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Seahawks, Rams stage battle for first place in NFC West

Oct 10, 2006 - 11:33 PM Seattle (3-1) at St. Louis (4-1) Sunday 1:00 pm EDT

ST. LOUIS (Ticker) - The Seattle Seahawks were supposed to rule the NFC West again. But Scott Linehan and the St. Louis Rams may have something to say about that.

On Sunday, first place will be on the line when the division rivals meet at the Edward Jones Dome.

Two years ago, the Rams beat the Seahawks three times, with the last victory coming in the wild-card round. Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren was believed to be on the hot seat after the home playoff loss, but owner Paul Allen stuck with Holmgren, who had not won a playoff game in six years as coach.

That all changed last season, when the Seahawks swept the Rams, won the division title and reached the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history.

"To go out there and sweep those guys gave us the confidence we needed to have the kind of season we did last year," said Seahawks defensive end Grant Wistrom, who spent his first six seasons with St. Louis.

Meanwhile, the Rams finished 6-10 and fired coach Mike Martz. Linehan was hired as his replacement and has the Rams off to a fast start with four wins in five games, including a season-opening win over Denver, which reached the AFC championship game last season.

Beating Seattle should be Linehan's biggest challenge, although the Seahawks will be without reigning NFL MVP and rushing champion Shaun Alexander, who will miss his second straight game with a cracked bone in his left foot.

Alexander rushed for 119 yards and two touchdowns in a 37-31 win over the Rams here last October. In the rematch November 13 at Seattle, Alexander ran for 165 yards and three touchdowns in a 31-16 victory.

New Rams defensive coordinator Jim Haslett will not have to worry about Alexander, whose absence likely will put Seattle in four-receiver alignments. That approach did not work in a 37-6 loss at Chicago on October 1 because the offensive line could not contain the pass rush.

Seattle will need to protect Matt Hasselbeck from pass rushers Leonard Little and Jimmy Kennedy to make its four-receiver alignment effective. Little and Kennedy combined for 2 1/2 sacks and Little forced a fumble by Brett Favre in the final seconds of last week's 23-20 win at Green Bay.

Deion Branch, Darrell Jackson, Bobby Engram and Nate Burleson are the receivers that will test St. Louis' secondary.

Hasselbeck threw for 559 yards and three touchdowns in the sweep of the Rams last season. St. Louis' Marc Bulger actually threw for more yards in the two meetings, collecting 640, three scores and two interceptions. Torry Holt had 12 receptions for 171 yards and two touchdowns for the Rams.

One of the league's most underrated quarterbacks, Bulger has not thrown an interception in 214 attempts, eclipsing Roman Gabriel's franchise record of 206.

And when the Rams want to run, they have Steven Jackson, the NFL's leading rusher with 465 yards.

But the biggest improvement has been in a defense that allowed nearly 27 points a game last season, the second-worst mark in the league. With the offseason additions of linebacker Will Witherspoon, defensive tackle La'Roi Glover and safety Corey Chavous, the Rams have yielded under 20 points a game this season.