Week 5 - Sunday 9th October 2005

You remember the film starring Chuck Darby don't you? Of course you do and you remember Chuck's famous quote "A Rams quarterback once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti."

OK, maybe Darby didn't eat his liver but he certainly put a nice hit on Marc Bulger late in the 4th quarter for minus 8 yards. The Rams had to settle for a field goal and there were just signs that the balance of power in the NFC West was switching to the Seahawks.

It was all foretold in the film.

Hannibal: And what did you see, Clarice? What did you see? (A band of Seahawks coming for to carry me home?)

Clarice: Lambs. The lambs were screaming. (That would be the players)

 
Hannibal: They were slaughtering the spring lambs? (Holy Toledo, you bet they were)

Clarice: And they were screaming. (That would be the fans booing)

Hannibal: And you ran away? (Well Bulger was just not fast enough)

Clarice: No. First I tried to free them. I... I opened the gate to their pen, but they wouldn't run. They just stood there, confused. They wouldn't run. (Steven Jackson please pick up the white courtesy phone)

Hannibal: But you could and you did, didn't you? (Well we did actually Mr Lecter)

Clarice: Yes. I took one lamb, and I ran away as fast as I could. (That would be Shaun Alexander)

Hannibal: Where were you going, Clarice? (To the end zone sir)

Clarice: I don't know. I didn't have any food, any water and it was very cold, very cold. I thought, I thought if I could save just one, but... he was so heavy. So heavy. I didn't get more than a few miles when the sheriff's car picked me up. The rancher was so angry he sent me to live at the Lutheran orphanage in Bozeman. I never saw the ranch again. (Funnily enough the Lutheran orphanage in Bozeman is where Rams fans would like Mike Martz sent)

Hannibal: What became of your lamb, Clarice? (Did you really have to ask that question?)

Clarice: They killed him. (In their own back yard)

Enough of this nonsense let me tell you about my own round ball playing days in the school team. Right from our opening kick off I hit a woefully short back pass allowing their player to nip in and score. As we lined up again a few seconds later now 1-0 down my fellow centre half said "Nice plan, make 'em complacent" and it worked as we ran out winners.

I should have had a patent on it because that's what the Seahawks tried allowing a 99 yard kick off return for an early 0-7 scoreline. Yet by the end of the first quarter it was 14-7 to the Seahawks, with good field position setting up a 4 play drive for an Alexander TD and then a 3 play drive for a Stevens reception.

The Rams pulled it back but then Hass went on his second 91 yard drive in successive weeks. There's nothing like a drive like that to lay down some ground rules about who is bossing the game. It was finished off by Joe Jurevicius who in celebration paid tribute to his infant son Michael by writing his initial in the turf and tossing the ball to heaven. Michael died in a St Louis hospital two and a half years ago making the trip particularly difficult for JJ. He would finish the day with a career best 9 receptions for 139 yards.

Again the Rams came back but a Josh Brown field goal made it 24-21 to the Seahawks at the half and he made it 27-21 shortly after the break with a nice effort from 44 yards.

I said last week that if a team is constantly completing 3rd and long surely you've got to change what you are doing. Well they did by leaving in rookie Lofa Tatupu when previously he had come out on 3rd down. If the question is what happened on 3rd and 15 the answer is intercepted by Lofa Tatupu. 5 games into his NFL career he's starting to play like a vet. He added another 9 tackles and only 7 players in the whole NFC have recorded more tackles than Lofa so far this season.

Shaun Alexander took the ball 18 yards to the end zone on a Hass audible call and 34-21 but Bulger pegged us back again with a drive of his own for 34-28 and a nervy 4th quarter awaited.

If Josh Brown was nervy last week failing to kick the game winner with 1 second left he looked nervy again as he clanged a 28 yarder in off the upright to give the Seahawks a 9 point advantage with 7:30 remaining.

The Hawks could have put us out of our misery by halting a 4th and 1 but the drive went on though uncomfortably for Bulger as Darby got a part of his liver.

The Rams could only manage a field goal and we only needed a couple of first downs to secure the victory. Last week Holmgren was called conservative for running when he should (according to some) have passed and now when we thought it was going to be 3 runs he kept up his aggressive game plan by going for 3 passes, the last of which saw Hass sacked and 3 minutes remaining.

Now we have been here before and the results were ugly but not this time. Tom Rouen, who was recalled this week in preference to Leo Araguz, punted to Shaun McDonald. He took one step forward and was hit by Jordan Babineaux forcing a fumble which long snapper JP Darche recovered. If that sounds good you can listen to it here Listen to Play

Now he gave it to Alexander who gained 2 first downs, ran it down to the 2 minute warning and with the Rams out of time outs we kneeled our way to victory.

OK, so we didn't exactly kill them but it went some way to erasing the memory of those 3 tough defeats last season and if you listen to the above audio clip you can just about detect the Silence of the Lambs.

I said in my week 1 report of the defeat in Jacksonville that, despite the loss, I didn't think we were the Same Old Seahawks and as the season progresses I'm getting more convinced that I was right. We seem to have a stronger mental attitude and all round toughness that is going to make us more difficult to beat this time around. Time will tell of course but I think we can look forward to he rest of the season with a certain optimism.

Andrew Robinson (HawksHead)

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