Knockin' on Seven's Door

Tomorrow night. You. That is the mentality the Pittsburgh Steelers need to have going into Super Bowl XLV.

And of course, I don't mean the sexual violating, worse than murder mentality that this Aqua Teen Hunger Force reference implies. Just the,"We're going to do what we want and nobody is going to stop us," part. If James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley can get to Aaron Rodgers early and rattle him, it will mean very good things for the Steelers. If Troy Polamalu can fly around the field like a puppy on amphetamines, disrupting the Packers receivers and keeping Rodgers out of his comfort zone, then the blueprint for beating the Packers will have been laid.

Many people are predicting a shootout, similar to the Steelers' 37-36 win over the Packers last December. I don't think that will be the case. That game didn't have a single turnover. The last Super Bowl without a single turnover was Super Bowl XXXIV between the Rams and the Titans. And while no team wins a Super Bowl without a decent defense, I think it's definitely fair to say that neither defense in that game measures up to either the Steelers or Packers defense. I'd be surprised if both sides didn't commit turnovers tomorrow. As good as Rodgers has been for the Packers this year, he hasn't been flawless. He's thrown at least one interception in nine of his starts, which is half of them (he didn't play one of the games, due to a concussion). Forcing a pick from him would seem to be a key for the Steelers, as he threw one or more in all of his starts that the Packers lost, save one. He didn't throw any against the Eagles or Falcons in the playoffs, but he did toss two against the Bears. All these did was keep the game closer than it should have been, with some kid off the street (or so it seemed) playing quarterback for Chicago for most of the game.

As for Pittsburgh, Roethelisberger is prone to turnovers as well, mostly because his philosophy on the field (as well as off of it) seems to be "Go big or go home." They don't call him Big Ben just for kicks. He'll air the ball out a few times, especially to wide receiver Mike Wallace, whose blazing speed will cause issues for the Packers. Charles Woodson is one of the top cornerbacks in the league, but Wallace is just too quick to be shut down. The Packers best shot will be to get to Roethelisberger before he can get rid of the ball. Clay Matthews, who finished second in defensive player of the year voting to Polamalu, will have this task on his shoulders. If he can get penetration and get a few sacks, it will be a big boost for Green Bay, especially if he can get a strip sack or two out of it. Roethelisberger is hard to bring down which is great when he escapes and makes a big play, but it also makes him prone to fumbles while he's trying to allude tacklers.

The key in this matchup for me, is experience. The Steelers have it and the Packers, for the most part, don't. Nearly every player on the Steelers has a Super Bowl ring, many of them have two. Roethelisberger's quarterbacking isn't pretty, but he gets the job done. And I expect him to get it done again on Super Sunday, along with the help of his defense. I expect the Steelers to stop the Packers' running game and turn them one dimensional, as Green Bay has lacked a good running game for much of the season and the Steelers have the best rushing defense in the league. Also, with no cheerleaders for either team, maybe the Steelers could use an extra mascot in addition to Steely McBeam. I have my suggestions, as he is the right colors...

My pick : Steelers 24 Packers 20
MVP: Mike Wallace
Gatorade dump: Orange (people actually bet on this)

Photo found on Ebaums World

Conference Title Preview or the Patriots Lost at Home, it Must be the Apocalypse

The New York Jets pulled off what most of us didn't think was possible on Sunday.

They returned to the scene of the crime (a brutal 45-3 murdering by the Patriots at Gillette Stadium) and upset the 14-2, top-seeded Patriots. And quite frankly, the game ended three days ago and I'm still waiting for the Jets to blow the lead. Perhaps the league can plant video tapes of the Patriots' sideline at the Jets' practice facility and instead of sweeping it under the rug like the Super Bowl 36 videos, punish the Jets by stripping them of the win and having New England host Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship game on Sunday. I didn't see any late flags in the Jets-Pats game that would be thrown for no one but Brady, so maybe they'll sub this in as their "late flag?" I won't believe we're out of the woods until the 5:30 kickoff takes place from Heinz Field.

The Jets did something else unbelievable on Sunday in addition to knocking off the AFC East champs. They became the villains. Because of Rex Ryan and Antonio Cromartie trash talking leading up to the game? No. By the way the Jets celebrated in the face of the Pats after the game ended? No again. The Jets became the villains because they ended the feel good story of the Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, who was trying to become the first woman in NFL history to win the Super Bowl (Tom Brady, despite all of his faults, did have a man's hair cut for his first three Super Bowl titles).Wow! Look at those gorgeous locks!

Speaking of Mr. ...err...Mrs. Brady? It was rumored that he had his head down crying in the Patriots' locker room after Sunday's loss. It kind of reminded me of the South Park episode in which Eric Cartman gets a bully, Scott Tenorman, to eat his parents who Cartman had gotten shot by a redneck, chopped up, and put into chili. As one would imagine, when Scott had it revealed to him that he had eaten his own parents, he became visibly upset and started crying. Cartman went over to Scott and began to lick/drink Scott's tears, and talking about how delicious they are. If I had been in the Patriots locker room on Sunday, I believe I would've taken similar action to Cartman. And just like in the South Park episode, Tom Brady's favorite artist that he idolizes, which is clearly Justin Bieber based on his haircut (Radiohead in Scott Tenorman's case), would have called him a "l'il crybaby." "Oh, tears of unfathomable sadness. Yummy!"

The Jets, with their close to dominating win over the Patriots, have earned the right to play in their second consecutive AFC title game. They were defeated last year by the Indianapolis Colts by a score of 30-17. I think this contest will have far fewer points as both squads feature excellent defenses. And even though both sides do have some explosive play makers on offense like the Steelers Mike Wallace and the Jets Santonio Holmes, defense typically trumps offense, especially when they're as strong as these two defensive units. I do feel, that the Jets will again come up short in the AFC Championship game. Yes, they defeated the Steelers in Pittsburgh just a few short weeks ago. However, Troy Polamalu sat out that contest with an achilles injury. He's expected to play in this contest which will give the Steelers a huge boost. Holmes, a former Super Bowl MVP with the Steelers and teammate of Polamalu told the press that he believes Polamalu is "...the greatest player he's ever played with or seen in person." For a guy who blazes past defensive backs and has a track record of scoring touchdowns in five of his six career playoff games, that's quite a bit of respect from a strong source.

If words don't do it for you, let's try numbers instead. Since the beginning of the 2009 season, the Steelers have posted an exemplary record of 15-4 when Polamalu plays and just a mediocre 6-8 record when he sits out. He also managed to tie for second in the league in interceptions this season with seven, even though he missed two games, coming to an average of one pick per two games played this season. Now that's an impact player. And even though he didn't appear much on the stat sheet in the Steelers' huge comeback win over the Ravens on Saturday, box scores don't begin to illustrate the legend that is Troy Polamalu. Don't think for a moment that this moment wasn't playing in the back of Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco's head the entire game.

 

As fun as it is to think of the Ravens and Joe Flacco spontaneously combusting during the second half, that wasn't the case. The Steelers and their Hall of Fame genius defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau brought all kinds of pressure and different looks in the second half, and it left Flacco and the Ravens rattled. The Steelers' fans fed off of their effort to begin the second half and the team channeled that energy from that point forward. The same effect should be expected on Sunday. I'll be using all of my goofy superstitions to try and win as well. I began a new tradition by rubbing the hair on my Polamalu Christmas ornament for luck (Thanks Dan Clark!) I plan on rubbing out another victory on Sunday. Side note: The previous sentence was ghost-written by Tobias Funke of Arrested Development.

On the other side of the NFL's final four, is one of the finest rivalries in sports: the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers. This NFC North showdown at Soldier Field will give the rivalry something that it's been lacking since 1941: a postseason game. The Bears defeated the Packers that year for the NFL championship and the two teams haven't met in the postseason since. That's seven decades. This sounds like a really long time, but sports fans in Chicago have waited longer for some things. Whatever these things may be have slipped my mind...but I digress.

The Bears and Packers promise to bring football fans another defensive battle. Mike Martz and the Bears adjusted the offense mid-season to focus more on running the ball, which makes sense for a team with a sound defense and spectacular special teams. This also puts far less pressure on quarterback Jay Cutler, who just got his first playoff experience last Sunday. And although Aaron Rodgers lit up the Falcons last week in Atlanta, the Bears are one team he is yet to completely figure out. In four starts against Chicago, he has just three touchdown passes to go with two interceptions. It's not awful, it's just not off the charts like against the majority of his opponents. That said, I believe the Packers will win the turnover battle and with it the game. I'm picking the Packers to win by a score of 13-9, although I'll be rooting for the Bears since I think they're the easier opponent for the Steelers. It would also give the Super Bowl party I plan to attend more buzz as it will include fans of both the Steelers and Bears on its guest list.

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Photos in order by Greg Derr of the Patriot Ledger, uncredited

Blue Streak

The Blues are currently enduring the downswing of a season long trend. St. Louis has gone all year without a streak, either winning or losing, stopping at just one game.

The opened the season with consecutive wins over the Flyers and Ducks. The Blues went on to lose three straight, all on the road, to Chicago, Nashville, and Dallas. This pattern has remained consistent throughout the season right up to their last game of November, which is tomorrow night in Chicago. Now that the Blues have lost two straight, there's no telling what tomorrow's outcome will be. But if they beat Chicago and you like to put money down on trends, betting on the Blues to knock off the Capitals when they return on home on Wednesday night is your kind of bet.

There are two much more telling and disturbing trends that are currently plaguing the Blues. First, only the Predators rank worse offensively than the Blues. The team was getting scoring from David Perron before he went out with a concussion. And although T.J. Oshie had scored just one goal before breaking his ankle, he had chipped in nine assists to the Blues' scoring cause. Another factor that isn't measured on the scoresheet, is how Oshie is one of the team's best forecheckers and how he can create offense with his hitting in addition to his constant pursuit of the puck. With those two players out, the St. Louis has needed to find other sources for scoring. To an extent, they have. Andy McDonald and Brad Boyes have both come alive on the scoring front. Boyes had a four-game goal-scoring streak in recent weeks and McDonalds had three goals and a shootout goal between last Wednesday's and Friday's games. Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is having a very strong year in his first full NHL season and is leading not just the team's blue-liners, but the entire team in assists. Unfortunately, that's about where the bright spots end for the Blues' scoring. David Backes has been fairly quiet all season. Patrik Berglund has looked brilliant at moments, but still hasn't developed into the consistent scorer that the team had hoped for when they drafted him in the first round. Matt D'Agostini, who was on fire to begin the season, has been stuck at six goals for quite some time.

The secondary scoring also hasn't been there for St. Louis. Alex Steen, who got a lucrative extension over the offseason, hasn't been producing lately as he's failed to register a point in six consecutive games. Jay McClement has only scored in one game all season. Sure, in that game, he scored three goals, but he needs to contribute more as well, especially since we know he has the talent to do so after his hat trick against Atlanta and in addition to him putting up 29 points last season. He currently only has one assist for a total of four points, which has him on pace for just under 15 points by the end of the season. Everyone on the offense can improve and must if the Blues are going to stay in the thick of things until Perron and Oshie can return. Jaroslav Halak is a fantastic goaltender, but he can't post a shutout in a third of the team's games like he did over the first nine. Expecting that would simply be both unrealistic and unfair to Halak.

The other trend that the Blues much change and quickly, is the fact that they continue to blow leads late in games. It was an issue earlier this season when they coughed up a couple of late leads, including a two-goal advantage in Chicago with just seven minutes remaining in regulation. The Blues ended up losing that one in overtime, but they then followed that up with their seven-game winning streak. The Blues blew third period leads in back-to-back games with Dallas over the weekend, reprising the pattern from earlier this season. I'm not asking them to roll off another seven-game winning streak, but they can't go back to their old ways of blowing leads like they did all of last season. Not being able to close out games is the primary reason that the Blues missed the postseason a year ago and if the team goes back to that mentality, where they play not to lose, it will have similar results this season.

Photo by John Grieshop

Managerial Decisions

When the Cardinals announced that they'd be bringing back Tony La Russa as manager for another season, and possibly two with a mutual option for 2012, they pretty much were saying that's what has happened over the past two seasons is acceptable.

I suppose that I'm spoiled since the Cardinals make the playoffs so often, but really, they just haven't accomplished much in the last two years. In 2009, they couldn't score runs for about the last two months of the season including the playoff series against the Dodgers that resulted in a sweep. The offensive struggles continued for most of 2010 and coupled with injuries to Brad Penny and David Freese, among others, allowed an inferior Cincinnati Reds to win the division. The Cardinals easily had the best rotation in the division as they had two Cy Young candidates in Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter as well as rookie Jaime Garcia, who was among the leaders in ERA for the majority of the season. Some decent hitting should have been enough to win most of their games, but the team continued to have their difficulties with hitting, especially after Ryan Ludwick went down. Less than a week after the team got Ludwick back, they decided rather than add some more offense (the obvious problem with the club), they would rather go after another pitcher to replace Penny and get rid of even more offense my sending Ludwick to San Diego. I was furious when I saw that this trade had gone through and we ended up not acquiring any offensive pieces to replace Ludwick. Add this to the fact that Tony La Russa never wants to play Colby Rasmus when after that trade, he was clearly the second best offensive outfielder on the team behind Matt Holliday, and the team was doomed due to a lack of production.

La Russa won't even allow the sub-par offensive talent he has to get in a groove because he's always changing the lineup around. Aside from a massive amount of injuries, there's no reason to run out 100 different lineups in a single baseball season, but he does it year in and year out. If you look at the teams that made the playoffs this season, almost every single one used the same lineup for the majority of the postseason. When the Texas Rangers take the field in San Francisco on Wednesday for Game 1 of the World Series, you can bet that Elvis Andrus will be batting leadoff and playing shortstop. That's his role. He knows it. I know it. And most importantly, his manager Ron Washington knows it. And if Tim Lincecum shuts down the Rangers in Game 1, you can bet that Andrus is going to be right at the top of the order again for Game 2, rather than Washington trying to "shake up" the batting order to get something going. This is what works and it has worked for years. It's the same with batting the pitcher eighth. No team has ever won a World Series while batting the pitcher eighth. Why? Because it doesn't work. For a guy who's been managing in the big leagues since the early 80's and in the National League since 1996, you'd think La Russa would have figured this out by now. Hopefully he'll finally figure it out this season. Otherwise, Cardinals fans are in for another disappointing season that will end up with a sub-par team winning the NL Central and another season of the Carpenter-Wainwright tandem wasted.

The Chicago Cubs also made a puzzling choice with their managerial position. Ryne Sandberg, perhaps the Cubs' biggest player icon behind Ernie Banks, was very vocal in discussing his desire for the position. He's managed his way through the minor league system and by reaching the helm of the Cubs' Triple-A club, he was the logical choice. But the Cubs rarely do what is logical and they continued that trend by simply dropping the "interim" tag from Mike Quade's title, retaining him for the 2011 season. I realize that the Cubs started to play better under Quade down the stretch, but for a team that's had so many issues over the years, why would you pass on a guy in Sandberg who's lived through these problems and understands the Cubs mentality? Sandberg has stated that he still wants to manage at the major league level and with that no longer being a possibility in 2011 with the Cubs, Chicago could see him go elsewhere and perhaps even manage against the Cubs in this upcoming season. We'll see how it plays out, but I certainly think that passing on Sandberg will soon be an addition to the laundry list of regretful decisions that this franchise has made over the years.

This year's World Series had its ups and downs for me. It was certainly an up that it didn't have the Yankees in it and even more so that it wasn't a repeat of the Yankees and Phillies series from 2009. That would have been reminiscent of the late 90's when it seemed like the Yankees and Braves were in it every year, even though they only met in the series twice (1996 and 1999).Another poitn of interest was being able to see two cities get their first shot at a title in the same year. Even though the Giants had won before as a franchise, all of their titles came while they were in New York, and the Rangers had never even won a pennant before this season. As for a downer, it would have been nice to see the series at least go back to San Francisco for a sixth game. Cliff Lee, previously infallible in the postseason, dropped both the series opener and the series clincher. Neither Lee or Giants ace Tim Lincecum had their best stuff in Game 1, but both brought it to the table in Game 5. Lee just made one very big mistake to World Series MVP Edgar Renteria and it cost him dearly. And although he had first base open and could've walked Renteria or at least could have tried a little harder to pitch around him, Lee refused to do so and came right after him. That's the kind of mentality a manager or a GM wants out of an ace pitcher. They want a guy that thinks,"Screw you. I'm better than you and now I'm going to beat you." When a pitcher has that mentality and the stuff to back it up (yes Jason Marquis, you really must have the stuff to back it up for that to work) it makes him a very valuable commodity. This why even with giving up that bomb to Renteria and going 0-2 in the series, Lee is still being sought after and sought after hard, by the Yankees. There's word coming out according to ESPN that Lee and the Yankees are meeting in Arkansas, which just goes to show once again, few good things ever come out of Arkansas (No offense Tyler). Yes, now that the postseason has ended, it looks like baseball will go back to business as usual. The Yankees will continue to try and buy another title, the Red Sox will do the same while claiming that the Yankees are far worse offenders, and the Pirates will rack up their 19th consecutive losing season with no end in sight. I guess hockey will just have to tide me over for now. Sigh...
 

Photos in order by Roberson/AP, unknown, and Louis DeLuca of the Dallas Morning News.

Ram-dy Moss?

The Rams have not put in a waiver claim on Randy Moss as of the end of today's practice, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. However, with the deadline still 25 minutes away, the club could still put in a claim if they haven't already.

I personally think putting a claim in for him is a great idea. Is Moss a jerk? Sure. The story that came out about him ripping a team meal right in front of those who prepared it show him to be selfish and inconsiderate. But sometimes in sports, you need jerks to win. Dennis Rodman kicked a camera man in the groin for no real reason, but man, could he rebound. He won five NBA titles and was a key member of those Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons teams. Manny Ramirez is a completely self-absorbed brat who only seems to care about himself and displayed this in the way he left Boston. But he helped the Red Sox win two World Series titles before he left.

The fact of the matter is, sometimes jerks win, especially if they're talented jerks, and Moss is both of those things. The Rams offense struggled on Sunday against a terrible, one-win, Carolina Panthers team. If Sam Bradford wasn't nearly perfect (25-32 with at least two of the incompletes being wise and intentional throw aways, passer rating of 112.4), the Rams would not have beaten the Panthers. The reason the offense has been struggling, going back even to last season, is that teams have been able to find success by stacking eight guys in the box to stop Steven Jackson from running. And why shouldn't they? The Rams don't have a single, healthy, deep threat in their receiving corps. Donnie Avery, Mark Clayton, and now Danario Alexander have all been injured. Clayton and Avery won't return and counting on an Alexander return with his history of knee problems would be silly.

The Rams need a wide receiver that can stretch the field. He doesn't even have to catch the ball to be valuable as long as he's a threat in the back of the minds of opposing defensive coordinators. And NFL coaches still do regard Moss as a threat. The proof is in the Vikings' game from last week against Moss' former team, New England. Bill Belichick had a corner lined up against Moss for the entire game, at least from what I saw, while also keeping a safety on him over the top. If teams are required to double cover Moss and want to put eight in the box still, that leaves just one other defender to try and stop Danny Amendola, Brandon Gibson (who played well last week), and the Rams tight ends who have proven themselves to be decent receiving threats. The Rams' opponents obviously can't leave one side of the field that wide open and would have to go with six or seven in the box instead, which would open up the running game for Jackson.

I know that there's some risk with bringing Moss in, but it's in his best interest to come in and be productive. He's already been dumped by two teams in a contract year. If he wants to get paid this offseason, he has no choice but to behave. I'm also pretty sure that if head coach Steve Spagnuolo can manage to win four games in the first half of the season after winning just one all of last year, he can handle Randy Moss.

Photographer information could not be found for this photo.

Playoff Baseball Update: ALCS Game 3

The Rangers scored twice as many runs in the ninth inning of last night's ALCS Game 3 as the Yankees had baserunners for the entire game. New York managed just two hits off of the dominant Cliff Lee while Lee only walked one batter.

Josh Hamilton, who is batting .300 during the ALCS and slugging a ridiculous 1.000, gave Lee all the runs he would need with a two-run first inning bomb. It was Hamilton's second of the playoffs as well as the series. Lee sat down the first 11 Yankee hitters in order, fanning seven over that span, before giving up a two-out walk to Mark Teixeira in the bottom of the fourth inning. Lee also retired 14 Yankees before surrendering his first hit to Jorge Posada in the bottom of the fifth. For a while, it looked possible that the third ever postseason no-hitter could have happened last night. And even though the perfect game ended in the fourth and the no-no concluded in the fifth, there's no denying that Lee was flat out nasty. He finished with 13 strikeouts over eight innnings. To say that the Yankee hitters looked lost would be an understatement. They might have had a better chance to hit the ball using the Adam Dunn approach: swing hard with your eyes closed and hope for contact. Or they could have gone with the Luke Skywalker approach as they may have had better luck leaving the blast shield down and trusting their feelings. It worked for the leader of one Evil Empire, why couldn't it work for this Evil Empire too?

Rams Win? Rams Win!

It's early in the NFL season, but the league is proving to be as unpredictable as ever. The Vikings started 0-2 after going to the NFC title game last season and returning all of their starters from last season. The Super Bowl sleeper pick of the 49ers have stumbled to an 0-3 start. My Steelers, after I was hoping for just two wins in the four games without Ben Roethlisberger have already won three without him going into next Sunday's home game against he Ravens. And perhaps the most surprising development of all, is that the Kansas City Cheifs have started 3-0. Sure, they've played the Browns, 49ers, and Chargers, with the Browns being their only road game, but most pundits probably had them pegged for 1-2 at best by this point. I doubt many people if any would've said the Steelers and Chiefs would be the last of the AFC undefeateds.

Another bright spot for me personally is the Rams getting out to a good start. Even though they've only won one of their first three games, they very easily could have won all three and certainly should have won their first with all of the mistakes that the Cardinals made. Sam Bradford had to throw the ball over 50 times and he looked great. He threw three interceptions, but with those numbers, the box score is misleading. Two of th three picks were thrown in situations where he had to force the ball, including a fourth down on a last minute drive. If he simply threw it away, the game would end with a loss, so why not throw it for the end zone? He even did his job, by getting it to the end zone, it just wasn't caught by a Rams player.

Today's games for my teams are both huge. The Steelers have gotten off to this great start without Big Ben and have a great chance to put some space between themselves and Baltimore. It's important for them to win, as it is their home game against the Ravens. If they lose, they would have to win at Baltimore in Week 13 in order to avoid a season sweep, which could be a division tie breaker at the end of the year. This is a very winnable game for the Steelers. Charlie Batch will get the start and he's the classic "just don't screw this up, and the defense will win it" quarterback. He's shown this by posting a 4-1 record as a starter with the Steelers. With the way the defense has been playing, including leading the league in takeaways, a few well-timed passes from Batch, a decent running game, and a strong defensive effort against a Ravens team that can't score should be enough to win. Baltimore only score 10 points in each of their first two games, in which they went 1-1. Last week, they managed to score 24 points on the road, which would be impressive, but it came against the Browns. The Ravens also trailed for much of the game in Cleveland. You can be willing to bet if they get behind in Pittsburgh today, a miraculous comeback will be far less likely.
My pick for this game: Steelers 17-Ravens 9

The Rams game is huge for many of the same reasons that the as Steelers' game. They need to win in St. Louis to escape the possibility of needing a win later in the season in Seattle, a very difficult place to play (just ask the Chargers), to avoid a season sweep at the hands of the Seahawks. A win would tie them at 2-2 atop the NFC West, by far the weakest division in the NFL this year, and a division game like this could also end up being a tiebreaker. With the starts that the 49ers and Cardinals have gotten off to, it's not completely far fetched that an 8-8 or 9-7 record could be enough to win this division. And with something like that being possible, a team wants to have all possible tie-breakers on their side. The Rams are already 0-1 in the division after the season opening loss to Arizona. They don't want to fall to 0-2. The Rams also need to show the Seahawks that they can beat them again. The Rams haven't beaten Seattle since the 2004 playoffs, a streak that has lasted for 10 games now. Many of those games were close, with the Seahawks wining on last second field goals, but a win is a win, a loss is a loss, and ten consecutive losses to the same team is way too many. For the Rams to win this game, they're going to need Bradford's best effort yet. Steven Jackson is active today, but as banged up as he is, he is unlikely to be much help against one of the league's best running defenses. On defense, St. Louis needs to stop the run. Their secondary has been pretty good and the team has been great at coming up with big plays (they're second to my Steelers in takeaways) to stop drives even while allowing a plethora of yards to be gained. But they must get better at the run, because those takeaways don't always happen. And when they don't, a lot of yards can become a large amount of points. The Rams also have to get pumped up on special teams, which was the difference in Seattle's last game. They got two touchdowns on kickoff returns from Leon Washington against San Diego and ended up winning by seven. If the Rams can shutdown the Seahawks' special teams and come up with a few big plays, they certainly have a chance to win this game. Seattle doesn't have players like Clinton Portis, Donovan McNabb, and Larry Fitzgerald that put them a head above the Rams. St. Louis just has to play solid football, which they've shown they can do in their first three games, and they'll be there in the fourth quarter. The Rams' third straight sell out crowd should help as well if they can bring the crowd noise while the Seahawks have the ball.