Rams have chance to virtually claim division title vs. Seahawks

RICH HAMMOND

link: http://www.ocregister.com/2017/12/16/rams-have-chance-to-virtually-claim-division-title-vs-seahawks/

SEATTLE — Fret no longer about the Rams looking ahead. The target game has arrived.

The day that seemed impossible in February and improbable even in October has arrived. If the Rams beat the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, they almost certainly will win their first NFC West title since 2003.

“It’s one of those games that you usually see other teams play in at the end of the year,” Rams running back Todd Gurley said, “and we’re in that situation this year, so it will be exciting.”

NFL playoff-clinching scenarios get wild in mid-December, but one is fairly straightforward. If the Rams (9-4) beat the Seahawks (8-5), they would have a two-game lead over Seattle with two games remaining for each team, and they would clinch the division with one more victory or one more Seattle loss.

Should the Rams lose Sunday, the teams would be tied with two games remaining, and the Seahawks would hold the tiebreaker (head-to-head results), so the Rams would have to finish with a better record.

So there’s no understating the significance of this one. The Rams have wobbled a bit of late, with losses in two of their last four games. Even with a loss to Seattle, their chances of earning a wild-card spot would remain strong, but on Sunday, the Rams have a chance to shake the last bit of little-brother feeling.

Seattle has won the division three of the past four years, and beat the Rams in October in the Coliseum, a game in which the Rams outgained the Seahawks but committed a crippling total of five turnovers.

The Rams have been excellent this season, far better than anyone’s preseason expectations, and the last doubt that remains is whether they win a tough road game late in the season, against a great defense.

The first chance came four weeks ago, at Minnesota, when the Rams scored a touchdown on their first drive but then were shut out for the rest of the game, totaled 254 yards and lost 24-7. Now, they face a similarly strong Seattle defense, in front of a similarly loud crowd, and it will be cold and likely raining.

“You don’t shy away from the opportunity that we do have,” Coach Sean McVay said. “We don’t need to do anything more than what our specific job on each play requires.”

McVay has attempted to keep the Rams’ attention narrowly fixed. When asked, in various weeks, about the significance of the upcoming game, McVay unfailingly fell into coach-speak and insisted that the team simply was concerned about winning its seventh game. Or eighth or ninth, depending on the week.

There’s no masking this one, though. If the Rams win, they’re one small step from a division title. A loss, depending on the results other games, could leave them outside of the NFC playoff picture for a week.

It’s typically folly to judge the “mood” of a locker room during the week, but it seemed clear that the Rams were more boisterous after practice this week. Did they feel any different heading into this game?

“Maybe a little bit,” quarterback Jared Goff said. “I think you still try to go into each game the same way. But I think you see how many games are left on the schedule and we know if we do win this one, how big that is for the rest of the season going forward. But we can’t treat it like more than it is. Then you start doing things that you don’t normally do.”

The Rams seem to feel as though they don’t need to significantly change anything from the game they played against Seattle on Oct. 1, other than the crippling total of five turnovers they committed.

In that game, the Rams outgained the Seahawks 375-241, held quarterback Russell Wilson to 198 passing yards and 16 rushing yards and sacked him three times.

The main problem for the Rams in that game was holding onto the ball, but the Seahawks also held Gurley to 43 yards on 14 carries. Now, the Rams’ offense will have to deal with a hostile crowd, one that realizes the importance of this game just as well as the Rams do.

A Seahawks victory would allow them to control their destiny atop the division. A loss would be their sixth of the season, and would leave them zero margin for error in the playoff race. The Rams practiced this week as though they’d be playing in ear-splitting noise, in the most important game of their season.

“Not expecting to hear anything,” Gurley said, “but hopefully we go in there and do what we’re supposed to do and shut the crowd up. It’s a great environment. It probably is the loudest, or one of the loudest, stadiums in the NFL. It reminds you of playing back in college, that type of atmosphere.”

This Tax Bill Is a Trillion-Dollar Blunder
Congress and President Trump put politics ahead of smart reform.

Michael R. Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-12-14/trump-plays-reagan-s-game-on-tariffs-and-taxes

The hour is late, but the fight is not over. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Last month a Wall Street Journal editor asked a room full of CEOs to raise their hands if the corporate tax cut being considered in Congress would lead them to invest more. Very few hands went up. Attending was Gary Cohn, President Donald Trump’s economic adviser and a friend of mine. He asked: “Why aren’t the other hands up?”

Allow me to answer that: We don’t need the money.

Corporations are sitting on a record amount of cash reserves: nearly $2.3 trillion. That figure has been climbing steadily since the recession ended in 2009, and it’s now double what it was in 2001. The reason CEOs aren’t investing more of their liquid assets has little to do with the tax rate.

CEOs aren’t waiting on a tax cut to “jump-start the economy” — a favorite phrase of politicians who have never run a company — or to hand out raises. It’s pure fantasy to think that the tax bill will lead to significantly higher wages and growth, as Republicans have promised. Had Congress actually listened to executives, or economists who study these issues carefully, it might have realized that.

Instead, Congress did what it always does: It put politics first. After spending the first nine months of the year trying to jam through a repeal of Obamacare without holding hearings, heeding independent analysis or seeking Democratic input, Republicans took the same approach to tax “reform” — and it shows.

The Treasury Department claimed to have more than 100 professional staffers “working around the clock” to analyze the tax cut. If true, their hard work must have been suppressed. The flimsy one-page analysis Treasury released — which accepts the White House’s reality-defying economic projections in order to claim that the tax cuts will pay for themselves and then some — is a politically driven document that amounts to economic malpractice. So does the bill itself.

The largest economic challenges we face include a skills crisis that our public schools are not addressing, crumbling infrastructure that imperils our global competitiveness, wage stagnation coupled with growing wealth inequality, and rising deficits that will worsen as more baby boomers retire.

The tax bill does nothing to address these challenges. In fact, it makes each of them worse.

EDUCATION: The bill, by limiting the deduction for state and local taxes, will make it harder for the localities to raise money for education. The burden will fall heaviest on cities with poor students, making it harder for millions of children to escape from poverty — and leaving more and more businesses with fewer qualified job applicants.

INFRASTRUCTURE: Restricting state and local tax deductions will also mean less local investment for infrastructure, and by raising deficits, the bill will constrain federal infrastructure spending. Our airports, railways and roads are in desperate need of modernization, and our energy grids are vulnerable and inefficient. Yet spending on those and other needs, which acts as a catalyst for private investment, will become more difficult.

INEQUALITY: If Congress wanted to raise real wages and reward work, there is a simple and proven way to do it: expand the earned income tax credit. Instead, it seems to believe that lower corporate tax rates will magically lead to higher wages, which fundamentally misunderstands how labor markets work.

In addition, by eliminating the requirement that individuals buy health insurance, many young and healthy people will drop out of the marketplace, causing health insurance premiums to rise for everyone else. This is nothing more than a backdoor tax increase on health care for millions of middle-class families that will leave them with less disposable income for savings, investment and spending.

DEFICITS: The bill’s cost — $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion — makes it more difficult for taxpayers to afford Medicare and Social Security for the baby boom generation, which is now hitting retirement. Republicans didn’t grapple with those costs. Instead, they kicked the can down the road. Ignoring the bill’s price tag, or pretending we needn’t worry about deficits, is like ignoring climate change or pretending we needn’t worry about its effects. I’ll say one thing for Republicans in Congress: They’re consistent.

In effect, the tax bill achieves four main things:

It takes money away from schools and students.
It restricts our ability to invest in infrastructure.
It does nothing to boost real wages while making health insurance more expensive.
It makes it harder to control the costs of Medicare and Social Security without cutting defense and other spending — or further exploding the deficit.
To what end? To hand corporations big tax cuts they don’t need, while lowering the tax rate paid by those of us in the top bracket, and allowing the wealthy to shelter more of their estates.

To be clear: I’m in favor of reducing the 35 percent corporate tax rate as part of a revenue-neutral tax reform effort. Right now, the corporate code is so convoluted, and rates so high relative to other nations (thereby creating an incentive to keep profits offshore), that the real rates companies pay can be wildly divergent. This is neither fair nor efficient. Eliminating loopholes and reining in the offshoring of profits can and should be done in a revenue-neutral overhaul of the tax code.

Republicans in Congress will have to take responsibility for the bill’s harmful effects, but blame also falls on its cheerleader-in-chief, President Trump. A president’s job is to get the two parties in Congress to work together. Yet Trump is making the same mistake that Barack Obama made in his first two years in office — believing that his party’s congressional majority gives him license to govern without the other side.

The tax bill is an economically indefensible blunder that will harm our future. The Republicans in Congress who must surely know it — and who have bucked party leaders before — should vote no.

Rams look for offensive balance against always-tough Seattle defense

RICH HAMMOND

link: http://www.ocregister.com/2017/12/15/rams-look-for-offensive-balance-against-always-tough-seattle-defense/

THOUSAND OAKS — Todd Gurley needs the ball more. Robert Woods is back. Cooper Kupp is coming off a career game. Tavon Austin is still a part of the Rams’ offense, despite what the statistics indicate.

Then there’s Sammy Watkins, Gerald Everett and Tyler Higbee.

The Rams’ list of skill players is impressive, but this week more than ever, it’s on Coach Sean McVay to figure out how to utilize them against a Seattle defense that is weakened by injuries but still dangerous, especially to the Rams.

The Rams have scored one touchdown and a total of 22 points in their last three games against the Seahawks, and the teams meet again Sunday in a game that could determine the NFC West champion.

McVay should have the pieces to get the job done, particularly against a Seattle defense that doesn’t have Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor or Cliff Avril and could be without K.J. Wright. But finding the proper balance on offense has been elusive for McVay, particularly against the NFL’s top defenses.

Several times this season, McVay has been self-critical about not running the ball enough. Todd Gurley’s lowest-touch games of the season were in last week’s loss to Philadelphia and an Oct. 1 loss to Seattle.

“He wants the run-pass balance,” Gurley said, “but stuff never goes as planned in the game. You go through situations and he sees looks that he likes. He calls the shots, he’s the head dog, and if he wants to pass the ball, we’re going to pass the ball. If he wants to run the ball, we’re going to run the ball.

“There’s only one ball and there’s 11 people on the field. You can’t get it every time, and you’ve got to just look at it like that.”

And the Rams need to move that ball, in what figures to be one of their most difficult challenges of the season. Recent history shows the Seahawks are tough to beat at home late in the season.

Since the 2012 season, Coach Pete Carroll’s third season and the genesis of the Seahawks’ recent run of success, they have an 11-3 home record in December games and have allowed an average of 11.9 points in those games. In seven of those games, the opponent didn’t score more than seven points.

The crown jewel in that run might have taken place two weeks ago, when the Seahawks played the Eagles, the highest-scoring team in the NFL, and held them to 10 points.

At least the Rams got some good news this week. Both of their starting tackles, Andrew Whitworth and Rob Havenstein, suffered mild injuries against the Eagles last week, but both were full participants in the Rams’ practice Friday at Cal Lutheran and are expected to play against the Seahawks.

Then again, the Rams were healthy in their first meeting against Seattle this season and lost 16-10. In that game, the Rams gained 375 yards, but lost in large part because they committed five turnovers.

“It’s tough to get down there on a defense like that,” McVay said, “but when we did we weren’t able to capitalize on some of our opportunities, and then they did a great job kind of forcing some turnovers. There’s a reason why they’re a great football team.

“We know that going there, especially from an offensive standpoint, having to deal with the elements it’s always going to be about execution and trying to finish drives when you do get down in the red zone.”

It’s been tough for the Rams against the Seahawks of late. Last year, they managed a 9-3 victory at the Coliseum thanks to three field goals. Then last December, three days after the firing of Coach Jeff Fisher, the Rams totaled only 183 yards on a frigid evening and lost 24-3.

The Rams managed to win in Seattle near the end of the 2015 season, a result so surprising that Gurley recalled this week that a teammate told him he should save the ball after he scored a touchdown in that game.

A Gurley touchdown would be big in this game. The back exceeded 1,000 rushing yards for the season last week but touched the ball only 16 times. Statistics clearly show that the Rams’ offense is at its best when Gurley gets more than 20 touches in a game.

Seattle, though, consistently has one of the league’s top run defenses, and Gurley shrugged this week when asked if he agreed with his coach that he should be getting the ball more often.

“I want to be making plays to win the game,” Gurley said. “Obviously, it’s easy to say when you lose the game that you need the ball more, but when you’re winning and you don’t run the ball it’s no problem, so you’ve got to be consistent. As long as we’re winning and the outcome is good, it is what it is. I don’t even know our record anymore, but as long as we just keep winning, we’ll be in a good situation.”

INJURY REPORT

The Rams seem to have made it through the week relatively clean. Center John Sullivan did not practice Friday because of what McVay called an illness, and McVay said, “Hopefully that’s just short term and he will be ready to go.” As expected, receiver Robert Woods and linebacker Connor Barwin are set to return.

BRING THE NOISE

In anticipation of the elements in Seattle, the Rams practiced at times this week with wet footballs and also put speakers field-side with music, in an attempt to simulate the decibels of crowd noise.

“I think there was a couple times when it sounded like the speakers blew out,” McVay said. “I know their fans are going to be excited. It’s going to be a great atmosphere and something that our fans are looking forward to.”

Gurley, Johnson & Hekker Named to PFF Team of the Week

Kristen Lago

http://www.therams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Gurley-Johnson–Hekker-Named-to-PFF-Team-of-the-Week/1a4aeb91-fabb-4ceb-9cf9-5e4c5c3cc4aa

The Rams may have lost to the Eagles in Week 14, but the team still did an impressive job matching up with one of the best clubs in the NFC.

On offense, running back Todd Gurley recorded his 10th game with at least 100 yards from scrimmage, rushing for two touchdowns. Defensively, safety John Johnson IIIhad a team high 10 tackles. And on special teams, punter Johnny Hekker had another dominant game, averaging 56.4 yards per punt.

Gurley, Johnson, and Hekker were both named to the Week 14 Pro Football Focus Team of the Week for their performances. Each week, the popular football grading site delivers a play-by-play grade of every NFL game and player, putting together a comprehensive team of the week made up of the best players at each position on field.

Gurley was given the highest grade of any offensive player, with 94.2 overall. While he only carried the ball 13 times on Sunday, he rattled off 96 yards rushing and broke seven tackles along the way. The Georgia product also continued his dominance as a receiver, adding 39 yards on three catches.

Top safeties from Week 14 in the NFL pic.twitter.com/Jor3njIQ9B

— Pro Football Focus (@PFF) December 13, 2017

Johnson was the only rookie named to the “Team of the Week” in Week 14, with an overall grade of 87.8. On Sunday, the former Boston College standout had a run stop percentage of 25.0 — the best among all safeties that week. In total, Johnson recorded seven solo tackles, three assists, and two passes defensed.

Hekker’s 56.4 yards per punt and net of 50.2 yards per punt led the NFL this past week. Additionally, three of his five punts landed inside the 20 yard line and he posted a long punt of 64 yards on Sunday against the Eagles.

I’m disappointed that Ebukam isn’t making a bigger splash.

He hasn’t been bad but he also hasn’t really flashed.

…

TexasRam wrote:

He reminds me most of Peyton.

The over the top motion
His upright fashion
Quick footwork to put body in throwing position leading with front shoulder.
The way he throws with anticipation leading the Wr.
Throws with touch.
Gets ball out quick on short screens.
Similar audible mannerisms and command.

Reminds me a little of Warner on the deep throws the way he tilts back a little and lines it up.

Sizing up the Seahawks’ next opponent: Rams come to Seattle for key NFC West game

Bob Condotta

https://www.seattletimes.com/sports…utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_seahawks

2017 record: 9-4, first in NFC West.

Coach: Sean McVay (9-4 in first season as head coach).

Series record: Seahawks lead it 23-15, including a 16-10 win over the Rams on Oct. 8. That snapped a streak of three wins in four games for the Rams, each of the wins coming in three different cities.

Early line: Seahawks by one point.

Star players

QB Jared Goff: Some of Goff’s numbers aren’t quite as impressive as they were heading into the first meeting between the two teams and he ranks just 20th in ESPN’s QBR (Total Quarterback Rating). Still, his development in his first season under McVay and second season in the NFL is unmistakable.

His interception rate of just 1.4 (six in 418 attempts) is sixth in the NFL and his yards per attempt of 8.1 is tied for third. But he has little to show for two career games against the Seahawks, completing just 35 of 72 passes for 423 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions and a 55.5 passer rating. His 48.9 passer rating, when he threw two picks in Seattle’s win in October, is his lowest of the season.

RB Todd Gurley: The third-year running back passed the 1,000-yard mark for the second time in his career with 96 yards on 13 carries Sunday against the Eagles and has 1,035 to rank third in the NFL. His 10 touchdowns leads the NFL and he also remains one of the most dangerous receiving running backs in the league. His 51 receptions are fourth among all running backs and his average of 11.8 yards per reception is second. Seattle held him in check in the first game as Gurley had just 43 yards on 14 carries.

WR Cooper Kupp: The former Eastern Washington standout has 18 receptions in his last three games as he has become the team’s leading receiver with 56 catches for 783 yards. Kupp has had his two highest-yardage games in the last three weeks with eight catches for 116 yards against the Saints and five for 118 against the Eagles. But Kupp is undoubtedly still ruing the pass he couldn’t bring down in the end zone on the final series of the first game against Seattle that would likely have given the Rams the win.

DT Aaron Donald: A Pro Bowl pick in his three previous seasons and a first-team All-Pro selection the last two years, Donald is having a typically good season with eight sacks and three forced fumbles, the latter a career high.

Donald terrorized Seattle earlier in his career and Seahawks fans still wincingly recall how he and Michael Brockers teamed up to stuff Marshawn Lynch on a fourth-down play to clinch a win for the Rams in overtime in the season opener in 2015. But after making four sacks in his first three games against Seattle — including two in that 2015 game — he has been held without one in the last four games against the Seahawks.

About Los Angeles

Any hope that the Rams would eventually disappear after their fast start has long ago disappeared, despite Sunday’s home loss to the Eagles. The Rams have continued to stay a step ahead of the Seahawks in the standings. Seattle can win the tiebreaker with a victory Sunday since it beat L.A. earlier this year.

The Rams offensive resurgence under McVay — who got the head-coaching job based on an impressive run as offensive coordinator with Washington — has shown staying power as Los Angeles is second in the NFL in points scored per game at 30.4, scoring 32 or more eight times (Seattle has hit that mark just twice). The Rams have scored less than 20 just twice, held to 10 by the Seahawks and a lone touchdown by the Vikings.

The offense could get a boost this week as receiver Robert Woods — who had 47 receptions for 703 yards in the first 10 games but has missed the last three with a shoulder injury — is expected to return.

The defense is 12th in points allowed (20.3 per game) but has been oddly vulnerable to the run, ranked 30th in yards allowed per attempt at 4.7. The Rams have allowed 100 or more yards rushing to nine of 13 opponents. One of the four who didn’t hit that mark was Seattle, whose 62 rushing yards is the second-lowest given up this year by Los Angeles.

Being efficient Running on 1st Down is a key element to a successful offense.

These are the best and worst thus far this season.#GoSaints #FlyEaglesFly #DallasCowboys #ChiefsKingdom #GoPats #InBrotherhood #GoPackGo #LARams #DaBears #Jets #RaiderNation pic.twitter.com/91EQ8R0ZBA

— NFL Matchup on ESPN (@NFLMatchup) December 12, 2017

When the protection breaks down and a Quarterback faces pressure, it is one of the hardest situations to execute well in sports.

Here are the top-rated passers UNDER PRESSURE this season!#GoPats #FlyEaglesFly #HTTR #TitanUp #Skol #GoBills #Bucs #Bengals50 #FinsUp #LARams pic.twitter.com/KWUSANFGUu

— NFL Matchup on ESPN (@NFLMatchup) December 13, 2017

Rookie no more, Rams quarterback Goff presents a stiff challenge for Seahawks

JOHN MCGRATH

http://www.theolympian.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/john-mcgrath/article189670189.html

Remember Jared Goff? Remember the frazzled Rams quarterback who’d been looking like a bust after he was selected as No. 1 overall choice of the 2016 draft?

Remember that guy?

He no longer exists.

Goff’s transformation from an overwhelmed, long-term project into a polished field general has been key in the historic turnaround of the Rams’ once-listless offense. His pass-completion rate of 62 percent is a vast improvement over the 54.6 percent he finished with as a rookie. He’s thrown for 22 touchdowns – a year after he threw for five – with only six interceptions.

“It’s a big difference,” Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said Wednesday of the 2017 version of Goff. “He’s playing to his potential. We can see him game-in-and-game-out, making great throws and commanding the offense. He’s creative with the plays that he makes and he’s utilizing his players really well.

“He was more in a survival mode last year, and he’s not that way at all.”

Goff’s stunning turnaround can be traced to a transaction the Rams made on Jan. 13, the day the team announced former Washington Redskins offensive coordinator Sean McVay as its new head coach. McVay was 30, younger than some of his players, and the surprise hiring suggested desperation.

McVay has proven to be a shrewd choice. Instead of bemoaning the growing pains spread-offense college quarterbacks face in the NFL, McVay had the novel notion of accepting spread products like Goff as the wave of the future.

McVay stresses pace between plays, getting to the line of scrimmage in time for the first-year coach to communicate audibles to Goff before the headset is turned off 15 seconds prior to the snap. Goff takes it from there.

Watching Goff during a recent game against the Saints, broadcast analyst Tony Romo noted “he’s doing more at the line of scrimmage than anybody I’ve seen in his second year in a long time – probably since Peyton Manning.”

With first place in the NFC West (and a likely playoff berth) at stake Sunday, the Seahawks hopes of beating Los Angeles hinge on a putting together a more assertive pass rush than was applied on Jacksonville’s Blake Bortles last week. Absent any pressure – no sacks, one hit – the defense allowed the Jaguars quarterback to relax in the pocket. He ended up completing 18-of-26 passes for 268 yards and two touchdowns.

“We’ve had a lot of hits on quarterbacks this season – check out our numbers,” said Carroll. “We’re hitting the quarterback, but we need to convert those into sacks. We’re getting to the quarterback.

“Last week it didn’t happen, as you could tell.”

The Seahawks got a sneak preview of the new, improved Goff on Oct. 8, when he threw for 288 yards in a 16-10 Seattle victory. Two interceptions without a touchdown produced a poor passer rating of 48.9, but the difference that day was the Hawks ability contain star running back Todd Gurley, held to 43 yards on 14 carries.

“When we played him,” Carroll said of Goff, “he’d already started well. He was playing good football and he’s continued to show that consistency. He’s really grown.”

Goff’s afternoon on Sunday figures to be less of a headache than his first visit to CentguryLink Field. A year ago this week, Goff took a fourth-quarter hit from cornerback Richard Sherman and spent the rest of the game on the sideline, victim of a possible concussion.

Much has changed over 12 months. Interim Los Angeles head coach Jim Fassel, in his first game as successor to the fired Jeff Fisher, had little to work with as the Rams were stumbling to a 4-12 finish. With McVay now calling the shots for his confident quarterback, the offense has evolved into a balanced force, averaging 114.7 yards per game on the ground and 252.9 yards in the air.

“They’ve really turned it around and are enjoying a fantastic season,” said Carroll. “We have a lot of respect for what they’re doing in all phases. We have to do everything right to have a chance, and that’s what we’re preparing to do.”

A pass rush that takes Jared Goff out of his comfort zone ranks as a top priority, but be surprised if he resembles the rookie who got his clock cleaned in Seattle a year ago.

That guy no longer exists.