Seahawks, Rams Looking to Build on Momentum

 The NFC West title was decided between two chronic underachievers last season: the Seattle Seahawks and the St Louis Rams. Both teams sported losing records and it all came down to a tiebreaker game which the Seahawks won 16-6 at home, thus finishing atop the NFC West with a dismal 7-9 record. The Rams had a similar record but they had lost the tiebreaker.

This season, none of the two teams are playoff-bound. In fact, they look nothing like playoff teams, with the Seahawks sporting a less than impressive 3-6 record, and the Rams an even worse 2-7 one. San Francisco’s 8-1 west-leading record will leave no room for teams hoping to ride into the playoffs on losing records. Despite their obviously tough seasons and poor records, the two teams have both had good games last weekend. The Rams played in Cleveland where they managed to steal the game rallying to a 13-12 victory. The Seahawks played at home, against the Baltimore Ravens no less, and they too managed to put an end to their skid, scoring a 22-17 win.

The two teams will play each other in a re-enactment of last year’s tiebreaking game, on Sunday at Edward Jones Dome, for the first time this season. Experts point at Seattle as the favorites in this bout, on account of their ability to keep the ground game rolling against a defense which allows 150.6 rushing yards per game: dead last in the league in this respect.

Last weekend, a whole bunch of the Seahawks’ leading receivers suffered head injuries. Kam Chancellor, Dough Baldwin and Sidney Rice are all down for the count, but the team hopes they’ll all pull themselves together till Sunday and if they do the Seahawks will be like pokerprops: rolling in options. St Louis has its own injury-related problems in Al Harris and Mike Hoomanawanui who are both down with knee problems.