It’s the heavyweight battle of the century, or at least the season: the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks battle it out for the NFC West lead. Both teams have displayed impressive offensive prowess and defensive dominance through the first half of the year, so expect a classic between these Super Bowl contenders.
Before the Week 11 clash between division powers, I spoke with John Gilbert of Field Gulls to discuss how to bottle up JSN, Seattle’s turnaround and more in this week’s Q&A.
Q – Seattle was 4-5 following a 26-20 overtime loss to the Rams in Week 9 of last season. Since then, the Hawks are 13-4. What do you credit to the turnaround in the Emerald City?
A – The 2024 Seahawks finished strong as the defense came together during second half of the season and the schedule lightened up.
Then, the roster was greatly improved during the offseason. Rather than blowing a ton of cap space on veterans on one-year band aid contracts, the front office went out and splurged on a couple of over-30 veterans who were able to be signed for below-market given age and injury history. Those two have stayed relatively healthy and provided enough of a spark that when combined with the rest of the roster continuing to improve and buy into Mike MacDonald’s system, it’s been a recipe for success.
Q – The Sam Darnold-Jaxon Smith-Njigba connection has been absolutely lethal through the first half of the year. How in the world do the Rams try to slow them down?
A – One of the things that has allowed JSN to flourish this season is defenses stacking the box and using heavy personnel to try and slow the Seahawks run game. That has kept the ground attack anemic, while the passing game has been creating explosives left and right.
I keep waiting for an opponent to simply ignore the Seattle rushing attack and spend the entire game in nickel and dime, focusing on slowing down JSN, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Q – Per Next Gen Stats, the Seahawks registered 23 pressures against the Cardinals, the ninth-most in a game this season. The team is also second in sacks behind only the Broncos. With Matthew Stafford on an MVP-like tear so far, what must L.A.‘s offense do to avoid a nasty Seattle defensive front?
A – A big part of what makes the Seattle defensive front so dangerous is that there are so many playmakers in Leonard Williams, DeMarcus Lawrence, Byron Murphy, Uchenna Nwosu and others, and pressure can come from anywhere.
Figuring out who is actually rushing on any given play will be Stafford’s first challenge, and then getting the ball out quickly enough to beat the rush will be the second.
Of the quarterbacks the Seahawks have faced this season, Stafford likely has the best shot at replicating the performance Baker Mayfield and the Bucs put up in Week 5.
Q – The Seahawks and Rams are among the best in the NFL in point differential and are facing off for the NFC West lead. What is your prediction for this game?
A – One of the running jokes on Field Gulls is that the Seahawks always lose when I predict them to win, and they win when I expect them to lose.
This, I’m effectively guaranteeing a Seattle victory by picking the Rams to win 23-20.
Q – What is one question that you have for Rams fans?
A – Do Rams fans consider the Seahawks or the 49ers a bigger rival?
