Seattle rookie Doug Baldwin blocked a punt that teammate Michael Robinson returned for a touchdown, and later caught a 29-yard touchdown pass from Tarvaris Jackson, lifting the Seahawks to a 30-13 win over the St. Louis Rams at CenturyLink Field.
The Seahawks, improving to 6-7, won for the fourth time in five games while the hapless Rams fell to 2-11. The Rams, who lost to the Seahawks three weeks ago in St. Louis, lost to the Seahawks for the 13th time in their past 14 games against Seattle, and have scored just one touchdown against Seattle in their past five CenturyLink games.
Seattle is still mathematically alive for a spot in the NFL playoffs, but the Seahawks will have to win their final three — at Chicago Dec. 18, vs. San Francisco Dec. 24, and at Arizona Jan. 1 — in order to have a chance. Even three wins might not be enough.
Seattle’s Marshawn Lynch had another 100-yard rushing game for Seattle (115, 23 carries), his fifth in the past six weeks.
The Seahawks have gone 4-5 since starting the season 2-6, a major coup for Pete Carroll in his rebuilding program of the franchise.
The Seahawks, who had five sacks against St. Louis quarterback Sam Bradford three weeks ago, had three more Monday night.
At 10:48 of the first quarter, after Jerious Norwood failed to pick up a first down on 3rd-and-8, St. Louis’ Donnie Jones had his punt blocked by Seattle wide receiver Doug Baldwin. Fullback Michael Robinson returned the block 17 yards for a touchdown, giving Seattle a 7-0 lead.
The Seahawks took a 10-0 lead when Steven Hauschka kicked a 42-yard field goal with 1:35 left in the first quarter. The Rams answered with a 46-yard field goal from former Seahawk Josh Brown at the 11:04 mark of the second quarter, cutting Seattle’s lead to 10-3.
At halftime, the Seahawks had just 129 yards of total offense (42 rushing, 28 by Marshawn Lynchg) while the Rams had 114.
Early in the third quarter, a Brandon Browner interception set up another field goal by Hauschka, this one from 23 yards, which gave the Seahawks a 13-3 lead.
Hauschka could have given Seattle a 16-3 lead, but he missed from 32 yards midway through the third quarter.
With 3:00 to play in the third quarter, Steven Jackson of the Rams ripped off a 50-yard run after catching a screen pass, giving St. Louis the ball in the red zone. On the next play Richard Sherman of Seattle was called for interference, giving the Rams the ball on the one-yard line.
But the Seahawks, following an intentional grounding call on St. Louis, held the Rams to just a field goal, cutting Seattle’s lead to 13-6.
Seattle immediately came back. Following a 54-yard kickoff return by Leon Washington, Tarvaris Jackson connected on a 29-yard TD pass to Baldwin, off play action, giving Seattle a 20-6 lead.
Hauschka made it 23-6 with a 48-yard field goal with 8:27 left to play in the fourth quarter.
Jackson scored with 3:49 to play on a one-yard run, slicing Seattle’s lead to 23-13, but Lynch scored on a short touchdown run with 2:57 to play to secure the victory.
