How Week 10 impacted the Seahawks: Don't discount the Rams
11/14/2022: How 2023 draft order, 2022 playoff picture were impacted on Sunday
As tempting as it may be, now is not the time to take the Los Angeles Rams lightly.
One of the most misguided offseason practices is running through the schedule to tick “wins” and “losses” in the future, based on what little information we have from the past. A couple of months ago, the Seattle Seahawks were the losing team from a year ago that parted with their franchise quarterback “so that Pete Carroll could tank.” And the Rams were the defending Super Bowl champions expecting to “run it back” with mostly the same roster.
Now look where we are after 10 weeks of the NFL.
The Seahawks dropped to 6-4 with their loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, but I’m optimistic that a bye week and a return to the states to face Josh McDaniels’ Raiders will soothe the burns left by Brady in Munich. It helps that Seattle is able to remain in first place despite the loss, and that the Seahawks will have at least a two-game lead in the division ahead of Los Angeles when they suit up again in Week 12, as the Rams have lost five of six following a defeat to Colt McCoy’s Cardinals.
The Seahawks and Rams then play for the first of two meetings in Week 13, with Seattle having a golden opportunity to silence Sean McVay and Aaron Donald for the remainder of the season with a convincing win.
Yeah, I’m not falling for that one.
It’s been almost a decade since the Seahawks went 2-0 against the Rams in the regular season, with Donald marking his territory with a 28-26 victory in 2014, a game in which Russell Wilson lost to future Russell Wilson backup Austin Davis. Prior to Donald’s first-ever game against Seattle, the Seahawks had won all but two games against the St. Louis Rams between 2005 and 2013.
Since AD’s arrival, the Rams have won 12 of 17 contests, including eight of 11 with McVay as the head coach. And L.A. hasn’t always been the better of the two teams in those meetings; remember, most of the games were Wilson against Jared Goff.
There’s no question that L.A. is a different team than they were last season. Matthew Stafford (concussion protocol) missed his first game since 2019 on Sunday and backups John Wolford, Bryce Perkins may not be good enough to make a single other roster in the league. Cooper Kupp is the only bright spot on the offense and he’s going to miss significant time with an ankle injury. The Rams are down to their third-string left tackle (a player who wasn’t on the roster a few weeks ago), Oday Aboushi was signed midseason to help following a string of guard injuries, the running backs room could be the worst in the league, and there hasn’t been one standout receiver other than Kupp, not even Allen Robinson.
BUT I AIN’T FALLING FOR THAT ONE AGAIN!
The Seahawks now have two weeks to prepare for their best efforts over the final seven regular season games, at which point they get to test themselves against the most disappointing team in the AFC, followed by the most disappointing team in the NFC. Now with higher expectations than we expected at the beginning of the season, Seattle can’t overlook the Raiders and Rams when they come back from the bye.
Less they want to become the next “disappointment” in NFL circles.
Here’s what happened in Week 10 and how it impacts the 6-4 Seattle Seahawks. Join Regular Joes to read but also to support this newsletter!
My surprise frontrunner for MVP
2023 NFL Draft order updates (including Broncos)
Who is left on Seattle’s schedule and what do they do?
Why the Rams are so bad
How dangerous are the 49ers?