Seahawks Clinch NFC West, Top Seed; Rams Lose Control

What a way to win the NFC West Championship.

BETTINA HANSEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES

The Seattle Seahawks were able to finally clinch the NFC West and the #1 seed out of the NFC in their last game of the season. The 27-9 victory over the St Louis Rams was full of all the stuff you see in a good division rival game, besides coming down to the wire thanks to another terrific outing for the Seattle Seahawks #1 ranked defense. A huge part of that effort has to go to LB Bobby Wagner, who tallied up 12 tackles Sunday, his most on the season and was able to take the #1 spot on the entire team with 120 total tackles all season, 2nd was Earl Thomas with 105.

The Rams did have a great defensive outing of themselves, sacking QB Russell Wilson 4 times and a total of 11 on the season (7 sacks in week 8). DE's Robert Quinn and Chris Long each recorded another sack against Wilson, for a total of 4 sacks for each in both games.Quinn finished 2nd in the NFL with 19 sacks this season, Colts LB Robert Mathis was the league leader with 19.5. Both Quinn and Long were major problems in their last outing, but this time it was LB James Laurinaitis who was attempting to be the trouble maker on defense, racking up a total of 10 total tackles. Besides the decent play by the Rams defense, their offense played a sorry game.

Rams QB Kellen Clemens would throw 2 INT's, that's 4 INT's to SEA in both meetings this year, and only gain 157 yards thru the air, Wilson was not too much better with 172 yards, however the game plan in Seattle was Run, Run, Run in St Louis Clemens was just trying to make a play. The first INT thrown by Clemens was early in the 1st qtr when he threw a pick-6 to LB Malcolm Smith, Smith's 2nd INT in as many games.

Seattle seemed to finally make progress with their offense, which has struggled lately. WR Golden Tate had a career day with his 8 catches for 129 yards with 1 TD and was destroying the Rams secondary all day long. RB Marshawn Lynch also had a better game compared to his recent slump, gaining 97 yards on 23 attempts.

The main thing that will be remembered about this game was the total self-destruction by the Rams, who were penalized 12 times for 87 yards. Seattle still had their own penalty issues, this time only 7 penalties for 65 yards. The Rams really let the situation get the best of them in the 3rd qtr where they were flagged 4 times in the span of 2 plays. One flag ended up getting DE Kendall Langford ejected out of the game, it looked like he inadvertently hit a ref when trying to explain himself to another, but ejected nonetheless and to really who the refs he threw his helmet to the ground on the way out, penalizing his team one more time but hey he got his point across right?

(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Prediction:

SEA over STL 24-18

Final Score:

SEA over STL 27-9 (NFC West Champions, #1 seed NFC)

The Seahawks are now headed down the road to Super Bowl XLVIII and if they are just lucky enough to make it to the Meadowlands, they will at least have the satisfaction of sleeping in their own beds until then. As for any team in the NFC who will have to come out to Seattle, you got a tough challenge in front of you.


Also here is another special video. This one here is special, you can almost feel the emotion when you watch the video.



For a couple more quick recaps and all the final scores from week 17, check out my other post "NFL Week 17 2013 Mayhem". 



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