Seahawks-Rams Final Score: Los Angeles out-field goals Seattle

Another Sunday, another gross game between the Seahawks and the Rams. After a day of punts, minimal room to run and big hits on defense, the Rams ultimately found themselves on top by a final score of 9-3. The Seahawks’ last-gasp attempt fell short of the end zone when the ball was knocked from Christine Michael’s hands, and the Rams were able to start their first season back in Los Angeles with a win.

The Seahawks struggled to move the ball all g on the Rams’ defense. On a day in which they needed a strong run blocking effort from the offensive line to help take some pressure off the hobbled Russell Wilson, they were never really able to get Thomas Rawls or Christine Michael much room to get going. Seattle would lose Rawls due to injury before the conclusion of this one. Tyler Lockett was held out for most of the game, as well, but returned for the final punt return and offensive drive.

The Seahawks got the ball back just after the two-minute warning, and Wilson promptly hit Lockett for a huge gain down the middle of the field. They continued moving down the field, but the aforementioned fumble by Michael ended Seattle fans’ hopes and dreams of ruining the Rams’ homecoming.

As far as first halves go, this one was about as slow as it gets. Neither team was really able to do much on the ground, aside from a few decent runs by Todd Gurley and Christine Michael. The run blocking wasn’t outstanding, but both defenses were ready to roll from the opening kick in this one.

Case Keenum did a nice job getting into a rhythm with his first few passes of the day, but wasn’t able to find any consistency through the air after that in the first half (a big third down drop by Kenny Britt didn’t help, either).

On Seattle’s side, Russell Wilson was clearly feeling the effects of his high-ankle sprain, as he under-threw a number of deep balls. It surely didn’t help that he was under fire nearly every other play (as is typically the case when facing Saint Louis Los Angeles). The offense was able to get Steven Hauschka into position to hit a 29-yard field goal, but nothing more than that.

The second half was much of the same, with a few longer runs mixed in for each side. The Rams put multiple big plays together in the late third/early fourth quarter to lead to their third field goal of the day, a 47-yarder by Greg Zuerlein.

It looked as if the Seahawks were about to turn in another miraculous drive towards glory mid-way through the fourth quarter, but a questionable pass interference call on Jermaine Kearse stalled their hopes. Instead, Jon Ryan punted away and gave the Rams the ball on their own ten yard line.

The Seattle defense looked to have the stop they needed with 2:33 to go in the game, but a huge Cassius Marsh sack was negated by a face mask penalty, giving the Rams the first down they sorely needed to start forcing the Hawks to burn timeouts. The defense was eventually able to force a punt, but not before a precious 30 more seconds had burned off the clock and not before Seattle used their remaining timeouts.

They did a nice job of driving down the field on their final drive, but a forced fumble by Ogletree of Christine Michael ended any hopes for the comeback bid. No two ways about it, this was a rough game for the Seahawks.

More on this game to come from Field Gulls.