upcoming opposition.
I really can't call this game. I get that the Fisher vibe is gone from them, and their defense is showing it. I don't think it will be a defensive throttling like they used to give us. The problem is that no matter what the scheme, their DL is still legit and will give us problems. The other problem is that we're getting knicked up a bit. No Avril, no Carson, 3rd LT of the season....
If we lose to the Rams, it could get ugly. Before the season, most Seattle fans were looking at Washington and Houston and thinking "easy win!". Both Washington and Houston are better teams than the Rams, with good DL's and defenses that are playing better than LA's. Pencilling in automatic victories here is short sighted and homeristic.
If we drop the Rams game, and one of either the Redskins or Texans games, we're looking at 9-7. The way this team has played so far, can we expect us to honestly play better vs. Arizona, a team we've barely squeaked by or straight up lost to the last two years ?
Can we just expect a road win in SF when we barely beat them up here ?
I'm not being pessimistic, these are honest questions that looking at how our roster has played, I just can't answer.
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I believe this is the game that kicks start the season for us. I'm not saying it will be easy, but I believe that it will be a tough dog fight (similar to a few years back with San Francisco) that will come down to the wire. Imo.
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Statement game for both teams IMO. Seahawks finally showing some life going into LA to beat a team who traditionally gives them problems. Rams wanting to prove their record isn't a fluke and can hang with the big dogs.
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My opinion on the Rams is yes they're better coached and playing much better than the usual dumpster fire franchise that they were under Fisher.............but they also caught these early game opponents by surprise with their new scheme changes on offense.
So I'm glad we're playing them in week 5, and not 2 or 3. There's now a good body of playcalling work for our defense to scheme for. Should be very beneficial.
As far as the Ram's "vaunted defense", it's been garbage this year. I know they ALWAYS give us fits, but they're at the bottom of the league in just about ever defensive category. So this should be a game we can finally not look totally inept against the Ram's D.
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Their pass D is pathetic. Obviously their D line is money. Difference this year is it seems like Goff is better than we thought, all that "bust" talk was immature for sure.
They also added 3 good WR's, so they can beat you many ways. Plus, Gurley is damn good too.
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Gurley is the key this year. McVay really figured out how to use him, and it wasn't just continuing to run into 8-9 man boxes like Fisher tried to do. McVay is really doing a fantastic job of moving Gurley around, rolling him out into pass formations and using a lot of motion, etc.
Smart.
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Yep, Hawks will need to put up a 30 burger on Sunday
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I still believe JF was the key reason we struggled against that team. Look at the first game of the season last year with JF vs the last game without him. We have never really had a home field advantage on them so you can throw that out as why we dominated them 24-3.
Look at Goff's numbers in that game. This was without ET as well. I also don't believe Rams have established any type of home field advantage yet in their temporary LA home. There's a reason why the spread is so low and will be even lower come kickoff. This is a very winnable game for us.
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The Rams have had arguably the easiest schedule thus far in the NFL. They lost to the only team they've played with a decent defense in the 'skins. Their defense has been giving away points like Arby's gives away food poisoning. The Seahawks should win this game. That said.... Aaron Donald.
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Goff has improved but no way is he Brady or Rodgers where you prepare to score 30 minimum to win. The Rams will get 20 or so but that defense is pretty bad for some reason so the Seahawks should be able to put at least 30 on them.
This is a winnable game.
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It's the NFL, every game is a winnable game.
My hope is that without Carson, Pete will let Russell air out out a little more using Prosise and McKissic with some more dynamic playcalling.
Rather than what we usually try to do against the Rams, max protect Russell and run the ball into 9 man fronts for - 3 yards for the entire first half wearing out our defense once again.
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We've had starting DBs out in the past few games, and our depth in the secondary isn't great - when all the starters are healthy, our secondary is better than our front 7.
Our issue is LB. Ogletree and Barron, thus far, aren't fairing well. We got burned by the Niners passing game IMO because we were trying to overcompensate to stop the run. Our pass D against the Colts, Redskins and Cowboys wasn't too bad. Our run D against the Skins and Cowboys was AWFUL. Run D against the Niners was pretty good.
I'm hoping these are just breakdowns from learning a new scheme. But I don't like Barron as a MLB in a 3-4, and I would prefer Ogletree as the 2nd best MLB in a 3-4.
On top of that, we've shown little pass rush aside from Donald and the occasional blitzer. Quinn and Barwin haven't looked too great at OLB. Even in some of the coverage breakdowns defensively it's been Barron and Ogletree I see chasing WRs/RBs down because they missed an assignment. -
Ramfan128
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Well, clearly you guys are on the rise, and the new coach seems to know how to use his guys correctly. Donald is a flat out beast.
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Since this is strength against strength, I'll go with our defense over their offense. That said, we'll probably have to score at least 30 to make it a game.
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I have a feeling that Cooper Kupp will give us fits. I watched him for years at EWU and he is a very smart/crafty receiver. Goff seems to have good chemistry with him and he's exactly the type of receiver to exploit the holes in our scheme.
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Last year was Last year. JF is nowhere near this LA Rams team and outside of the special team coach none of his coaching staff is either. This Rams team has completely overhauled itself from last years team with new coaches and many new players. The approach of this team is much more aggressive and attack and isnt comfortable to just slug things out and trade field position like JF teams.
They are aggressive and playing to win and overcame an 8 point Cowboy lead on the road. The Seahawks can win this game and keep pace with the Rams but they are NOT playing JF coached teams.
Some could find solace with that considering JF ability to cause the Seahawks to struggle. I would be concerned because this Rams team as currently structured is designed to beat teams besides Seattle. Remember when the Hawks would lose to the Rams and say well its because they are playing us like its their superbowl.
This years version of the Rams is playing every game like its their superbowl so win or lose on Sunday they are still going to show up the following week. For that reason alone any comparisons to this years Rams teams and the JF coach Rams teams should be taken with a grain of salt.
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I'd say it's close to must win.
Mainly because we failed to win against either GB or Tennessee. Losing to the Rams puts us on a similar 3-3 track we suffered through 2015. We succeeded by having a really good final 10 games. But it still resulted in us being a wild card team.
Losing puts us 2 games down to a division rival that appears to be in a position to not lose the rest of their games at a staggering pace. Seattle needs this game badly. Because there are other good teams still left on this schedule and at some point we are going to have to win some of these tough matchups to offset the tough ones we already dropped.
There are six 3-1 teams in this conference. Another six are 2-2. Of the 2-2 teams, Seattle has the best points differential in the conference and better than half of the 3-1 teams currently.
Oddly, the Rams have allowed the most points of any team in our conference to go with their conference leading points differential. The championship run is kind of starting early this year. 10 wins may not assure a postseason berth. Seattle needs to start making their move now.
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This is a huge game. We have all the reasons to need to win and cannot afford to chalk this up as an OK loss due to a "slow start." We need and should bring our best game. This game will clear up a lot of questions
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