SEATTLE — For more than a month, Russell Wilson ran the Seattle Seahawks with a precision that put his name back in the MVP discussion.
That run crashed on Sunday, along with Seattle’s five-game winning streak, when the problems that led to the Seahawks’ sluggish start to the season re-emerged in a 23-17 loss to the St. Louis Rams.
“Hopefully this isn’t a sign of anything other than we’ve got to put it behind us and get moving forward,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said. “We rarely look like this so we’ll see if we can get it all squared away and fixed.”
Seattle (9-6) is already in the postseason, but must hope that Sunday was a product of St. Louis and its history of causing the Seahawks problems.
St. Louis flustered Wilson and stymied an offense that for the previous five weeks couldn’t be stopped. Seattle did not lead for the first time with Wilson under center since he became the starter in Week 1 of the 2012 season. The Seahawks’ streak of 100 yards rushing as a team ended at 25 games, and Seattle lost at home for the third time this season.
Wilson was sacked four times and the Rams were credited with 13 quarterback hits. He committed two turnovers, including his first interception in five games, a span of 168 passes, in the first half. As Seattle was trying to rally, Wilson fumbled inside the St. Louis 10 late in the fourth quarter.
Wilson was 25 of 41 for 289 yards and two touchdowns, including an 18-yard TD to Jermaine Kearse with 17 seconds left. But St. Louis recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.
“He got hit pretty good today and it’s not very often we see that,” Carroll said.
Most of Seattle’s offensive problems stemmed from an inability to protect Wilson, an absent run game and three turnovers, including Will Tukuafu’s fumble that was returned 45 yards for a touchdown by Akeem Ayers in the first quarter. Seattle finished with only 60 yards rushing and Wilson was its leading rusher with 39 yards on six carries.
Seattle was poised to make a second-half rally, especially after Doug Baldwin’s 25-yard TD catch on the opening drive of the half. The touchdown came after Seattle converted third-and-31 thanks to a 28-yard pass to Baldwin and a 13-yard strike to Cooper Helfet on fourth-and-3.
Baldwin finished with eight catches for 118 yards and set a franchise record with his 14th touchdown reception of the season.
“There’s a lot of things we need to correct and we’ll get those corrected,” Baldwin said.
St. Louis swept the season series from the Seahawks, having won 34-31 in overtime in Week 1, and the Rams received a pair of fortunate bounces to help extend its lead on Todd Gurley’s 2-yard TD run with 10:34 left.
Benny Cunningham fumbled on a third-and-1 at the Seattle 40, and it appeared Seattle’s Earl Thomas had fallen on the loose ball. But officials ruled St. Louis center Tim Barnes had made the recovery and was down by contact before the ball ended up back in Seattle’s possession under the pile.
Two plays later, Gurley darted 20 yards inside the Seattle 10 but as he hurdled Thomas was hit and fumbled. Again the scramble for the ball ended up in the arms of Barnes chasing the play downfield and three plays later Gurley was in the end zone and St. Louis had a 13-point lead.
Gurley rushed for 85 yards on 19 carries. Case Keenum won his third straight start for the Rams, completing 14 of 23 passes for 103 yards and a 28-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Britt in the second quarter, beating Richard Sherman for a 16-0 lead.
“I don’t know if it deflated them at all, but we put the pressure on them pretty quick, which I think was big,” Keenum said.
The loss left Seattle in flux heading into Week 17 at Arizona with its playoff seeding still to be determined. That’s secondary to trying to make sure what happened against the Rams isn’t repeated.
“You always want to find out if you have problems or not and this is a good situation to look at yourself and really take ownership of it,” Thomas said.
NOTES: Wilson’s last interception came in the third quarter of Seattle’s loss to Arizona on Nov. 15 when he was picked off by Tyrann Mathieu. … St. Louis DE Ethan Westbrooks, DT Nick Fairly and S Mark Barron all left the game with concussions. CB Trumaine Johnson was checked for a concussion and allowed to return. …Baldwin has 11 TDs in the past five games, becoming only the fourth different player in league history to have at least 11 TD catches in a five-game span.
