Seattle for the Marbles

Saw on a vid, “this is the Rams 7th road game in 9 weeks.”

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Nate Atkins@NateAtkins_
The Rams are ruling OT Rob Havenstein out and are listing OLB Byron Young as questionable for Sunday’s NFC Championship Game against the Seahawks.

Young will be limited in practice today but they anticipate him playing on Sunday.

Mina is an MVP voter. She “picked Drake Maye”.

Rams have been underdogs 3 times this year.

The first, against the Eagles in week 3 : Rams gave it away, and lost.
The Second against the Seahawks in week 16 : Rams gave it away, and lost.

Rams are 2.5 pt underdogs.

Its been a ‘very good’ season, people. I think it ends, Sunday. Seattle is at home. A serious advantage. Stafford has been a bit off, and a bit lucky with some plays that easily could have been turnovers.

I dont think MacDonald is gonna let Darnold put the ball in danger. All Seattle has to do to win, is play a clean game, with no turnovers. A low bar, perhaps.

The game will define Sam Darnold, and maybe the Rams.

Seahawks 27
Rams 24

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Zooey wrote:

I hope you’re wrong.

I bet another teacher that the Rams would win. Loser buys into the pizza lunch we have on Fridays, so I will either get free pizza, or be out 6 bucks…
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What do you Cali-Fornians put on yer Pizza? Raisins, i bet.

Yeah, I hope I’m wrong too. I been mostly wrong all year in my prophesies.

There’s two weaknesses it looks like: Darnold and the Rams-Secondary. Hard to say which will implode.

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wv wrote:

There’s two weaknesses it looks like: Darnold and the Rams-Secondary. Hard to say which will implode.

i wish aaron donald was here. surely he would be the difference in this game. he’d terrorize darnold.

Dugar, Michael-Shawn@MikeDugar
The Seahawks haven’t sacked Matthew Stafford since 2023. They have just 7 hits on him in 2 games this year. He hasn’t turned it over in either game.

This will be a tough test for the league’s No. 1 defense.

Every week I’m looking at the best defenses & asking how do you attack them? What are the keys to success? This week on #QBInsider I dive into the #1 Scoring Offense @RamsNFL vs the #1 Scoring Defense @Seahawks & some things to watch for Sunday afternoon! https://t.co/Dr7C4T7UTo

— Kurt Warner (@kurt13warner) January 24, 2026

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This Is How McVay Beats Seattle: Kurt Warner’s NFC Title Game Plan

wv wrote:

Seahawk people sure do like their rookie hybrid LB/Safety Nick E-mman-wori.

He’s their Quentin Lake.

Zooey wrote:

It’s just another one of those “What’s McVay doing let’s go do that” kind of deals.

Granted there are differences. Lake is slower than emmonwori so is not quite the same as a physical speciman. But then Lake is a veteran and a leader (something Rams defenders all acknowledge) and his play comes from processing things fast and using his head. Emmonwori is a big fast rookie who is assigned a role.

The result is similar because both players allow their respective defenses to rely heavily on nickel and dime packages without sacrificing run defense. That’s the whole point of having a Lake or an Emmonwori. A safety capable of multiple tasks (playing in the box, playing deep and over the top, covering WRs and TEs, playing zone or man, being a run stopper–all in one). It also means that when playing a nickel defense that can stop the run, the “wild card” safety allows the defense to disguise coverages. You don’t know what that guy will be doing after the snap, even though it might look a certain way before the snap.

zn wrote:

He’s their Quentin Lake.

Yeah, these hybrid LB/Safeties seem to be one of the responses to the new rules opening up the passing game. They are pure gold to defensive-coordinators.

Its nice to have a good ‘safety’ or a good ‘linebacker’ but the great defenses these days always seem to have at least one F’ing outstanding ‘hybrid’.

I still miss the old days, though. When all linebackers looked like Jack Reynolds or Kevin Greene. Or Myron Pottios

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“…The Rams drafted middle linebacker Jack “Hacksaw” Reynolds as the team’s first pick in the 1970 NFL draft.[39] In 1970, Pottios regained his starting middle linebacker position, and started all 14 games. On the season, he had two interceptions and two fumbles recovered, playing for a defense that finished tied for 2nd among 26 NFL teams in points allowed.[1][16][40] However, though Reynolds did not become the starting middle linebacker until 1973, this was Pottios’s final year with the Rams…” wiki