In the video of the play you can see how Nacua is able to gain almost fifteen yards after contact despite having half the rival defense hanging on his back.
For this reason, I believe that Stafford's protection is the most important point to monitor here, not so much whether it is good but how many players it is done with. San Francisco managed to keep Purdy relatively clean for most of the match, but on many occasions like the previous one it was useless due to the few passing options available. For this reason, the San Francisco quarterback ended up running behind the pocket for more than 400 yards, something that we obviously will not see the Los Angeles quarterback do.
An aspect that also worries me about the Rams side is Stafford's physical condition. In the wild card round match he hit a finger on his throwing hand and clearly his accuracy has been diminished since then. In his two playoff games, it is true that the second played in adverse weather conditions, he has barely completed 52.4% of his deliveries (44/84). One of their best weapons, wide receiver Davante Adams, has also not seemed to be 100 percent back from his hamstring injury that reduced his regular season by three games, including the famous Thursday night duel between the two leading teams.
Instead, Seattle's defense looks physically better than ever. Obtaining the number one seed was great for all its components to charge their batteries to the maximum. Against San Francisco they looked better than ever, allowing just two field goals and causing three turnovers. On all three lines the Seahawks have players playing great football. They are very good both on the outside and inside the defensive line and as we have already mentioned here when talking about Macdonald, they all communicate very well. In the middle of all the operations is inside linebacker Ernest Jones IV, who was once a third-round draft pick for the Rams and who in a year and a half in his new home has become the glue of the entire unit. “EJ is our captain. It keeps us together. He makes sure we are all in the right place. And, furthermore, he is a guy who gets the ball for us.“These were the words this week from defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence. Indeed, Jones led the team with five interceptions in the regular season and added one more, along with a forced fumble, in the victory over San Francisco. In addition to his work in coverage, his work recognizing the opponent's blocking patterns is extraordinary, which is why Seattle's defense against the run He has improved so much with his presence on the field.
We could continue talking much longer about other key players such as Kyren Williams, Nick Emmanwori, Kevin Dotson or Byron Murphy. The fact is that we have a classic duel of the best attack against the best defense that we are going to enjoy a lot and that who knows, the next NFL champion may decide. As we always say around here, don't miss it.
