Rams at Hawks: All aboard the busted knee express

Last week’s debacle of a football weekend sent me fleeing toward the relative refuge of my day job. Get away for a couple days, immerse my self in other things. To paraphrase character Steve Dunne from one of my favorite movies “Singles” - work is all I need. Work is good. Work.

Unfortunately, I work for a rather large Seattle-based financial institution that’s been in the papers a little too much lately. So, between local football follies and the financial crisis/meltdown/emergency/catastrophy/depression, my week hasn’t really panned out for me. Crap.

So, here we go on Week 3 of the Seahawks season as we welcome the Rams to Qwest Field. Or as I like to call it, a short train ride into the bye week aboard the busted knee express.

But hey, congratulations to Koren Robinson for getting his new/old gig. No sooner had the ink dried on Koren’s 1-year deal, he went and tweaked his knee in practice yesterday. According to reports, he worked through some individual drills today, but mostly watched practice and collected a pay check. Nice work.

The Beelzebub of Torn ACLs isn’t even waiting anymore for one of the receivers to enter the game. He’s taking them down in warm ups. Quarterback and receiver stand-in Seneca Wallace didn’t even break a sweat before the 49ers game Sunday when he pulled a calf muscle.

Seriously, there are no options left, but here’s the list of the soon to be injured that we’ll run out against the St. Louis Rams on Sunday: Billy McMullen, Courtney Taylor, Michael Bumpus and Keary Colbert. May the force be with you. Or something.

The good news is the Rams are coming to town. They are last in the league in offense and defense and roll in here 0-2. The bad news is they have so far played a Super Bowl caliber team in the Eagles and the reigning Super Bowl champs in the N.Y. Giants. So, it’s conceivable that the Rams are not as bad as there record indicates.

What did the Hawks do to become 0-2? They lost to Trent Edwards and J.T. O’Sullivan.

Anyway, here’s what I’m going to watch for in the game against the Rams:

Bulger vs. Hawks Secondary
The Rams still have quarterback Marc Bulger. Strictly by stats, he’s got better numbers than Hasselbeck (73.6 rating vs. Hasselbeck’s 48.6) and both QBs are working with injured receivers. Plus, I don’t know what the heck to make of the Seahawks defense. Their performance against the 49ers was shameful. How do you let journeyman J.T. O’Sullivan pile up 321 passing yards and a 100.6 QB rating in your house? How does that happen? The Niners were able to get big plays out of 103-year-old receiver Isaac Bruce (4 catches, 153 yards). What can the Rams’ Torry Holt get, who is 70 years younger?

Hawks passing game
Last week I rightly predicted John Carlson would have a big game. It doesn’t happen often, so let me have my moment. Carlson caught six balls for 78 yards as the leading receiver. McMullen, who wasn’t planning on playing, was second with 3 catches for 48 yards. He didn’t even know what plays were being called. I’m pretty sure he was winging it. The bad news is it revealed to the world that the Seahawks have zero options at wide receiver.

Julius Jones
Jones might be the shining light until receivers Bobby Engram and Deion Branch return from injury. The Rams have allowed an average of 174.5 total yards per game rushing and Jones looks like he’s gotten into a nice rhythm with this Seahawks offensive line. Jones had 26 carries for 127 yards and a touchdown last week against the Niners. Holmgren is going to have to ride Jones and T.J. Duckett again this week – chew up yards and clock and hope for the best.

Fantasy Geek Stuff
Let’s see how smart I am and check in with my fantasy geek picks from last week:

• John Carlson – I done good on this one. He led the team with 6 balls for 78 yards. Points wise, Julius Jones would have probably been the best pick.
• Frank Gore – Done not so good on that one. He tallied 61 yards, 1 TD and 1 fumble. J.T. O’Sullivan would have been the best pick.

This week’s picks

• Marc Bulger – I’d like to say Steven Jackson is going to run laps around Qwest Field, but I think Bulger can be dangerous against a Seahawks secondary that let O’Sullivan complete long throws downfield. He just had to take a sack every once in a while. If Bulger can shake off getting knocked down on every play, he could give the secondary fits.
• Julius Jones – It’s got to be Jones by default, right? I mean, who else can it be? Hasselbeck doesn’t know where any of his receivers are running to or really who they are. And chances are good we’ll lose one or two pass catchers running out of the tunnel.
  

Useless knowledge
The last time these teams met was Nov. 25 in St. Louis with Seattle eked out a win 24-19. Bulger left the game early with a concussion, but backup Gus Frerotte nearly led the team to a win.

With a minute and 27 seconds left in the game, Frerotte fumbled the snap on fourth-and-goal from the Seattle 1 and the Seahawks held on for the win. The Hawks posted 17 unanswered second-half points after falling behind 19-7.

Hasselbeck was 21 of 38 for 249 yards, a TD and an interception. Frerotte was 20 or 32 for 161 yards, a TD and a pick.