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Seahawks rally past Rams on late field goal

Dec 15, 2008 - 1:33 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- The Seattle Seahawks scored 10 points in the final three minutes, including a 27-yard field goal by Olindo Mare as time expired, to post a 23-20 victory over the St. Louis Rams on Sunday.

Seneca Wallace threw a 45-yard pass to Deion Branch with 44 seconds to play to give the Seahawks a 1st-and-10 at the 9. After a 1-yard run by Wallace, Mare came on to kick the game-winning field goal.

T.J. Duckett scored on a 1-yard run with 2:47 to play to tie the game, 20-20. Marc Bulger then threw three consecutive incompletions to give the ball right back to the Seahawks (3-11) and give Wallace the chance to lead the final drive.

"I think we just came out flat in the first half," Wallace said. "They did some things defensively that kind of caught us off-guard a little bit. We just had to adjust. I don't think we came out ready to play early in the game. Mike (Holmgren) got on us a little bit at halftime and we came out and played one heck of a second half."

Seattle snapped a six-game losing skid with the win, their first since the end of October in San Francisco.

"I don't know what to say, its been so long," Seattle coach Mike Holmgren said. "I thought it was a great effort by the guys in the second half. I thought we played a poor football game in the first half. So I challenged them a little at half time and I think they responded beautifully.

"They are very happy, they should be, they worked very hard. In this league a win is a win. I am very happy with the players."

Bulger threw a TD pass in the first quarter and Steven Jackson had a 6-yard TD run in the second as the Rams (2-12) opened up a 17-7 lead at the half.

St. Louis looked like they would roll in the first half as its offense was clicking and Seattle was struggling without starting quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and tackle Walter Jones.

The 17 first-half points were more than the Rams had scored in any of their previous six games and they racked up 243 yards in the first two quarters.

"Since I've been here in this organization and playing the Seattle Seahawks, it's kind of one of those classic games where you know whoever has the ball last probably is pretty much going to win the game," Jackson said. "We jumped on them early but something in the back of my mind told me that they were going to make some great adjustments and make a game out of it and that's exactly what they did."

But St. Louis struggled after halftime and managed only 100 yards over the final two quarters. Given a second chance, the Seahawks responded.

Mare kicked field goals of 28 and 50 yards in the third quarter to pull Seattle within 17-13. St. Louis' only second-half points came on a 48-yard field goal by Josh Brown early in the fourth that made it 20-13.