Seattle, WA
Analysis: Rams finally discover their knockout swagger ahead seismic Seattle showdown
CHICAGO — It wasn’t just the Chicago Bears who had a pattern this season.
The Rams had one too.
Whereas Chicago stacked storybook endings, the Rams failed to finish what they started with disturbing regularity.
Five losses. Five fizzles.
Remember the unsatisfying finale to “The Sopranos”? Swelling crescendo … then abrupt cut to black? That was the Rams. Out of gas. Out of answers.
Said defensive star Jared Verse: “All our losses were self-inflicted.”
Two weeks into the playoffs and the Rams have turned a corner. Suddenly, they close out games.
Sure, there were blemishes to their 20-17 overtime victory at Chicago on Sunday night, just as their three-point win at Carolina had its wild-card warts.
The point is, when the Rams needed to land the knockout blow, they delivered.
That’s just where they want to be heading into the NFC championship game at Seattle, where last month they frittered away a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter and wound up losing in overtime.
Seismologists are at the ready. That’s how loud Lumen Field will be. The ground might be shaking in Seattle, but the Rams won’t be.
“We don’t think about that last game too much,” Rams safety Kam Curl said. “[Seattle] got lucky and won it in the end. I feel like we’re the better team.”
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Gary Klein breaks down what went right for the Rams in their 20-17 overtime victory against the Chicago Bears in the NFC divisional playoffs at Soldier Field.
He then conceded, “It’s going to be a dogfight.”
In football vernacular, Curl was a dawg Sunday night, coming up with a huge interception of Caleb Williams in overtime and setting up the winning field-goal drive.
That turned back the almost-supernatural heroics of the Bears, who won games with fourth-quarter comebacks seven times this season, more than any other team. And the touchdown by Williams at the end of regulation, when he dropped back from the 14 to the 40 — the forty! — and somehow found Cole Kmet in the end zone will live in Chicago sports lore.
Yet on a frigid night, in the swirling snow, these Rams told fate to take a hike.
Rams safety Quentin Lake said the down times this season, the frustration of losing those close games, “gave us the experience and confidence” to turn on the afterburners now.
“We know what it takes to not feel that feeling again,” he said. “The only team that’s beaten the Rams is the Rams, just put it like that.”
Among the cold and imposing bodies in Chicago on Sunday: Lake Michigan and Lake, Quentin.
In the fourth quarter, with the Bears two yards from scoring, Lake caught leaping running back D’Andre Swift in the air and planted him into the turf for no gain. It was a key play in a goal-line stand that stole all the oxygen from the crowd.
“I had to channel my inner Carnell Lake on that one,” he said of his father, the legendary UCLA and Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back.
That wasn’t the only channeling the Rams did. They converted a fourth and one in the fourth quarter by handing the ball to receiver Puka Nacua, a play reminiscent of a jet sweep to Cooper Kupp in a similar situation in the Super Bowl.
Rams linebacker Byron Young, left, and defensive tackle Poona Ford (95) tackle Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams during the third quarter of the Rams’ 20-17 overtime win in the NFC divisional playoffs on Sunday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
And their win at Chicago had the feel of their divisional win at Tampa Bay four years ago, when they went on to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. In that 30-27 victory over the Buccaneers, the Rams similarly responded to a gut punch near the end — a Tampa Bay touchdown to tie — then marched 62 yards in the final 42 seconds and won it with a field goal.
Like this season’s Rams, there were all sorts of red flags in the regular season for that team. Those Rams didn’t win a game in November, then got hot.
That path to the Super Bowl is woven into the tapestry of great moments in Los Angeles sports. The Rams beat the Buccaneers, then toppled San Francisco in the conference title game at SoFi Stadium before winning it all against Cincinnati on that same field.
Now, yet another showdown with a division rival for a trip to the Super Bowl.
Speaking of flashbacks, three of the four potential Super Bowl matchups are rematches: Rams-New England, Seattle-New England and Seattle-Denver.
There is a healthy amount of respect between the Rams and Seahawks, and — at least from the Rams in the locker room Sunday night — a feeling that this matchup was fated.
“Something about that moment when we lost that game [in Seattle] that I felt like we’ll be back here again,” defensive lineman Kobie Turner said. “And honestly, I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
So after dumping destiny on its head in Chicago, the Rams are cool with it again. They used to freeze under pressure. Sunday, somehow, they thawed.
Seattle, WA
Need to shred? Free drive-up/ride-up shredding Wednesday at Village Green West Seattle
With the tax deadline just past, you might have old paper documents you’re ready to shred and recycle. Just announced – a chance to do that for free this Wednesday (April 22), 1-4 pm!
Got sensitive documents piling up at home? We’ve got you covered! Join us for a FREE community shredding event with Liberty Shredding at Village Green West Seattle!
Secure, on‑site shredding
FREE (up to 3 boxes per person)
Just drive up and shred with confidence! Hearthside Driveway (building two)
Village Green West Seattle (WSB sponsor) is at 2615 SW Barton.
Seattle, WA
WEST SEATTLE WEATHER: Warm day, but far below record
Thanks to Carrie Brown for the westward view of our Saturday night sunset. The high today hit 68 at the airport – eight degrees above normal – but nowhere near the record for this date, which was 89 degrees back in 2016. The forecast suggests two more days of partly sunny, almost-70-degree weather, before the chance of rain returns.
Seattle, WA
Mets place former Seattle Mariners 2B/DH Jorge Polanco on IL
CHICAGO (AP) — The struggling New York Mets placed former Seattle Mariners second baseman/designated hitter Jorge Polanco on the 10-day injured list on Saturday with a right wrist contusion.
Mariners Injury Update: Latest on Robles, Vargas and more
The move was made retroactive to Wednesday, a day after Polanco went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts in a 2-1 loss at the Los Angeles Dodgers. The 32-year-old Polanco is batting .179 (10 for 56) with a homer and two RBIs in his first season with New York, which has lost nine straight.
“When doctors first took a look at him, it looked like he got hit by a pitch when he didn’t,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “In talking to him, it was just a couple of swings that he took that night. … He didn’t think much of it, but just got worse the following day.
“So you just got to let it calm down a little bit and then we’ll go from there. But we don’t have a timetable for how long this is going to last.”
Polanco, who signed a two-year, $40 million contract with the Mets in December, also has been dealing with an ankle issue.
“He was trending in the right direction,” Mendoza said of the ankle injury. “It’s definitely going to help, obviously now with him being shut down. But the biggest thing now is that we’ve got to take care of that wrist.”
Polanco spent the previous two seasons with the Mariners, who acquired him in a February 2024 trade with the Minnesota Twins.
Polanco struggled during his first season with Seattle in 2024, hitting just .213 with 16 homers in 118 games while playing through a knee injury that didn’t become public knowledge until after the season.
But after the Mariners somewhat surprisingly brought him back for a one-year contract in 2025, Polanco rebounded to hit .265 with 26 homers and an .821 OPS in 138 games last season. He then added three homers during Seattle’s playoff run, along with a 15th-inning walkoff single in Game 5 of the American League Division Series that sent the Mariners to their first ALCS in 24 years.
Seattle Sports staff made additions to this post.
Mariners RHP Bryce Miller to begin rehab assignment
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