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The Seahawks win on Sunday against the Rams was not pretty. The offense mustered less than 300 total yards and Tarvaris Jackson's first two throws were intercepted. This was not a flashy, glitsy high flying offensive performance, this was a grind it out, 3-feet-at-time type of game and something to build on but by no means was it impressive.
That's me talking about the offense. The defense is another story. The defense won the Seahawks this game with a lot of help from the foot of punter John Ryan. Earl Thomas, Brandon Mebane, Kam Chancellor and company surrendered one touchdown with 9:22 in the first quarter after a Tarvaris Jackson interception put the Rams at the Seahawks' 27 yard line.
After that pass from Sam Bradford to Brandon Lloyd, the Seahawks allowed the Rams past midfield only twice.
The first came in the early third quarter on another Bradford pass to Lloyd that put the Rams at the Seahawks' 39 yard line. The Seahawks would then give up exactly one yard on the next three plays and force St. Louis to punt.
The second would come with under three minutes remaining in the game and the win all locked up, when Bradford would find tight end Lloyd once more to put them at the Seahawks 46. After a Kam Chancellor helmet to helmet hit on the next play, St. Louis found themselves at the Hawks 31 and Chris Clemons would make sure they went no further, forcing a fumble on a Bradford sack and officially putting the game away.
To really appreciate how dominate the defense really was, let's take a look at St. Louis' drives.
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1st Quarter:
Drive one: Seven plays, 13 yards, punt from Seattle 48 yard line.
Drive two: Two plays after a defensive interception, touchdown pass for St. Louis' only points.
Drive three: 3 and out. Punt from their own 42.
Drive four: 3 and out. Punt from their own 42. Again.
2nd Quarter:
Drive five: 8 plays for a total of 16 yards. Punt from their own 25.
Drive six: 3 and out. Punt from their own 14.
Drive seven: 6 plays, for 10 yards. Punt from their own 19.
3rd Quarter:
Drive eight: 9 plays for 42 yards. Punt from Seahawks' 38.
Drive nine: 3 plays, Sam Bradfored sacked and fumbles, Seattle recovers and runs it back to St. Louis 25.
Drive ten: 7 plays for 41 yards. Punt from Seahawks 39 yard line.
4th Quarter:
Drive eleven: 3 and out. Punt from their own 23.
Drive twelve: 7 plays for 21 yards. Punt from their own 39.
Drive thirteen: 2 plays. Sam Bradford intercepted by Red Bryant at St. Louis 21.
Drive fourteen: 6 plays goes for 45 yards. Sam Bradford sacked at Seattle 39, Seahawks recover.
Drive fifteen: Sam Bradford takes a knee. Game over.
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You can look at the Rams' offensive stats and know that they didn't have a good game against the Seahawks tough defense but looking at their drive summary it really puts into perspective just how bottled up Seattle had them. St. Louis finished with 185 total yards of offense, and remember that 45 of those yards came in absolute garbage time with the Seahawks up 24-7 in the fourth quarter.
The Hawks stuffed all-world running back Steven Jackson time and time again and held him to 42 yards on 15 attempts, a 2.8 yard per carry average. They held Sam Bradford to a sub-par 3.2 yards per attempt, intercepting him once and forcing him to fumble twice. The Hawks sacked him five times and hit him seven times.
Once again Seattle's thriving defense carried the team to the win today despite the Seahawks insistence upon racking up dumb penalties and their still developing offense cannot be depended on week-to-week. It's definitely encouraging.