PETER KING December 18, 2017

from: https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/12/18/steelers-patriots-survive-ground-jerry-richardson-panthers-sale-mmqb-peter-king

THE AWARD SECTION

Todd Gurley, running back, Los Angeles Rams. Four touchdowns and 180 total yards in the penultimate fantasy Sunday for most of America means a fair amount. Doing it against the rival Seahawks, on the road, in a blowout victory, to all but clinch the division and a playoff spot means a lot more. Gurley’s great, and so is his team and coach. Overlook these Rams next month at your peril.

Aaron Donald, defensive tackle, Los Angeles Rams. For the millionth time in this great Seahawks era of football, the offensive line failed to protect Russell Wilson even a little bit. But credit one of the best games of Donald’s starry four-year NFL career. He had three sacks of Wilson, and led the seven-sack dominance of the Seattle offensive front.

What a day for Todd Gurley: four touchdowns, and a continuation of the kind of impact that previous Rams running backs have not made since Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk.

I cannot envision a scenario where I don’t vote for Sean McVay for coach of the year—and that’s even with the crazy-good job done by Doug Marrone.

Recap of Todd Gurley’s 4 TD day.

A post shared by Bleacher Report (@bleacherreport) on Dec 17, 2017 at 4:24pm PST

Some favorite quotes:

I had the privilege of watching this debacle in person and it was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced at Century Link.

Going into this would-be heavyweight fight, the question was whether the Rams were ready to win a big game in December. Their answer was an onslaught that dominated Seattle in every phase, establishing themselves as a true title contender and sending the ‘Hawks into a dark week of desperate self-examination.

There are a lot of embarrassing aspects of this game but perhaps the one that stings a team like Seattle the most was how the Rams never really needed to pass.

The Rams’ DL vs Seahawks OL has been a mismatched fight for years now but today the difference was laughable.

This game was everything that frustrates us about the Seahawks concentrated into one potent, poisonous pill without any of the good stuff to wash it down.

A defense that’s missing five Pro Bowl players all at once is gonna have a tough time executing a system designed around all-world talent. It just is. Against a machine like LA’s O, there’s just no chance.

What went wrong? Everything. Here are three impressions from the game.

https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/seahawks/instant-analysis-three-thoughts-on-the-rams-dethroning-of-the-seahawks-as-nfc-west-kings-in-42-7-blowout/

This was billed as the biggest game of the year for the Seahawks, with the NFC West title and their playoff hopes hanging in the balance.

It turned out to be Seattle’s biggest loss of the year, as the Los Angeles Rams thumped them 42-7 to hand the Seahawks their worst loss at home since Week 1 of the 1997 season, when the Jets beat them 41-3. This also marked the first time since 2010 that Seattle has allowed 40 points in a game.

What went wrong? Everything. Here are three impressions from the game.

1. The Seahawks are no longer the kings of the NFC West
With the win, the Los Angeles Rams improved to 10-4, and are all but guaranteed to clinch the NFC West division title.

Consequently, the Seahawks dropped to 8-6 and put a significant dent in their playoff hopes – especially with the Saints (10-4) and Panthers (10-4) both winning Sunday. If the Seahawks want to make the playoffs, they now have to win out against Dallas (with tailback Ezekiel Elliott back in the lineup) next week, and Arizona on New Year’s Eve, pray that the Falcons lose to the Bucs on Monday, and hope the Rams stumble in their last two games.

Regardless, Sunday’s game showed that the Rams are now the class of the NFC West. This is a complete football team that doesn’t have any glaring weaknesses. Quarterback Jared Goff has blossomed in his sophomore season, and the Rams have surrounded him with ample talent in tailback Todd Gurley and receivers Robert Woods, Sammy Watkins and Cooper Kupp.

On defense, Aaron Donald, Conor Barwin and Robert Quinn ran over the Seahawks’ offensive line and rendered Russell Wilson ineffective, while cornerback Trumaine Johnson and safeties Nickell Robey-Coleman and rookie John Johnson III held things down on the back end.

2. After weathering injuries all season, this was the game that broke the Seahawks defense
All season long, Seattle’s defense has hung on, pulling together and patching holes despite losing star after star. The Seahawks weathered through losing defensive end Cliff Avril, cornerback Richard Sherman and safety Kam Chancellor to season-ending injuries.

But against the Rams Sunday, it became clear that defensively, Seattle finally broke.

K.J. Wright sat out the Rams game due to a concussion sustained last week against Jacksonville, and with middle linebacker Bobby Wagner visibly hampered by the hamstring injury that kept him out of practice this week, Seattle’s defense was no match for a relentless Rams offense led by running back Todd Gurley.

Gurley had his way with the Seattle defense, rushing 30 times for 144 yards and three touchdowns – in the first half.

Perhaps the play that epitomized how badly the Seahawks caved to Los Angeles defensively came at the end of the second quarter, when, on third-and-20 from the 43, Gurley picked his way through the entire Seahawks’ defense for a 57-yard touchdown run that put the Rams up 34-0.

Gurley picked up where he’d left off in the second half, catching a 15-yard touchdown pass from Jared Goff to put the Rams up 40-0 early in the third quarter. Thereafter, with the game in hand, the Rams pulled Gurley and Malcolm Brown got to take his turn running through Seattle’s defense.

3. About all that talk of Seattle’s improved offensive line? Never mind
Seattle’s offensive line has looked a little better in recent weeks since the team acquired Duane Brown in a trade with Houston, and Luke Joeckel rejoined the line at left guard after knee surgery.

Seattle allowed two sacks in each of its last two games, and none against San Francisco. But against the Rams, they gave up a season-high seven sacks, with Donald accounting for three, and Quinn for two. The Rams also had nine quarterback hits, with four coming from Donald and two from Barwin.

The Rams’ seven sacks on Wilson are equal to the number of sacks Seattle has given up in its last four games combined.

from Rams at Seahawks Postgame Notes

– The Rams moved to 4-1 against NFC West opponents and are 6-1 on the road, which marks the Rams’ best road record since 2001 when they finished the season undefeated on the road.

– The Rams are 7-4 against NFC opponents this season.

– The Rams’ 42 points is the second-most the Rams have ever scored against Seattle and the most on the road against Seattle.

– The Rams have 235 points on the road this season, which is the fourth-highest output in a single season in franchise history. The 2001 Rams hold the record with 250 points.

– Marks the fourth game this season that the Rams have held an opponent to less than 10 points. This is the fourth time that the Seahawks have been held to seven points or less at CenturyLink Field.

– Goff exited the game early in the fourth quarter with a passer rating of 93.4, which is the highest quarterback rating by a Rams quarterback at CenturyLink Field. QB Marc Bulger posted a 90.0 rating (11/13/05).

– Goff (14) has passed Jim Everett (13 in 1990) for the fifth-highest single-season passing touchdown output on the road in franchise history and tied Everett four fourth (14 in 1992) for fourth. Kurt Warner set the record for most touchdown passes on the road in a single season with 21 in 2001 and he also holds the third place record with 18 in 1999. Jim Everett is second on that list with 19 in 1988.

– Gurley rushed 21 times for 152 yards, a 7.2-yard average and three touchdowns. Gurley caught three passes for 28 yards and one touchdown. In total, Gurley had 24 touches for 180 yards from scrimmage and four touchdowns (three rushing, one receiving).

– Gurley is the first running back in the NFL since Darren McFadden (10/24/10) to record three-plus rushing touchdowns and at least one receiving touchdown in a single game.

– Gurley is the first player to post four overall touchdowns in a single game this season. The last time a player in the NFL posted four touchdowns in a single game was Danny Woodhead (12/20/15).

– Gurley is the first player in Rams history to rush for at least two touchdowns at CenturyLink Field.

– FS Lamarcus Joyner caused Seattle WR Tanner McEvoy to fumble and it was recovered by LB Alec Ogletree. Marks the seventh game this season the Rams have caused a turnover on the opening drive. K Greg Zuerlein converted a 36-yard field goal on the following drive to push the Rams points off turnovers this season to 107.

– DT Aaron Donald sacked Wilson three times, which is a new single game career-high.

– Donald has 11.0 sacks this season and 39.0 career, which puts him past D’Marco Farr (36.5) for ninth on the Rams all-time career sack list

– Sack split by Brockers and Longacre for a loss of four yards. Brockers has 4.5 sacks this season Longacre has 5.5.

– OLB Robert Quinn had two sacks on Wilson. Quinn is tied with former DE Kevin Carter for third in franchise history with 62.5 career-sacks. Former DE Leonard Little holds the franchise record for career-sacks with 87.5.

– The Rams have sacked Seattle QB Russell Wilson seven times, which is tied for the most times in a single game in his career that he has been sacked. The Rams are the only team to accomplish that feat against Wilson, as the also notched 7 sacks on him (10/28/13).

– K G. Zuerlein (81) has set the franchise record for most total points on the road in a single season, previously held by RB Marshall Faulk who had 78 points on the road in 2000. Zuerlein (20) has tied Jeff Wilkins for most field goals made on the road in a single season.

Todd Gurley and defense lead Rams to blowout of Seattle and brink of NFC West title

RICH HAMMOND

link: http://www.ocregister.com/2017/12/17/todd-gurley-and-defense-lead-rams-to-blowout-of-seattle-and-brink-of-nfc-west-title/

SEATTLE — There’s a new king in the north.

The Rams strutted into CenturyLink Field, a house of horrors for almost a full decade, and decimated the Seattle Seahawks in every phase of the game Sunday afternoon, all but clinching the NFC West title with a 42-7 victory over the Seahawks.

It was a stunning beatdown of a Seattle team that hadn’t lost at home by more than a touchdown since 2011. The Seahawks were weakened by a number of injuries on defense, but still were only two weeks removed from an impressive home victory over Philadelphia. Then they got crushed by the Rams.

Running back Todd Gurley, whose usage had been questioned in recent weeks, ran for 152 yards and three touchdowns and also caught a touchdown pass in the third quarter as the Rams built a 40-0 lead.

The Rams’ defense made things miserable for the Seahawks’ offense, which had only 59 yards at halftime. Defensive lineman Aaron Donald was dominant and recorded three of the Rams’ seven sacks, the Seattle’s offense primarily involved Wilson scrambling for yards on broken plays.

Rams quarterback Jared Goff didn’t have to do much but was efficient, as he completed 14 of 21 attempts for 120 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

Rams receiver Robert Woods returned from a shoulder injury and caught six passes for 45 yards and one touchdown, and Pharoh Cooper had a stellar game as a returner, with 180 total yards.

The Rams (10-4) now hold a two-game division lead over the Seahawks (8-6) with two games remaining, so the Rams can clinch the division — and, at worst, a first-round home playoff game — with a victory at Tennessee next Sunday or with a Seattle loss to Dallas. The only way the Rams fail to win the division is if they lose their final two games and the Seahawks win their final two.

The first half was a massive beatdown from the Rams, from the start. As has become their habit, they forced a turnover on the opponent’s first drive. On the third play of the game, Wilson completed a pass to Tanner McEvoy but he fumbled and the Rams recovered on the Seattle 40.

The Rams had to settle for a field goal, and kicked another field goal on their next drive, and held only a 6-0 lead even though they dominated the first half of the first quarter.

Then the Rams took off. Pharoh Cooper returned a punt 53 yards to the Seattle 1, and Gurley scored the first of his three first-half touchdowns on the next play to give the Rams a 13-0 lead.

Early in the second quarter, another long Cooper punt return, of 54 yards, gave the Rams the ball at the Seattle 36, and they scored five plays later. Gurley ran it in from one yard out and the Rams held a 20-0 lead midway through the second quarter.

After a Wilson fumble, the Rams took over again inside Seattle territory, at the 39, and scored seven plays later on a 1-yard pass from Goff to Robert Woods.

Finally, after a Seattle punt, the Rams started at the Seattle 47 with under two minutes to play. Carroll actually called a timeout with 37 seconds left, when the Rams probably would have run out of the clock, and on the next play, Gurley ran 57 yards for a touchdown, on a third-and-20 play, to give the Rams a 34-0 halftime lead.

Rams annihilate Seahawks, take control of NFC West

Alden Gonzalez

http://www.espn.com/blog/los-angeles-rams/post/_/id/36912/rams-annihilate-seahawks-take-control-of-nfc-west

SEATTLE — The Los Angeles Rams were a broken team on Dec. 15, 2016, the last time they played in Seattle. They were without a head coach and without direction, their season fading to black with uncertainty surrounding both their quarterback and their future.

Sunday, 367 days after an uninspiring defeat from CenturyLink Field on national television, marked the unofficial completion of the Rams’ breathtaking turnaround. Amid gray skies and waning interest, they slayed the mighty Seattle Seahawks with a 42-7 dismantling and all but wrapped up a division title along the way.

Todd Gurley II scored four touchdowns and Aaron Donald recorded three of seven sacks on elusive Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, who was brought down more often in a single game than he had been all season. The Rams are 10-4 now, an eternity removed from the 10 straight losing seasons they carried into 2017. They lead the Seahawks by two games in the NFC West with only two games remaining, their chances of at least hosting one playoff game now probable.

Todd Gurley ran for three touchdowns and caught a fourth to highlight a dominating Rams performance. AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Through 14 weeks, the Rams were undoubtedly the best team in their division.

On the 15th week, they needed only the first two quarters to prove that definitively.

Before halftime, Gurley rushed for 144 yards — the most by any player in the first half this season — and Donald recorded six pressures. Thanks to their defense, which held the Seahawks to 59 yards on their first 27 plays, and Pharoh Cooper, who picked up 109 yards on his first four punt returns, the Rams began five first-half drives within enemy territory and went into the locker room with a 34-0 lead.

The Rams started the game by forcing an opening-drive turnover for the seventh time this season, using a Tanner McEvoy fumble to set up a field goal. A Seahawks three-and-out led to a second field goal by Greg Zuerlein, who is on pace for a scoring record.

Cooper returned Seattle’s second punt 53 yards to the 1-yard line, paving the way for an easy touchdown run by Gurley. Cooper returned another one 26 yards, sparking a five-play, 36-yard drive that ended in another one-yard run by Gurley.

The Seahawks finally reached Rams territory at the seven-minute mark of the second quarter. But Wilson lost 13 yards on the ensuing play and fumbled the football, setting up another touchdown drive, this one ending in a 1-yard pass from Jared Goff to Robert Woods, who had missed the previous three games with a sprained left shoulder.

After the Seahawks punted for the fifth time of the first half, Gurley sealed it. He took a handoff to the left and zipped past the entire Seahawks defense, sprinting 57 yards untouched for the 16th of his NFL-leading 17 touchdowns this season.

Gurley recorded the first four-touchdown game in the NFL since 2015 with a 14-yard reception in the flat with more than 19 minutes remaining.

By the final seconds of the third quarter, CenturyLink Field — a house of horrors for many an NFL team this decade — was half full and stunningly quiet. By the fourth, the Rams had pulled most of their starters from a game that had quickly become more contentious than competitive.

The Seahawks have made five consecutive trips to the playoffs and have won the NFC West three out of the last four seasons. But the Rams can now clinch a division title with their next win or Seahawks loss. The Rams were 4-12 in 2016 and last in every important offensive category in what became Jeff Fisher’s final year as their head coach. But now they lead the NFL in point differential and sit as the No. 3 seed in their conference.

It took one year for the NFC West to flip on its head.

Disgusting allegations emerge against Panthers owner

https://nypost.com/2017/12/17/jeans-day-ogling-disgusting-allegations-emerge-against-panthers-owner/

Allegations have surfaced against Panthers owner Jerry Richardson and the environment he has run in Carolina, containing both subtle and overt charges of sexual harassment and misconduct that at once feel stunning and familiar.

Richardson, the 81-year-old principal owner of the Panthers since their inception in 1995, has reached at least four “significant” monetary settlements with former employees due to his behavior, racially slurred a black Panthers scout and used his power and status to lord over a disturbing environment, according to a wide-reaching investigation by Sports Illustrated.

The Panthers on Friday said they had opened an investigation into Richardson’s behavior, hiring outside law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan LLP and saying the team takes the then-publicly unknown allegations seriously. On Sunday, the NFL announced it was taking over the investigation of Richardson, who, according to SI, did everything from ogling women on “Jeans Day” to inappropriately touching them under the guise of putting on their seat belts.

Friday was “Jeans Day,” and the billionaire would ask Panthers employees to turn around so he could see their figures, each time offering up a compliment — ‘”I bet you had to lay down on your bed to fit into those jeans,” was one recycled phrase.

Employees mostly excused this as action by a man from another generation, a Southern man whom everyone simply referred to as “Mister” around Carolina headquarters.

“No one ever said anything, at least not that I heard,” one former Panthers employee told SI. “He was the boss. It was [viewed] more of a creepy-old-man thing than a threat.”

According to the report, Richardson would try to gain trust of women he employed before further harassing them. He would send hand-written notes to women, sometimes containing cash with which he would say to buy dresses or a massage. He would then cross a line, they said, when he studied their bodies.

He would pay for manicures when he did not approve of their nails, they said; multiple female employees told SI that Richardson asked them if he personally could shave their legs.

In further allegations that echo the ones Harvey Weinstein is facing, former employees said he would request their presence at a Bank of America Stadium suite. They would be guided to the suite by a Richardson assistant, who would then leave. One female former Panthers worker said when she arrived, Richardson was barefoot and requested a foot massage. Others had stories about Richardson giving back rubs that traveled too far down their spine.

“The first time, you thought it was an important meeting with the owner,” one former employee said. “You [then] realized it was never anything that couldn’t be discussed over the phone.”

Richardson, a North Carolina native, would use Southern gentleman etiquette for further inappropriate behavior, the report said. In what became known as the “seat belt maneuver,” he would open the car door for a female employee then insist on buckling her seat belt. In the process, he would brush his hand across their breasts, accusers said.

“You look back and it’s wackadoo,” one former Carolina employee said. “You felt preyed upon. You felt fear. You felt self-doubt. But when you’re in [that environment], everywhere you go, every family gathering, it’s, ‘Oh, you work in the NFL? That’s so cool.’ And you don’t want to lose your job.”

At least four ex-employees struck up settlements with Richardson, the report said, each with non-disclosure requirements so they could not speak out. For this and for all the allegations, the Panthers declined comment.

“The Carolina Panthers and Mr. Richardson take these allegations very seriously and are fully committed to a full investigation and taking appropriate steps to address and remediate any misconduct,” the team said. “The entire organization is fully committed to ensuring a safe, comfortable and diverse work environment where all individuals, regardless of sex, race, color, religion, gender, or sexual identity or orientation, are treated fairly and equally.

“Because this matter is under an ongoing legal review, the Carolina Panthers cannot comment publicly on the specifics of the allegations.”

Hat trick.@TG3II. Untouched. End zone. #LAvsSEA pic.twitter.com/FY7bTztBWr

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) December 17, 2017

.@KingTutt_chdown setting up a pretty decent field position 😬#LAvsSEA pic.twitter.com/D1s6lwSi6a

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) December 17, 2017

7th opening-possession takeaway of the season from #MobSquad 💪#LAvsSEA pic.twitter.com/oeBw5rzvZB

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) December 17, 2017