If you summed up in a nutshell the reason for the Rams bowing out of the playoff race after only nine games this season; you might just have to say they weren’t hungry enough.

Indeed it was the Seattle Seahawks who were sorely outmatched even with their patented 12th man behind them at Qwest Field. But they turned that damning situation into “Tackling Fuel,” and it was just enough to get the job done against a Rams team that had every reason to feel like they had their backs against the wall despite this barely being the halfway point of the season.

The part of Adam Vinateri will be played this year by Josh Brown. Yeah, well it doesn’t look like Vinateri, but it’s got to be him. He’s the guy who perfected the last second kick victories beginning in the 2002 Superbowl against St. Louis where he won the championship with his own last second kick do doom Kurt Warner’s last bid for any victory that mattered. In looking back, it appears that was the kick that ended Warner’s championship run and sentenced him to a life of futility and failure which continues to this very day in Arizona.

Josh Brown, however has toppled the Rams twice this year alone, and with a little help from their 13th man, (Scott Linehan) has almost single-handedly assured the Seattle Seahawks of their third-straight NFC West title as well as the answer to this century’s “Super-bowl runner up curse.”

The fact that franchise player Orlando Pace was also lost for the season only drives more nails into the coffin that holds the Rams season which started out so promising with a 4-1 record. Pace of course had the torn triceps muscle that took him out of the game in the second quarter.

The victory give the Seahawks a three game lead in the division which is next to impossible to overcome at this point, and with the Hawks key players poised to returning the next couple of weeks, they will only get stronger anyway.

So while the race isn’t officially over, this game was the back breaker. It would take a miracle to get out alive at this point. But stranger things have happened.

GO RAMS!!!!

~Mark Adams/The WatchDog~

Josh Brown is the Ghost of Adam Vinateri
November 14th, 2006