By Nick Wagoner

Senior Writer

 

SEATTLE – Standing on the Qwest Field sidelines Sunday, Rams coach Scott Linehan couldn’t help but get that feeling of déjà vu.

Linehan and the Rams had seen this play before. They’d seen the defense repeatedly allow big plays. They’d seen the offense struggle to string together a drive. They’d seen the scoreboard light up early and often for their opponent but nothing but darkness on their side.

And so it was for the third straight week as Seattle surged to an early lead and finished the Rams off on its way to a 37-13 victory that was essentially over at halftime.

 

“They were able to pretty much do what they wanted to do in the first half in a number of areas,” Linehan said. “We haven’t been able to stop the run or the big plays in the running game. It seems to be an over and over thing.”

 

The loss drops the Rams to 0-3 for the second consecutive season. But even in the difficult 2007 start, the team had found a way to be in games late into the second half.

 

This season, opponents have outscored the Rams by an count of 116-29. Making matters worse, two of those contests were essentially decided at halftime.

 

The Rams trailed Philadelphia 21-0 at halftime in the opening week and fell behind 27-6 in Sunday’s loss.

 

Many of the problems on both sides of the ball have persisted in those three weeks. Perhaps most discouraging has been the relative ease with which the Eagles, Giants and Seahawks have been able to move the ball offensively.

 

Seattle posted 267 yards of offense in the first half, mainly on the strength of a plethora of big plays both running and passing the ball.

The Rams defense yielded gains of 19,15, 22, 29, 15, 34, 16 and 32 yards in the first half alone. All told, that group gave up 11 plays of 15 yards or longer and four more plays between 10 and 14 yards.

 

“These big chunks of yardage that teams are getting on us is alarming,” Linehan said. “It’s not like it’s a new thing. It was alarming the first week, it was alarming last week and it’s alarming again. You can’t win in the National Football League and give up that kind of yardage over the whole course of a game. you might have a bad quarter or a bad series but to consistently do it, it’s going to be tough to slow anybody down.”

 

Defensive tackle La’Roi Glover said after the game there’s a lack of confidence on the defense right now and that is translating to big plays for opponents.

 

Even against the Seahawks, the defense had its moments where it seemed to right the ship. That group made eight tackles for loss and had a sack, regularly putting Seattle into unfavorable third down situations.

 

Each time that happened, though, the Seahawks found a way to make yet another big play and eventually score. After holding Seattle to a 28-yard field goal from Olindo Mare on the opening possession, the Rams were fighting an uphill battle as Seattle got a short field from a Marc Bulger fumble.

 

Michael Bumpus converted that into a 10-yard touchdown catch from quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and Julius Jones followed with a 29-yard touchdown run that saw Hasselbeck take out two Rams with a down field block.

 

Jones appeared to be hemmed up in the backfield before suddenly emerging and darting into the end zone. He finished with 140 yards on 22 carries as the Seahawks ran the ball at will for most of the day.

 

While not all defenders echo the lack of confidence sentiment, they do all agree that something is clearly missing.

 

“It sounds like it’s so easy but clearly there’s an attitude going on,” linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa said. “Maybe that’s what La’Roi means. It’s more of an attitude adjustment that we need. Everyone feels it. You guys probably feel it in the press box, like Oh Shit, it’s that time again. You know that feeling? Some people call it confidence, I call it attitude. I think that attitude has to be there.”

 

Of course, for the third straight week, the Rams’ problems weren’t limited to the defense. After picking up a first down on their first two plays, the Rams seemed poised to piece together a nice opening drive to respond to Seattle ’s opening score.

 

That idea went by the wayside when Seattle linebacker Julian Peterson ran by fullback Dan Kreider for a sack, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery that set up the Seahawks’ second score.

 

It was another slow start offensively for the Rams as they posted just 63 yards on 26 first half plays with the longest gain being a 10-yard completion to rookie receiver Donnie Avery.

 

“That’s been our Achilles heel,” Bulger said. “We have been getting down early and we in the past have been able to claw our way out and score our way out but right now we are not doing a good enough job helping our defense out. They are always on the field and probably out there too much.”

 

While the Seahawks were posting double digit gains regularly, the Rams couldn’t even take advantage of a chance provided by the special teams.

 

At the beginning of the second quarter, punter Donnie Jones boomed a kick 61 yards that Bumpus mishandled. Gary Stills recovered at Seattle ’s 23, putting the Rams just 3 yards from their first red zone visit of the 2008 season.

 

The next three plays netted negative 2 yards and the Rams settled for a 43-yard field goal from Josh Brown.

Finally, on their next possession, the Rams broke into the red zone on the aforementioned 10-yard pass to Avery with about 4:50 left in the half.

 

Although many of the problems that plagued the offense in the first two contests like pre snap penalties and lost yardage plays weren’t nearly as evident, the Rams still managed just 240 yards of total offense.

 

“We had a few more drives,” Linehan said. “We just got our first red zone play of the year this year today. If you are playing on that side of the field and aren’t driving the ball and putting points on the board offensively and with what’s happening on the other side of the ball, you are in for long days. We’ve had three of them.”

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