Seahawks vs. Rams 2013: ‘Brian Schottenheimer happened’

Seattle scratched a win out with a goal-line stand in the final seconds over a scrappy Rams squad.

Oct 29, 2013, 1:46 PM UTC

Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

The Seattle Seahawks improved to 7-1 on the season, beating the St. Louis Rams 14-9 in one of the best finishes of the season on Monday Night Football at the Edward Jones Dome.

St. Louis had the ball for a final play from Seattle's 1-yard line and decided to throw instead of handing off to running back Zac Stacy, who had already amassed 134 rushing yards as part of the Rams' 200 yards on the ground. As you can tell from the score, Kellen Clemens could not find the mark, and the Seahawks walked out with a win.

Over at Turf Show Times, Ryan Van Bibber was not pleased with the Rams’ offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer:

Pick a play where the outcome could have been different for the St. Louis Rams. From missed field goals to 247 penalties, the Rams had their chances to win Monday's game against Seattle. None of those stand out more than what happened on the final play of the game. Brian Schottenheimer happened.

Stacy left the game late with an ankle injury, but came back in for the final play ... the final play where Schottenheimer had him lined up wide, leaving Pass Master 2000, Kellen Clemens, with an empty backfield on fourth down at the one-yard line.

Still, it was an ugly win at that for Seattle. The Seahawks were horrible in pass blocking, allowing seven sacks of Russell Wilson including three by Robert Quinn. Seattle shockingly only ran for 44 yards, not helped by giving the ball to Marshawn Lynch just eight times.

Danny Kelly of Field Gulls wrote about the complete lack of blocking going on in from of Wilson:

We know now that Paul McQuistan is not good at playing left tackle and Michael Bowie has a long way to go, but I was really pretty concerned about the lack of any sort of adjustment by the Seattle coaching staff to try and get some better protection. When St. Louis is stacking the box with 8 defenders on every play, you'd hope there would have been more downfield throwing opportunities, but Wilson had little time all game. There didn't seem to be much in the way of keeping Zach Miller in to block either. On first viewing, it just seemed like the Hawks didn't do anything to try and protect Wilson other than hope that McQuistan and Bowie played better.