Seahawks keys at Rams: DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett vs Jalen Ramsey, Aaron Donald vs everyone
Russell Wilson is back where he doesn’t want to be--but is so good at.
Rebounding after a loss.
With his top running backs Chris Carson and Carlos Hyde out for the third consecutive game, it appears it will be Wilson or bust for the Seahawks’ top-ranked offense again Sunday at the Los Angeles Rams.
That’s far from the only key for Seattle (6-2) in this pivotal NFC West game that kicks off at 1:25 p.m. at the new SoFi Stadium palace in suburban Inglewood.
A win for the Rams (5-3), who are healthy and rested coming off their bye, will put Los Angeles into first place in the division. Depending on the result of the Buffalo-at-Arizona game Sunday, the Seahawks could be in third place in the West if they lose.
A Seahawks win and the 7-2 Bills winning at the 5-3 Cardinals would give Seattle a multiple-game lead over everyone else in the division with seven weeks left in the regular season.
The Seahawks will be missing seven injured players, four of them starters: Carson (sprained foot), center Ethan Pocic (concussion) and starting cornerbacks Shaquill Griffin (hamstring) and Quinton Dunbar (knee).
The key players for this key game:
1. Wilson.
The Seahawks’ quarterback is 32-8 in his career following an in-season defeat. That’s the best such record in the last 50 years, since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.
Wilson is coming off committing four turnovers last week at Buffalo. He has seven turnovers in Seattle’s two losses this season. The other time after he lost, at Arizona last month, he responded by taking a 30-7 lead into the fourth quarter of a breeze past San Francisco.
This will not be as breezy.
The Rams are going to be coming at Wilson with pressure, which he and his offense did not handle well at all in Buffalo.
Wilson needs one more win to break a tie with Tom Brady to become the NFL’s all-time winningest quarterback in a player’s first nine seasons, including postseason. Wilson has 101 victories.
2. The pressure comes most ominously from Rams All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald.
Wilson says Donald is the best defensive player he’s ever faced. He has nine sacks in eight games this season. The two-time NFL defensive player of the year has eight sacks in his last four games against Wilson and the Seahawks. His 12 sacks in 12 career games against Seattle is his most against any team he’s played.
3. Kyle Fuller is making his first start at center in his first offensive plays for the Seahawks. Rookie right guard Damien Lewis has been good this season. Left guard Mike Iupati may be returning from a back injury last month, or else Jordan Simmons will start again.
They must be more than good against Donald.
2. Coach Pete Carroll and the Seahawks’ defense are still trying to figure out how to best use Jamal Adams’ blitzing in their defense. They need to cover receivers more tightly behind his blitzes.
Seattle has allowed 28 plays of 20 or more yards in Adams’ five starts this season. The defense has allowed 12 such plays in the four games Adams has missed because of his previously strained groin. The Seahawks allowed nine big plays last weekend while surrendering 415 more yards passing to Josh Allen and the Bills. The 44 points they allowed at Buffalo were the most a Carroll-coached Seahawks defense has ever given up.
Carroll said Dunbar, again, out for Sunday, was too far off receivers at times in Buffalo. But he said cornerback Tre Flowers had one of his best games in three years at cornerback. Whenever Griffin gets back from his hamstring injury, which may not be Thursday for Seattle’s game against Arizona, Flowers may challenge Dunbar for the job opposite Griffin.
A more consistent pass rush up front would help the battered, besieged secondary. Sunday would be a good time for two-time Pro Bowl pass rusher Carlos Dunlap to show why the Seahawks traded last month with Cincinnati to get him.
4.. The Seahawks’ must be prepared for the Rams’ constant crossing patterns and receivers stretching them sideline to sideline. L.A. coach Sean McVay has seen how the Bills burned the Seahawks on those routes across the middle last week, and the Rams do it as much as anyone in the league.
Cooper Kupp has been doing it most this season. The former Eastern Washington Eagle leads the Rams and is 14th in the NFL with 48 catches. The Rams will send Kupp, Robert Woods, tight ends, running backs, everyone they can find on horizontal routes, and Jared Goff will be getting the ball out quickly to counter the Seahawks’ blitz game and keep them from repeating their seven sacks of last week.
5. I’ll be watching for how much Rams top cornerback Jalen Ramsey shadows DK Metcalf and how much Ramsey moves all around the defense, inside and outside.
Seattle play caller Brian Schottenheimer said he expects Ramsey to spend much of the game matched up on Metcalf.
The Seahawks are very OK with that.
“We are very comfortable that DK going against Jalen, that that’s a very, very good matchup for us,” Schottenheimer said. “He’s a great player.
“So is DK.”
And so is Tyler Lockett.
Carroll likens the way the Rams use Ramsey to how Arizona uses Patrick Peterson.
The last time an opponent used its top cover man to shadow Metcalf, it was the Cardinals with Peterson three games ago. So Wilson targeted Lockett a whopping 20 times instead, for Lockett’s career game. He had 15 catches, 200 yards and three touchdowns at Arizona.
This story was originally published November 15, 2020 at 6:07 AM.
