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The Los Angeles Rams have clinched the NFC West.

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User is offline   liny195 

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It’s been in the bag for two weeks now. They’re going to the playoffs. But which version of them will show up in the postseason — the battering... ram of a team we saw early on Shaquill Griffin Color Rush Jersey , or the squad that’s run a minus-4 point differential since Halloween? Yes, they’ve been outscored in all of November and December combined.For fun, since the Seahawks are playing not-terrible football right now and the Rams are playing maybe-terrible football at some key positions, I decided to compare the rivals’ statistical performance, all quick-like. Just for the month. Since the playoffs are right around the corner and all.Examining some flawed stat like yards per carry and coming to a conclusion one way or another is the worst kind of cherry picking. We need much more data than a single point. A look across at 13 statistical measures (not 12) will show what any spectator had to notice, after watching the Rams lose in Chicago and then at home on Sunday Night Football: they’re not the juggernaut they were in the sunny days of September and October. There are phases where the Seahawks are clearly outplaying the Rams; can we vault into a hope-raft of those trends perpetuating themselves into the postseason, where the teams could well meet? RECORDSeahawks 2-1 / Rams 1-2Advantage: Seattle? Not so quick. LA has faced teams with a combined 18-18 record at the time; Seattle’s foes were 11-24-1, having met the Niners twice. Also, the Rams had two road games to the Seahawks’ one.Still, if it can be helped, you’d rather not be on a two-game losing streak in December, as the Rams are.POINT DIFFERENTIALSeahawks +38 / Rams -2Advantage: Seattle, definitively.Los Angeles’ losses in Chicago and to Philadelphia offset a 14-point win in Detroit during Week 13. Interestingly, the Seahawks also lost in Chicago by single digits and won by 14 in Detroit. Difference is, Seattle took care of its NFC East opponent (Dallas) handily at home in September.VARIOUS TEAM OFFENSIVE STUFFSeahawks 9 TD / Rams 5 TDLA isn’t getting scores through the air anymore; four of its five touchdowns in the last three weeks have come through Gurley on the ground. Seattle’s moving the ball every which way, with a defensive touchdown to boot. The Bobby Wagner naptime TD.Seahawks 58 first downs / Rams 61 first downsPretty even.Seahawks 5.4 yards per play / Rams 4.9 yards per playHalf a yard per play is a fairly sizeable advantage.Seahawks 990 total yards / Rams 971 total yards.Total yardage isn’t a great stat on its own. But when two offenses are generating relatively the same amount of yardage and first downs, over three games, it’s fair to call their performance somewhat even. Depending on touchdowns and giveaways of course, which both favor Seattle. Speaking of:TURNOVERSSeahawks 1, differential +4 / Rams 9, differential -3LA has a problem with ball security this month. It’s a big problem. It’s why they lost their games. Single-handedly Delano Hill Color Rush Jersey , Jared Goff has — well, let’s get to that guy.QB PERFORMANCESeahawks 44-68-494-6-1 / Rams 72-132-726-1-7Russell Wilson has the edge in completion percentage (64.7 to 54.5) and yards per attempt (7.3 to 5.5). In TDs and INTs, it’s not close. Goff has been terrible. In his defense, it was cold that one week, sort of.Seriously, one TD and seven picks in December for Goff? Wison has six picks — all season.Clear Disadvantage: RamsRB PERFORMANCE (TOTAL)Seahawks 86-442-5.1-3 / Rams 52-239-4.6-4I’d prefer to use success rate but that’s a lot of research. What the composite rushing numbers for the Rams can tell me, is, they’re not having any more success overall than the Seahawks. Todd Gurley’s MVP case is about to be dismissed. Or maybe it’s Chris Carson who should be getting more recognition.VARIOUS TEAM DEFENSIVE STUFF Seahawks allowing 8.2 Y/A and 3.4 Y/C / Rams allowing 6.6 Y/A and 4.5 Y/CThe pass defense for Seattle has been opportunistic at best and swiss cheesy at worst. But the run D has shown up. The reverse is somewhat true for LA, which liminted Matt Stafford, Mitch Trubisky and Nick Foles through the air but was not stout on the ground.Seahawks allowing 16.3 ppg / Rams allowing 20.7 ppgYou’d prefer to face Mullens-Cousins-Mullens over any three-game stretch, but remember that 14 points came in garbage time against Seattle and seven more on a kickoff return, so the more accurate discrepancy here is 9.3 to 20.7 ppg.Seahawks with 8 sacks / Rams with 5 sacksThought the storied LA defensive line might make a better showing here, but.By the way, we’re still looking for a category where the Rams are outdoing the Seahawks. Besides pass defense.SPECIAL TEAMS Seahawks with 2.74 expected points / Rams with -0.52 expected pointsPlayoff games turn on plays like a big kick return, a missed field goal, a muffed punt. Both teams can and have produces all three of those outcomes. Seattle just happens to limit the bad plays better than LA.SUMMARY Sean McVay didn’t know his team could lose two games in a row when it counted. Now he does. There’s no need to be surprised, Coach. You’re struggling. It happens to everyone. I mean, even the Super Bowl XLVIII champs lost three times. But to add a final disclaimer: Arbitrary endpoints are shit. Originally I’d planned on this post being a two-game comparison. The results were so tilted to ward the Seahawks that I expanded the sample to all of December. To help the Rams look better. It’s called compassion. Look it up.Seriously, though, if you go back another few weeks, both teams are 4-2 in their last six games. The Rams are still getting outscored Earl Thomas Color Rush Jersey , Goff is still sloppier than Wilson, both defenses are still flawed, and all that separates them is a play or two in the game they faced off.Bodes well for a playoff matchup that could come down to the wire, again. The conversation takes place throughout the week inside the Seattle Seahawks training facility. A group of four or five throwing out suggestions and discussing whether their idea can actually be executed.By the time Friday rolls around, a final decision has been made and the group spends part of the day seeing if they can pull off the plan successfully if the opportunity presents itself on game day.“They’re actually a group effort. We all put our two cents in and come up with something,” Seattle wide receiver David Moore said. “(We’ll) come up with something, ‘Hey we can throw this in, maybe this will look good,’ and then there you go.”The talk isn’t about a play or scheme. Instead, it’s about what has become a must-see event anytime the Seahawks wide receivers find the end zone. Their touchdown celebrations have drawn attention around the NFL and set a standard they’re trying to top each week.“At first, it was all just about having fun, right? … It has become an expectation,” wide receiver Doug Baldwin said. “Now everybody’s asking us what’s coming up next, but first and foremost we’ve got to score so let’s take care of the football aspect of it first and then just have fun if it comes along.”The group of receivers — Baldwin, Moore, Jaron Brown and Tyler Lockett primarily — may not come close to leading the league in catches because of Seattle’s run-first offense. But when any of the four find the end zone, getting past the goal line is just the beginning.It started in London when the Seahawks beat Oakland and Brown caught a touchdown on Seattle’s opening drive. Brown at first briefly celebrated by himself before being joined by Baldwin, Lockett and Moore with an ode to “Drumline” and a fight scene from the movie that was released in 2002.Two weeks later after Lockett caught a TD in Detroit, it was an ode to baseball , the World Series and Nolan Ryan when Baldwin, the hitter J.R. Sweezy Color Rush Jersey , charged Lockett, the pitcher, and was knocked out in the process.Against the Chargers, it was “The Four Heartbeats ,” which was a tribute to the 1991 movie “The Five Heartbeats.” Each wide receiver showed off a bit of his dance moves and Brown — who caught the touchdown — ended up getting the “featured” role at the end of the routine. It’s the celebration most say was the best.“I told them from the jump, ‘Yeah that’s not going to work.’ Because you have to be on beat with that and you all aren’t going to hear each other,” running back Mike Davis said. “It actually looked good. I was surprised by that.”And last week in the victory over the Packers, tight end Nick Vannett was added to the mix following Baldwin’s TD catch. The celebration this time : “Swag Surfin’.”“I don’t think it went as well as we wanted it to,” Baldwin said.There was supposed to be one more celebration thrown into the recent mix, but as Baldwin said, “Tyler screwed it up.” After Lockett’s 23-yard touchdown reception against the Los Angeles Rams on Nov. 11, there was supposed to be another group performance. But before everyone could gather, Lockett handed the ball to boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., who was in an end zone suite.That celebration was supposed to be specific to the Rams game and was not carried over to the following week. It’s another sign of how serious and how much fun this group is having.And no, it’s not taking away from their preparation for what’s important — the actual game — including this week’s matchup against Carolina that has major NFC playoff implications.“It’s minutes, but obviously you guys know when we focus in on something, we get focused in on something so it doesn’t take us too long to get it down,” Baldwin said.
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