ST. LOUIS – For the third straight week, the Seattle Sea-hawks managed to rush for more than 100 yards in a game – generally considered a measure of competence for a team’s offensive line.
Many might have bet the “under” on that performance against St. Louis after the Seahawks lost right guard John Moffitt and right tackle James Carpenter for the season to knee injuries last week.
And that’s fully considering the fact that the Rams were the last-rated team in the NFL in rush defense.
Carpenter was a first-round pick and Moffitt a third-rounder, and were meshing their burgeoning skills on the right side of the line. But now, they’ll share their surgical experiences and rehabilitations.
In their place, right tackle Breno Giacomini and right guard Paul McQuistan were elevated from the second rung of the depth chart.
While it appeared that Giacomini performed well against Rams defensive end Chris Long, McQuistan drew three penalties for false starts and one for holding.
Seven of the Seahawks’ 13 penalties were drawn by linemen, with Robert Gallery also call for a false start and a holding penalty, and Russell Okung flagged for roughness.
“We took a couple (of) sacks … a couple of them were my fault for holding onto the ball too long,” quarterback Tarvaris Jackson said. “But I trust those guys. Those guys have been playing. They know their stuff. Just watching them in preseason and watching them throughout the season and how they practice and work hard. The whole line stays ready. Most of those guys are ready to play each week.”
Giacomini and McQuistan sat next to each other in the locker room, both pleased with the win, but both citing an urgent need to improve.
“It went all right,” Giacomini said. “Once we started going it got a little better.”
“A win is great,” McQuistan said. “But I gotta pick it up and get better.”
Giacomini seconded that.
“It’s a step forward, but there’s a lot of things we’ve got to get better at,” Giacomini said, “and that’s what we’re going to focus on this week.”
Center Max Unger said the team got deeper into their game plan in the second half, and that helped matters.
“It’s a road win over a divisional opponent, so that’s big, these things are hard to come by. But we’re not going to win a lot of games like that.”
Dave Boling: 253-597-8440 dave.boling@thenewstribune.com
