Daniel Jeremiah’s key for Seahawks to beat Rams in NFC Championship

The Seattle Seahawks have made a habit out of starting games fast this season.

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Just four NFL teams have averaged more first-half points than Seattle’s 14.8 per game. None have surrendered less than the 7.2 first-half points per game the Seahawks have. And only the New England Patriots’ plus-7.8 first-half point differential average has been better, but it’s also come against a much easier schedule.

The Seahawks produced some lopsided halftime scores along the way: 38-6 against New Orleans in Week 3, 31-7 against Washington in Week 9, 38-7 against Arizona in Week 10 and most recently 24-6 against San Francisco in the divisional round of the playoffs.

Just four teams were able to take a lead into halftime against the Seahawks this season. One was the Los Angeles Rams, who did so in both regular-season meetings.

The Seahawks host the Rams on Sunday in the NFC Championship. Flipping the script in the early part of the game against their division rival is the key to reaching the Super Bowl, according to NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah.

“Just handle the first part of the game. I think the longer this goes, I like the Seahawks in it,” Jeremiah told Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Tuesday. “To me, you gotta avoid somehow (Rams coach Sean) McVay and (quarterback Matthew) Stafford just jumping on you right away. I don’t think that Seattle wants to sit there and have to chase points all day long.”

The Seahawks were hurt by turnovers in their first meeting with the Rams in Week 11, which included a first-quarter Sam Darnold interception that set up a 3-yard Rams TD drive. But Los Angeles was also able to hit some big plays early before Seattle’s defense buckled down. It had a 30-yard run on its opening drive and a 34-yard run and 23-yard pass play on its 74-yard first-quarter TD drive. The Rams were up 14-3 by the end of the first quarter, 14-9 at halftime and eventually held on for a 21-19 win.

In the second meeting in Week 16, the Rams put together three 60-plus-yard scoring drives to grab a 13-7 advantage at the break. They hit on pass plays of 54, 27 and 19 yards across those drives. However, the Seahawks were able to put together a miraculous comeback to win 38-37 in overtime.

In total, the Seahawks have outscored the Rams 41-31 in the second half and overtime this season, but they’ve been outscored 27-16 in the first half.

“I think if they can just kind of handle the game early on, I think they’re the better team, I think they’re the more rounded team and I think they finish it off, but you just gotta avoid what I think is gonna be some big haymakers from the Rams early in this game,” Jeremiah said.

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player in this story. Listen to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

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