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Seahawks vs. Rams: Seahawks beat Rams 14-9 in ugliest imaginable way

By Danny Kelly
Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

The Seahawks managed to win a division game on the road against the Rams despite mustering a meager 135 yards of offense (including 80 yards on one play). That's the third lowest total in franchise history. They went 2 for 11 on third down. They only ran 40 plays. They handed the ball to Marshawn Lynch 8 times. He picked up 23 yards. That's his lowest total rushing yards since Pittsburgh 2011. The line gave up 7 sacks. The defense gave up 200 yards rushing. And Seattle won. The NFL. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I may never watch this game again, it was that gross, but I just want to stress again right now that winning in the NFL is hard. Really, really hard. As fans, I feel like we come to expect blowouts every game, particularly following a team with as much talent that Seattle has, but the fact is, if you look around the NFL, it's pretty tough to find teams that are winning blowouts every week. No one wins pretty every week. Denver has won ugly. New Orleans has won ugly. Green Bay has won ugly. San Francisco has won ugly. Oh, hey, each of those teams has actually lost a game or two too.

Warts show up on the field each and every week, and the over over-reactionary nature of NFL fandom is just that - over-reactionary. Seattle's historic run of blowouts last year was, as the adjective alludes, historically rare. This is a week-to-week sport. Good teams look great in one week and look terrible the next. Then they look great again against a team that should make them look terrible. I cannot stress this enough: NO ONE HAS THE NFL FIGURED OUT. It's probably the most unpredictable and parity-driven sport in the world. It seems like every week, something weirder happens and teams you thought you 'knew' look like someone else.

Here's my point: I'll take this win, not because Seattle deserved it, but because f*ck it, sometimes it's nice to get a win you don't deserve. Good teams win ugly. Seattle did that today. Seattle is 4-1 on the road. They've won the first two division road games. Who cares if it was disgusting?

Ok, rant (almost) over. I'm just saying, it's hard to win in this league. I'm not going to rush to judgement and make sweeping claims about Seattle's chances to win the Super Bowl because St. Louis played the Hawks just like they have the past two times they've faced them - really, really tough, really really close. St. Louis matches up well with Seattle. There's no doubt about it anymore.

Step back from the ledge, this team, and yes, this offense, is still good. Pass protection is an issue, but we knew that already. Ok. I'm done.

Notes:

- No Seahawks turnovers. Two interceptions by the defense. The difference in the game.

- Seattle's special teams units continued to ball out. Tavon Austin had seven yards in returns. That pushes the total return yards on the year to 15.

- Seattle gave up no touchdowns. They stopped St. Louis at the goalline to win the game. Even after that sh*thole of a game, that was actually a pretty fun sequence. Never say die, eh? I literally typed out a tweet saying "just let them score so we can give the offense the ball back already" after the Rams got the first down with goal to go. Boy I'm glad I deleted that. Oh me of little faith.

- We know now that Paul McQuistan is not good at playing left tackle and Michael Bowie has a long way to go, but I was really pretty concerned about the lack of any sort of adjustment by the Seattle coaching staff to try and get some better protection. When St. Louis is stacking the box with 8 defenders on every play, you'd hope there would have been more downfield throwing opportunities, but Wilson had little time all game. There didn't seem to be much in the way of keeping Zach Miller in to block either. On first viewing, it just seemed like the Hawks didn't do anything to try and protect Wilson other than hope that McQuistan and Bowie played better.

- The defense really did shut Kellen Clemens down. The run defense struggled some - but you can almost expect that, considering the Rams gave Seattle a taste of their own medicine and rushed it 37 times, controlling the clock 38:09 to 21:51. St. Louis just kept beating on the Seahawks run defense and you could see them really nosedive in that area toward the end.

- Golden Tate, two touchdowns. Absurd taunting on his second TD, which should help cement everyone in the nation outside of Seattle's hatred of him.

More tomorrow. I guess I will have to watch this stupid thing again. I really don't want to though. At least it was a win and we can move on with our lives.

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