Following a tough loss to the Panthers, the Rams looked to rebound at home. This is much harder than it sounds when you take a few things into account. First, their opponent was one of the best teams on the NFL, the six and one Seattle Seahawks. Also, the Rams were dealing without their franchise quarterback, Sam Bradford. Not to mention the stage was one of the biggest football has to offer, Monday Night Football.

The fact that the Rams stayed in the game was impressive. While I, as well as many other people, were expecting nothing short of a blowout in favor of the Seahawks, the Rams exceeded expectations losing by a slim margin of 14-9. This was only possible thanks to a few stellar performances.

One of those was running back Zac Stacy. Without Bradford at the helm, the running game needed to pick things up in a hurry. One of the worst running games in the league wouldn’t be acceptable anymore. Stacy answered the bell with a 134 yard breakout performance on 26 carries. It would have been nice for him to get in the end zone, which would have possibly been enough to win the game, but I cannot blame him.

Thanks to backup quarterback Kellen Clemen’s two interceptions in the first half, two Rams drives were halted. I have heard plenty of conversation about Bradford not being very good. However, if you ask me, some of those opinions might change in a hurry once we see how we do with Clemens instead. His poor play really hurt the team on Monday and I for one am worried.

Hats off to the defense however. With the Seahawks getting the ball plenty thanks to the Rams stagnant offense, the defense needed to step up. Much like Stacy, they did. This time however, the player that stepped up didn’t have a breakout performance, but instead continued a breakout season. Robert Quinn’s 10 sacks this season, including Monday night, are enough to put him fourth in the league this season. Even with the attention that stats like that bring, Quinn still got to the Seattle’s quarterback Russell Wilson three times. When you add that total to Chris Long’s three sacks and William Hayes single sack, the Rams Defense looked downright dominating.

Greg Zuerlein was as impressive as he always in for about three and a half quarters. However, with the score at 14-9 with 8:30 left in the game, he missed a crucial field goal that would have made the Rams last drive much easier.

Down by five with five minutes remaining, the Rams drove from their own three to the Seahawks six. This put them in a perfect position to score the game winning touchdown with under a minute left. Somehow, they managed to squander this perfect opportunity. The choice to throw the ball three times in five plays including the last play from the one just baffles me. Stacy was out with a injury at that point but the odds of getting the ball in the end zone with our running game was much greater than putting the ball in our mediocre backup quarterback’s hands.

Despite all the positives I could have taken from the game, I still left discontented. Not that the Rams were a clear playoff team with Bradford, but without him the road ahead looks very rough. I’m not saying that the performances of Stacy and the Quinn led defense were flukes, but it is pretty safe to say that inconsistency has been the story of the Rams season thus far and they don’t have much room for that anymore.

Going up against The Tennessee Titans next week, the task should be just as difficult with Tennessee being a top ten defense. There is a chance that the Rams can get things on track if they play with some regularity but I don’t see a lot of positives for the rest of this season.