SEATTLE — For one half Monday night, it appeared that neither the Seattle Seahawks nor the St. Louis Rams were ready for primetime.
On the NFL’s biggest regular-season stage — Monday Night Football — the Seahawks enjoyed a touchdown lead over their struggling NFC West rivals. But for the most part, both teams were living down to expectations in a game that pitted two teams with losing records.
In the second half, however, that all changed. For one team anyway.
The Seahawks came alive over the game’s final two quarters, scoring 20 points en route a 30-13 victory, their fourth win in five games since starting the season with a 2-6 record. As has been the formula in the rest of Seattle’s wins over the past five weeks, the Seahawks won by winning the turnover battle, staying committed to the running game, and playing the tough brand of defense that has come to define the team.
“It was a good night of ball for us,” said Pete Carroll, whose team still has slim wild-card hopes with a 6-7 record. “To come back again and do the things we’ve been trying to do since the second half of the season started — running the football, playing (special) teams and trying to hold it down on D — it worked out really well again. … I’m really pleased about the style of play, you can see what we’re trying to get done. It’s obvious what we’re emphasizing and the guys are responding.”
And while the run game and defense have been the focus in the second half, the young guy who responded early was rookie receiver Doug Baldwin. Undrafted out of Stanford, Baldwin has been impressive all year as a pass catcher, but early in Monday’s game he made his mark on special teams.
Baldwin started the game with a 37-yard return on the opening kickoff after regular return man Leon Washington pitched the ball to him. That drive didn’t go anywhere, but Baldwin was able to down Jon Ryan’s punt at the 6-yard line. When the defense stopped St. Louis’ offense, Baldwin came up with his biggest play yet, blocking a punt that Michael Robinson was able to return 17 yards for a touchdown to give Seattle a lead it would never relent.
Following those big plays, however, there wasn’t much to like out of either teams’ offense in the first half. Seattle, which is now missing three starting linemen, couldn’t run the ball with any consistency, and the Rams, who haven’t been able to do much of anything offensively all year, well, they kept that up.
“We didn’t play a very good first half in that game,” center Max Unger said. “It was pretty evident.”
Seattle started the second-half with a bang, however, as cornerback Brandon Browner intercepted Rams quarterback Sam Bradford for his fourth interception in five games. That set up a field goal to give Seattle a 13-3 lead. St. Louis made it a one-possession game with a field goal late in the third quarter, but the Seahawks quickly answered with a 29-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Tarvaris Jackson to Baldwin to give Seattle a 20-6 lead at the end of the quarter.
The Rams did finally find the end zone late in the game on a Steven Jackson 1-yard run, but Seattle once again answered with a 16-yard touchdown run by Marshawn Lynch, who with the TD matched a franchise record by scoring a touchdown in nine straight games. Lynch, who snacks on Skittles during the game — a practice that gained a lot of notoriety in Seattle’s Thursday night win over Philadelphia — was greeted in the end zone by a few packages of Skittles thrown by fans. Lynch, who finished with 115 yards on 23 carries, has now gone over 100 yards in five of his past six games.
And with that, all doubt was erased as Seattle, a team that looked so lost at the midway point of the season, put the finishing touches on another emphatic victory.
“It shows that we know how to win games,” said Baldwin, who in addition to being a star on special teams had a game-high seven catches for 93 yards. “Early in the season we had a hard time playing for four consistent quarters, and now we’re finding a way to do it consistently for four quarters.”
In the end it was another convincing win for the Seahawks, that, while not always pretty, is exactly what they’re looking for.
“The part I like about it most is our attitude and our toughness,” Carroll said. “This team is playing tough football right now and hopefully we can keep it going.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
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