RENTON — How is Russell Wilson moving now compared to the last time he played the Rams in Los Angeles?
It’s the difference between running and stopped.
That alone is why the Seattle Seahawks are far better equipped for Sunday’s showdown for the early NFC West lead than they were in September 2016, on their last trip to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
That previous game in L.A. came days after Seattle’s indispensable, franchise quarterback got a high-ankle sprain in the season opener.
“I moved like a bag of bricks,” Wilson said Thursday.
He laughed, earnestly — though how he felt, looked and produced wasn’t funny. Not to the Seahawks, at least.
“I really couldn’t move the last time I played them at the Coliseum,” he said. “The ankle was pretty bad that day. I taped it up like crazy, and was just hobbling around.”
The Seahawks got bricked, all right. With Wilson immobilized, the offense slogged to just 247 yards over the first 58 minutes. The Seahawks lost 9-3 on that hot day in South Central L.A. It was their lowest-scoring game in five years. The Rams sacked Wilson twice and battered him nine other times.
Being a standing target against Aaron Donald, Robert Quinn, Michael Brockers and the Rams’ attacking defensive front is a bad way to try to win.
Donald is the Rams’ freakishly fast, strong and dominant defensive tackle. Wilson said Donald is going to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame when he’s done playing. The two-time All-Pro and three-time Pro Bowler is only in his fourth NFL season.
“Obviously, to be able to move and make plays on your feet … for me, it’s really critical,” Wilson said. “It’s always great when you can move. As fast as D-ends and linebackers are, you have to be able to move and be able to make some throws and do some things. It always makes it tough on a defense, that’s for sure.”
What a difference two healthy legs make.
Now, Wilson heads back to Los Angeles to meet the NFC West-leading Rams (3-1) with his high-ankle sprain and sprained knee from last year fully healed. He hurt the knee the week after that loss at the Rams.
Wilson is back to being able to make his signature, playground plays away from pass-rushers. To run to his left, throw a dart across his body and off his wrong foot 45 yards in the air to, say, Tyler Lockett. That’s what he did on the first play of the fourth quarter last weekend in Seattle’s win over Indianapolis. People are still talking about that wowing throw around Seahawks headquarters days later.
Now, Wilson is fully equipped to get away from the extra Rams pass-rushers new defensive coordinator Wade Phillips is sending inside his 3-4 system.
“They rush five most of the time, so that’s going to be a big part of this game,” Seahawks offensive coordinator and play-caller Darrell Bevell said. “They have great players over there. Obviously, Aaron Donald is a premier player in this league and that’s something that we’ll have to make sure that we can handle.”
That will be the key to whether the Seahawks will leave California Sunday night tied with the Rams for the division lead, or two games back five games into this already uneven season.
The Seahawks’ offensive line has had problems this season having five blockers adequately hold off four and three pass-rushers on key plays. They will often get double that load Sunday. Plus, left tackle Rees Odhiambo is coming off a bruised sternum and hospital stay into Monday, putting some doubt into whether he starts against the Rams or Matt Tobin makes his Seahawks starting debut.
So, yes, Wilson is going to need his legs to escape, to make more playground plays, to win in the Coliseum this time. Seattle has played the Rams three times there: in its 1976 expansion season, in ‘79 and last year. The Seahawks have scored a total of nine points in those three games.
“Whenever you are playing guys like Donald and Quinn and all the great linebackers and everybody they have — (Alec) Ogletree and those guys, (Mark) Barron — you have to be able to move every once in a while,” Wilson said. “Because they are going to get there.”
Oh, yes, they are. The Rams have 39 sacks in 10 games against Wilson. That’s the most any opponent has dumped the Seahawks’ QB in his career.
“They’ve got great players,” Wilson said. “But we are looking forward to the challenge.
“I’m glad I can be on my feet this time.”
Odhiambo misses practice, but …
Thursday, Odhiambo missed practice one day after practicing fully — and three days after he was released from the hospital with a bruised sternum after trouble breathing.
But when asked if the team anticipated Odhiambo playing Sunday, offensive line coach Tom Cable said following practice: “It looks like it, yeah.”
The second-year replacement for George Fant, who is out for the year following reconstructive knee surgery, Odhiambo was on his back on the floor of the locker room late Sunday night. That was after he got elbowed in the chest by the Colts’ Jabaal Sheard during an interception return in the third quarter of Seattle’s win over Indianapolis. Carroll, general manager John Schneider and teammates were near Odhiambo watching silently as paramedics from the Seattle Fire Department were all around him searching to find a cause for his breathing problems. After about 15 minutes those paramedics wheeled him out on a stretcher to an ambulance and the hospital.
Odhiambo played the final 26 snaps over the last 1 1/2 quarters of the game.
“I think a lot of guys in this league do that typically in games. You get nicked-up or you get whacked like you did and you have to work through it, if you can,” the no-nonsense Cable said. “He was able to do that, so you have to take your hat off to him.
“It’s certainly a level of toughness and all that. And we’re trying to take care of him this week and get him ready to go for Sunday.”
If Odhiambo can’t play, Plan C at left tackle is Matt Tobin. He arrived in the middle of August in a trade from Philadelphia. The Eagles signed Tobin in 2013 as an undrafted rookie free agent to be a potential swing man on their offensive line, a backup guard and tackle. He impressed early that preseason, earning a surprise spot on Philadelphia’s roster. The following season he started seven games, at guard. In 2015, he started 13 games, all at guard.
He’s been practicing at tackle since arriving in Seattle.
“When I was at Philly I played mostly tackle (in practices),” Tobin said upon his arrival in August, “but all my starts in the games were at guard. So I’m pretty comfortable playing tackle and I’m pretty comfortable playing guard. It’s just wherever I practice at is where I get the best at.”
Lane, Prosise iffy
Of the rest who did not practice Thursday, Jeremy Lane and C.J. Prosise appear to be the most in jeopardy of not playing in Los Angeles.
Lane, the team’s starting right cornerback in base defense and nickel back inside when it goes to five in the secondary, strained his groin in the Colts game. Carroll said the team isn’t likely to know until the weekend if Lane can play Sunday. Shaquill Griffin, the rookie third-round pick, would start at right cornerback and Justin Coleman, who had an interception he returned for a touchdown last weekend, would again fill in for Lane at nickel.
Prosise did some running on the side with a trainer as practice began Thursday. He missed last weekend’s game with what Carroll has called an ankle “issue.” It was the 13th time in 22 games since the Seahawks drafted him in 2016 to be their third-down, pass-catching running back that he’s been out injured.
J.D. McKissic scored two touchdowns in Prosise’s role last weekend, and is poised to get more against the Rams than the 10 snaps he got against the Colts.
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