The Changing of the Guard

Did you see it coming?

There had to be some evidence in the last few weeks. What with injuries to key players and the QB running for his life and making spectacular plays, one had to wonder when the magic was going to run out.

Apparently the answer was Sunday afternoon in Seattle. For those of you that watched the game or at least parts of it until you decided that there might be more excitement watching the Home Shopping Network it was hard to stomach.

Even the fans left the Clink early during this one.

I haven’t watched the Seahawks play an entire game this season. They have lost their luster in a lot of different areas. The Los Angeles Rams on the other hand are an up and coming team that is having fun scoring points and playing as a team.

It’s funny because that was what we were saying about the Seahawks just about three or four years ago. What happened on Sunday was a wakeup call to players and coaches. Seattle is a long way from what they were.

The line gave up seven sacks of mobile QB Russell Wilson and the defense gave up 34 first half points and it could have been worse. The final score was 42-7.

I’m glad I went to the Ritz Theater to watch the movie Sunday afternoon. The movie certainly had more storylines than the football game did.

The Seahawks team chemistry and camaraderie are not there and I hate to blame the coaches but they’ve allowed a fair amount of this to happen.

There is infighting and bickering and they are becoming sore losers. They’ve lost their cool on several occasions and it doesn’t take much for a smart opposing coach to know what buttons to push.

There really is a good chance that the Seahawks may not make the playoffs for the first time in a long while. But what about the Los Angeles Rams? Are they really that good?

Well, the coaching change they made last year was long overdue. The Rams were underachievers at times but they were never very consistent.

With 31-year-old rookie head coach Sean McVay at the helm, the Rams are believers and at 10-4 are on their way to the playoffs.

If you’ve only watched the Rams when they’ve played the Seahawks you are missing a determined team that is exciting to watch.

They have a line that protects second year QB Jared Goff, and they have playmakers.

It is exciting to see former Eastern Washington University receiver Cooper Kupp make plays.

One of his teammates from EWU is defensive end Samson Ebukam who gets playing time on special teams and defense. This kid is a hard worker who has a chance to be a real star for the Rams on the defensive side of the ball.

It was tough for me to want the Rams to succeed this year, but I like how Coach McVay has his team playing and he takes chances now and then which kind of freaks out the announcers.

They think everything should be done a certain way and if something fails they will say that they don’t understand the play calling as if their paycheck or job was on the line.

Oh, I also really like Kupp and Ebukam.

McVay seems to have his team playing very well this time of year, which is very important. The Seahawks on the other hand used to be known as a December team that would dominate late in the season in order to make the playoffs.

But two December losses in a row may be too much for them to overcome.

One thing is for sure from the results of Sunday’s game there may be a changing of the guard in the NFC West and the Rams seem to be poised to take over that spot and they may have the horses to stay there for a while.