The Los Angeles Rams’ downward spiral continues after firing their head coach earlier this week. The players will try to pick up the pieces when they travel to CenturyLink Field to take on the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night. Seattle can clinch the NFC West with a win here.
Rams vs. Seahawks: Start time, TV schedule for ‘Thursday Night Football’
The Rams start the post-Jeff Fisher era with a trip to Seattle.
The Rams’ season hit rock bottom in an embarrassing 42-14 loss to the Atlanta Falcons in Week 13, falling to 4-9 and guaranteeing their sixth straight losing season. Just one day later, the Jeff Fisher era finally came to an end when the team fired him. Fisher’s Rams tenure ends without a single winning record in five seasons. His bad habits came to a head in 2016 with an inept offense, bad quarterback play, and a bizarre public feud with Rams legend Eric Dickerson. The team will close out the year with special teams coordinator John Fassel serving as interim head coach.
Despite the trainwreck year, this will be an attractive job opening in the offseason. The Rams do have talent to build around, with a legitimate franchise cornerstone (Aaron Donald), a potential franchise cornerstone if he can get over his sophomore slump (Todd Gurley), and a rookie quarterback who’s still young enough to be salvageable (Jared Goff). The next head coach will be tasked with trying to fix Goff, who’s looked like a deer in headlights this year. The team is a mess right now, but there’s a path to a quick rebuild if the chips fall right.
The Seahawks are also reeling, but in a much different way from the Rams. They’re still 8-4-1 and can wrap up the division title this week. The first-round bye is still in play. However, the team is trying to recover from an absolute pummeling by the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Russell Wilson threw five interceptions and Aaron Rodgers feasted on a defense missing Earl Thomas, as Green Bay cruised to a 38-10 win. It’s by far the most lopsided loss of the Pete Carroll era.
The loss continues a troubling trend of Seattle failing to show up on the road, and that thrilling win over the New England Patriots continues to look like an outlier. The Seahawks are 2-4-1 when traveling away from CenturyLink Field, including uninspired efforts against the New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Packers. Getting that first-round bye and a guaranteed home playoff game will be paramount, because if Seattle doesn’t play better on the road its postseason run could be short.
Speaking of bad road losses, the Rams managed to beat the Seahawks at the Coliseum in Week 2. It was an ugly 9-3 win in which neither team managed to find the end zone. That game feels like an eternity ago (the Rams actually jumped out to a 3-1 start before falling apart), but Los Angeles has a way of getting under Seattle’s skin. This is a feisty division rivalry that usually makes for fun television.
How to watch
Time: 8:25 p.m. ET
Place: CenturyLink Field, Seattle
TV: NBC, NFL Network
Announcers: Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, Heather Cox
Online: Twitter, NBC Sports Live
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