Can the Rams still beat the Seahawks despite resting starters?
The Los Angeles Rams will wrap up the regular season on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks at SoFi Stadium. With a playoff spot all locked up, the Rams will be resting starters and keep their primary focus on next week. With the Rams resting their primary starters on offense, it’s hard to see them winning this game. At the same time, it is the NFL and anything can happen. Here are this week’s keys to victory.
1. Stay Healthy
The most important thing for the Rams this week is to stay healthy. While important players like Matthew Stafford, Kyren Williams, Puka Nacua, and others won’t be playing, the Rams are unable to rest everybody. Steve Avila and Beaux Limmer will still be playing on the offensive line. Defensive starters like Jared Verse, Byron Young, and Quentin Lake will still be playing as well. The Rams can certainly rotate those players in certain packages, but they will likely still get playing time.
It’s critical that the starters that do play remain healthy for the postseason. Due to roster size, the Rams can’t completely treat this like a preseason game. With that said, they need to get out relatively unscathed and healthy for next week.
2. Learn more about younger players
With the Rams opting to rest their starters, it’s hard to say that they are trying to win this game. Therefore, the next best thing will be trying to learn and evaluate some of the younger players on the roster. Jordan Whittington will get some quality snaps at wide receiver. Is he a player that should have a more pronounced role next year? If Emmanuel Forbes gets some snaps, he may be someone that can take away the need to draft a cornerback high in the draft.
Additionally, Brennan Jackson and Tyler Davis could see some more snaps. Jackson hasn’t played a lot this season, but could be in line to replace Michael Hoecht next year. The Rams won’t be making decisions based on this game alone. With that said, this is a good opportunity to learn more about some young players and see where they currently stand.
3. Ride Blake Corum on offense
If the Rams are going to win this game, the offense is going to have to go through Blake Corum. The Rams ran the ball 35 times last year with Matthew Stafford out of the lineup. It’s fair to note that 17 of those runs came from Carson Wentz. However, with Jimmy Garoppolo in the lineup, the Rams will lean on the run game and play action to dissect the Seahawks defense.
Against play-action this season, the Seahawks are allowing the fourth-most EPA per pass and third-most yards per attempt. Their 11 touchdowns allowed against play action, leads the NFL. The Seahawks have an average run defense which should allow the Rams to lean on Corum and then get to play action. Garoppolo has typically been a good quarterback out of play action and the Rams will look to get him those opportunities.
4. Play bend, don’t break on defense
The defensive side of the ball is where things get interesting. At the end of the day, the best game plan for the Rams may be to shorten the game. To do that on defense, keeping the game in front of them and forcing the Seahawks to go down the field 5 to 6 yards at a time may be the best game plan. While that can be frustrating to watch, it also make force Geno Smith into mistakes in the red zone like it did earlier this season.
Simply put, the Rams need to avoid giving up the explosive play. Jaxon Smith-Njigba had a career day against the Rams earlier this season. He had seven receptions for 180 yards and two touchdowns. Smith-Njiga may still get yards on Sunday, but the Rams have to avoid giving up the big play over the top.
5. Whatever happens, Rams win against the Seahawks
In a sense, the Rams have the chance to really troll the Seahawks. Last week, they essentially ended the Seahawks’ season by beating the Cardinals. Ahkello Witherspoon’s interception in the end zone crushed the hopes and dreams of Seahawks fans everywhere. This week is really a win-win for the Rams. If their backups beat the Seahawks’ starters then Seattle wouldn’t have deserved a playoff spot anyway. However, if the Rams do lose, it would solidify the Seahawks in the worst non-playoff draft slot at pick 18.
After five weeks, the Seahawks led the division at 3-2 while the Rams were 1-4 and at the bottom of the NFC West. The Rams won the NFC West before the two teams could even play a second time. Either way, the Rams win and have bragging rights going into next season. Still, it’s nice to know the Seahawks will get a worse draft pick if they do take the win on Sunday.