In the wake of this howlingly bad loss to the Seattle Seahawks, blame is being spread around like melted butter on a hot pan. Fire Spagnuolo. Fire McDaniels. Fire Devaney. And those are the big targets. This season is too far gone to pick on lesser targets like Ken Flajole and Steve Loney, men who are expected to be caught up like lint in the wake of the "sweeping changes" that Rams fans demand.

But there's another target who is deservedly attracting blame, one that makes us profoundly uncomfortable to point out: our golden boy, Sam Bradford. Before he got hurt, we could make a legitimate case that he was better than his stats, thanks to a receiving corps that dropped balls by the dozens. But now, there's no arguing that his game has severely regressed.

Borrowing (and butchering) a sentiment from the Righteous Brothers, an early diagnosis of Sam's troubles can be reduced to this: He's lost that winning feeling.

No trick plays necessary for the Seattle Seahawks. A punishing defense was more than enough. The offense couldn't get anything going and again wasted a solid defensive effort. Sam Bradford completed just 20 of 40 pass attempts, was sacked five times, fumbled twice and threw an INT. Steven Jackson saw his three-game streak of 100-yard games come to an end with a dismal 42 yards on 15 carries.

Wide receiver Sidney Rice provided early flash, completing a 55-yard pass to open the game, catching a touchdown pass and drawing a pass interference call to set up a field goal at the end of the half. Chris Clemons then took charge with three of Seattle's five sacks and two forced fumbles on Sam Bradford in a 24-7 victory over the St. Louis Rams on Sunday.

The Seahawks shut down Steven Jackson and then hounded Bradford, who had little time to operate behind a banged-up line. The Rams were held to 185 yards, a season best for Seattle and the second worst showing of the season for the NFL's lowest scoring team.

Plain and simple, what started out good with the Rams scoring in the first quarter for the first time since their season opener went all downhill from there.

1^st Quarter:

1^st and 10 on first play of the game and it is a 55 yard reverse-pass from Sidney Rice to Mike Williams….amazing pass. But on the ensuing 1^st down Tarvaris Jackson is intercepted by Chris Chamberlin.

First drive for Rams nets them a 1^st down but Bradford does not look sharp. Has one pass deflected and when given plenty of time to throw still misses his target in Lloyd.

After the 3 and out Seattle takes over and on his 2^nd pass of the day Jackson throws his 2^nd interception. Quintin Mikell jumps the route and picks it off. Giving St. Louis great field position at the Seattle 35 yard line.

Points off of turnovers.  After a short gain by Steven Jackson on 1^st down on 2^nd and long Bradford hits Brandon Lloyd for a 30 yard touchdown. Nice to see a Rams receiver get vertical and behind the defense.

The St Louis Rams came into this game riding a small wave of momentum, winning two games and nearly locking up a third in the last three weeks. Steven Jackson had been running as well as he had in any three-game span of his career during that span, cracking the 125 yard mark in all three contests. 

Naturally, Josh McDaniels did a little self-scouting on the Rams and made the logical decision: He anticipated that Seattle might try to load up against Jackson, so he took the RB out of the equation all together and put this game entirely on the shoulders of Sam Bradford and his receivers. 

Feeling flush with receiver talent, with both Brandon Lloyd and Mark Clayton active, McDaniels dialed up a large percentage of empty backfield sets, though as the announcers pointed out, there was no hurry-up in the offense.

The resulting 24-7 defeat was almost shockingly awful, and I say almost because nothing's really shocking any more about the offensive futility of this team. Maddening, disappointing, disheartening, even confusing, yes. But shocking? No. 

Here is a rapid-fire listing of the Rams' drives:

Punt. Touchdown (7-0 lead!). Punt. Punt. Punt. Punt. Punt. Punt. Fumble. Punt. Punt. Punt. Interception. Fumble. Kneel.

The longest of those drives went for 42 yards, and that too ended in a punt. The Rams started possessions three times in the first quarter north of their 40 yard line, and got only one score. When these Rams were quarterbacked by Marc Bulger and Kyle Boller, and our offense run by Scott Linehan, we used to pine for the days when we might get a real quarterback, and a real offensive coordinator. Well? Now what? 

I suppose we need to add a real offensive line and a real offensive line coach to that list. And a real offseason. And a real quarterbacks coach. And a real dose of good luck in the injury department. 

You can blame this loss on coach Spagnuolo, and doubtless many will, but his guys on defense played their asses off. But they got consistently given short fields by their offense and by poor punting by Donnie Jones. Seattle's three touchdown drives covered 40, 25, and 21 yards. This game was given to Sam Bradford to win or lose very early on, and he lost it. Plain and simple. All Spagnuolo could do was watch. 

Fox analyst Tim Ryan unintentionally summed up Spagnuolo's fate thusly: "As a head coach, Steve Spagnuolo is a great defensive coordinator."

For all we know, that may be the title printed on his next business card. 

The first matchup between the St Louis Rams and Seattle Seahawks matches up two teams so badly ravaged by injury that they are barely recognizable. By the time they meet on ESPN's Monday Night Football, the network programmers might just as well play the first twenty minutes of Saving Private Ryan. The visual result will be little different.

Here's a comparison of the carnage, unit by unit:

Offensive Line

Rams:

• LT Rodger Saffold done (torn pectoral), replaced by former Pats backup Mark Levoir.
• C Jason Brown benched, replaced by former Niners backup Tony Wragge.
• RT Jason Smith out (concussion), replaced by Adam Goldberg.
• TE Michael Hoomanawanui done (ACL), replaced by former Cardinals starter Steven Spach.

Seahawks:

• RG John Moffitt done (ACL), replaced by former Raider backup Paul McQuistan.
• RT James Carpenter done (ACL), replaced by backup Breno Giacomini.

Advantage: Rams?

In recent weeks, the Rams rushing attack has taken off. Call it an adjustment on the part of offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. Credit SJ39 for finally being healthy. Whatever it is, it is working. 

The Rams have called on Steven the last three weeks and he has responded very well. SJ39 has had 81 carries in the last three games. That is the third highest carry total in a three-game span in his career, and those 81 carries have resulted in 417 yards and 2 touchdowns.  Perhaps more importantly, those carries have resulted in two wins, and a third game that the Rams led well into the 4th quarter.

How is he doing it? The Rams have not been able to consistently establish the run in years, even when Jackson at full health. Let's go to the tape and see what they're doing.

Here is the breakdown of SJ39’s longest run from this past Sunday, a 22-yarder that set the Rams up in scoring position at the end of the first half. (Play diagram and crudely animated GIF after the break.)

Justin King has been the Rams' iron man at cornerback this season.

Whatever evil curse Andre Curtis (the Rams' defensive backs coach) picked up during the lockout, he might want to go about setting things right. Return the jewel-encrusted eye to the withered old woman in New Orleans, or burn that monkey's paw, or take some holy water and scrub that blood-soaked pentagram off your office floor. Whatever it is, fix it, man.

With Al Harris now lost for the season with an ACL injury, that makes eight Rams defensive backs to be lost for the season, including three guys in the preseason and a fourth, Brian Jackson, who had been signed midseason as Fletcher's replacement but never saw a snap. (Marquis Johnson's stint on the PUP list had my early count at nine, but that was incorrect.)

Moreover, Harris' injury continues a spooky trend in the St Louis backfield: No starting cornerback can go much more than 300 snaps without something bad happening. Check out this list of our CB usage this year:

• Ron Bartell: 61 snaps (Neck/shoulder, Week 1)
• Bradley Fletcher: 302 snaps (ACL, bye week practice)
• Justin King: 347 snaps (Groin strain, Week 7)
• Al Harris: 362 snaps (ACL, Week 10)

(One guy who is in no danger of reaching the 300 mark is Rod Hood, who accumulated a total of 4 snaps in Week 7, and hasn't been heard from since.)

Now here's a scary thought: Josh Gordy, who has been playing really well considering the circumstances, is up to 251 snaps, and is in line to start next week against Seattle. And King is up to 123 since his return from his groin pull.

I'm telling you, Andre, go return that sack of gold coins to the River Gods before it's too late. 

In what was essentially a 3 hour battle of field position the St. Louis Rams came away winners in nearly the same fashion they lost just a mere seven day ago. Via a field goal attempt at the end of the game. In the NFL a win, is a win, is a win. And that ultimately is how teams, players and coaches are judged.

Still after yesterday’s win left me feeling both a little dirty and unsatisfied I recommend all Rams games here on out be played using the league’s new overtime guidelines. As the Rams and Browns combined for 10 punts and together were 9 for 26 on 3^rd down even fans of Alabama and LSU thought the pace of this game was terrible.

For what it’s worth as Will investigates the Rams may have actually won the game rather than Cleveland losing it.  Sam Bradford’s first career 4^th quarter comeback *cough* *cough* did manage to include a few big plays one incredible one by Brandon Lloyd. Go ahead and blame it on the wind but if either of these teams had a semblance of a red zone offense the score might have gotten into the twenties.

Here is an abridged version of the madness that led to the Rams 13-12 victory in Cleveland with special attention to Brandon Lloyd’s catch.