Bored, But Not Beaten Seahawks Top Rams In Dull Strategy Duel

Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski and St. Louis Rams defensive coordinator Bud Carson staged a three-hour chess match Sunday in the Trans World Dome.

Bratkowski opened with four wide receivers to spread the field. Carson countered by blitzing one of the four cornerbacks to disrupt the running offense. Bratkowski ordered screens to flood vacated areas from the blitz. Carson stalled drives near the Rams goal line.

The ultimate difference in this mental tug-of-war was that Bratkowski had 40-year-old Warren Moon as his quarterback. All of Carson’s successes were neutralized because the Rams’ 24-year-old Tony Banks couldn’t do anything with the Rams’ offense.

Checkmate: Seahawks 17, Rams 9 - before 64,819 spectators in a trance.

“This wasn’t Warren’s best outing by any means, but he did some good things,” Seahawks coach Dennis Erickson said. “He threw the ball really well and did what he had to do - win.”

Moon completed 24 of 36 passes for 261 yards even though he didn’t have his best stuff. Once, he blew a scoring opportunity by throwing an interception at the Rams’ 6 by making the - as Moon put it - cardinal sin of throwing across his body.

On the next series, he released a pass with a defender at his heels and it also was intercepted.

What was looking to be a one-sided affair for the Seahawks was 3-3 tie at halftime. Moon and Bratkowski plotted their strategy at the half. No more making audible calls to run. Instead, Moon came out and tried to run the ball out of set plays.

His calming effect enabled the Seahawks to control the ball for 38 minutes and 11 seconds and win their fourth game in the past five. At 4-3, the Seahawks are above .500 for the first time since 1995, and with a possible sellout expected next Sunday in the Kingdome for the Oakland Raiders, maybe some playoff momentum is building.

“We are beginning to play as a team,” said halfback Chris Warren, who accepted his role as the team’s third back and scored the game-winning 1-yard touchdown run with 11 minutes left in the third quarter. “We are learning the offense more. Everybody is more comfortable. Warren Moon is more comfortable. It’s time to be more consistent and make the playoff run.”

Even the best teams struggle to win listless games such as the one Sunday. The game plan was to spread the field with receivers and catch the Rams off guard with an occasional run or two. So much for game plans.

Carson, one of the league’s smartest defensive coordinators, blew up that thinking on the very first running play. Lamar Smith, the starting halfback, was stopped for a 4-yard loss on his first carry and a 3-yard loss on his second. On those plays, he suffered a leg injury that became more painful as the game progressed and forced him to miss most of the second half.

Smith, on crutches, said he will undergo tests today to determine the extent of the injury. All he knows is that X-rays didn’t determine a break and that Carson found ways to shut down the running offense.

“We would come to the line and call an audible, and their linebacker would call where we were going to run,” Smith said. “Where we would run, a slot guy would rush straight in on a blitz and take away our run. We had to change our whole idea on running. We couldn’t come to the line and audible to a run.”

Steve Broussard was contained in the first half. Smith broke outside for runs of 7 and 13 yards, but his calf tightened and he couldn’t finish the game. Warren entered at the beginning of the third quarter. Thanks to Moon’s smart calls, the Seahawks offense moved.

Against a blitz, Moon sent wide receiver Ronnie Harris into a quick route by having him fake a run block and float into an open area in the flat. When Toby Wright missed a tackle, Harris raced 34 yards to the Rams’ 8.

Warren had two 3-yard runs to set up a third down at the 2. Warren was stopped at the 1, but an offside penalty on defensive end Jeff Robinson gave Seattle one more chance.

Warren leaped over a pile of defenders to give the Seahawks a 10-3 lead 4 minutes into the second half.

“We tried to keep the Rams off-balance with a lot of different looks and have them settle into one or two defenses,” Moon said. “I’ve played Bud Carson defenses when he was in Cleveland and Philadelphia and he does a lot of things that are a little unorthodox. But they are pretty sound. You’ve got to keep on your thinking cap when you are playing him.”

After the Rams trimmed the lead with a 29-yard Jeff Wilkins field goal, Moon drove the Seahawks 78 yards on 13 plays. One of the key plays was a 20-yard screen to Warren that went 20 yards to the Rams’ 4.

Both sides went into a period of false starts and defenders lining up in the neutral zone, but the Seahawks came out of the confusion with a 9-yard touchdown run by Broussard and enough points to win.

By trying to stop the Seahawks run, Carson put his faith that his talented, young defense could contain Moon. Though Moon admitted throwing two interceptions that he should have held, he effectively worked short passes to amass 27 first downs and 357 yards of offense.

“It wasn’t one of my best days,” Moon said. “But it’s great not playing your best football and winning a game on the road.”

The other reason the Rams lost is that Banks, 16 years younger than Moon, can’t match him pass-for-pass, series-for-series. The Seahawks’ defense completely took away the Rams’ running game, holding it to 37 yards, and forcing Banks to throw.

Rams receivers dropped passes. Banks, hurried by the defense, threw low passes and forced coach Dick Vermeil to make strange play calls.

Banks produced only 155 net yards. Moon handled Carson’s tricky scheme. Checkmate. Seahawks win.