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Jones leads ground attack as Seahawks rout Rams

Sep 22, 2008 - 3:12 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- The Seattle Seahawks found the perfect antidote for their winless start in 2008.

Julius Jones rushed for 140 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries as the Seattle Seahawks routed the St. Louis Rams, 37-13, for their seventh straight victory over their division rival.

Jones, who became the first Seattle running back to total back-to-back 100-yard rushing games since Maurice Morris in November 2005, scored from 29 yards out and T.J. Duckett added 79 yards and a pair of touchdowns for the Seahawks, who amassed 245 yards on the ground.

"Me and T.J. go way back, we have known each other since we were 17 years old," Jones said. "It is really good to see him get in there and mow some people down."

"Really, that is how we have to play to win," Seattle head coach Mike Holmgren said. "There were some great individual efforts, but I think what was most important to me was that every facet of the team contributed today to the win."

Seattle (1-2) jumped out to a 17-0 lead after the first quarter in front of the usual raucous crowd at Qwest Field. Matt Hasselbeck connected with rookie Michael Bumpus on a 10-yard touchdown, the first of his career, and Jones added a 29-yard scamper to account for the 17-point bulge.

"That's been our Achilles heel," Rams quarterback Marc Bulger said. "We've been getting down early. In the past, we've been able to claw our way out, score our way out, but right now we're not doing a good enough job of helping our defense out."

In his fifth year out of Notre Dame, Jones followed up his 127-yard performance last week against San Francisco by nearly reaching the century mark in the first half.

"They were able to pretty much do what they wanted to in the first half in a number of areas," St. Louis head coach Scott Linehan said. "We haven't been able to stop the run or the big plays in the running game, which seems to be an over and over thing."

The Seahawks' defense was equally as dominant in the first half. St. Louis (0-3) totaled just 11 yards on nine plays in the first quarter and, aside of a 12-play, 60-yard drive that ended in one of former Seahawk Josh Brown's two field goals, gained just eight total yards on 16 offensive plays.

Duckett capped an 11-play, 83-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown run and Olindo Mare kicked his second of three field goals, from 38 yards, to give Seattle a 27-6 halftime lead.

"It felt good. Again, as a running back, you always want to get carries," Duckett said. "There's one ball, there's a lot of great talent out here. You get the opportunity to get it, you take advantage of it and run hard."

Hasselbeck completed 12-of-20 for 172 yards, but the day was dominated by the Seahawks' ground attack. Jones ran for 100 yards in consecutive games for the first time since October 2006, when he was with the Dallas Cowboys, and his 140 yards were the most since he tallied 194 in December 2005.

"I would like to be 3-0, but we're not," Jones said. "We have to start somewhere and we started today, and we are just going to keep it going and look past the things we did during those first two games."

Bulger found Dane Looker for a 21-yard touchdown pass on the Rams' first possession of the second half to cut the deficit to 27-13, but Duckett's second touchdown of the day midway through the fourth quarter put the game out of reach.

Seattle bottled up Steven Jackson on the ground, allowing only 66 yards on 23 carries. He added five catches for 62 yards.

"We didn't give up more than 13 points," Seahawks safety Deon Grant said. "We didn't give up 100 yards rushing. That's always the goal. If we can do that to an offense, we make them one-dimensional, just passing."

Bulger completed 18-of-31 for 184 yards with a touchdown and an interception.