My Favorite Play of the Rams Game

Here comes a story that will seem totally unrelated to the title but does actually have a point:

For two years in high school I ran cross country.  After jogging through my first year, I ended up with a serious coach for my second. Example:  In my first year a workout my first year might have been to run six miles.  In my second year the warm-up and cool-down for the workout involved running three miles to the place where we would do the workout and three miles back when we were done.  It was crazy.  And this coach wasn't just about running hard.  He approached training from all angles.  One day, instead of our typical grueling workout he had us jog a couple of miles then had us watch Rudy for inspiration.  How awesome is that?

One of the most memorable things he did as a coach was talk about a race strategy (yes, there's more to cross country than one foot in front of the other) he called 'Will-Kill'.  The theory went like this:  There are certain times during a race (5k in my case) your opponents will be most psychologically-vulnerable to a sudden burst of effort, lasting maybe a minute or so in our 5k races.  By executing these will-kill efforts at the proper times you can drain your opponents of the mental energy it takes to win.

Pseudo-y?  Possibly.  Basically, what's being described is a way of manipulating that ethereal substance known as momentum.  When a runner performs their temporary burst, they want to do it at a time where their opponents think "damn, this guys isn't actually running hard now, is he?" rather than "good, I'm ready to take it up a notch too."

So, flash-back to the game against the Rams: 8:02 left in the first quarter, the Seahawks are up 3-0 and just came up short on a third and five from the Rams' 19.  The Seahawks have a choice: kick the (chip shot) field goal or take a chance on fourth and one.

The Seahawks went for it, got it, and two plays later Bumpus caught his first touchdown pass.  There are so many reasons why I love this call.

• I love Holmgren's aggressive play calling.  Worst-case scenario the Rams offense starts deep in their own territory, going against a jacked up Seattle defense supported by jacked-up Seattle fans.
  
• The Seahawks converted.  If the Seahawks are going to be a good team they have to know they can get a yard whenever they need to.  This is a great step in the right direction.
  
• After stalling in the red-zone on their first possession, coming away with only a field goal, a second defensive stop for the Rams (leading to a second field goal) could have been a momentum shifter.  I know the Rams went three-and-out on their next possession, but what if the Rams offense had taken the field thinking they'd dodged a bullet and knowing they could take the lead with a touchdown?  An inspired team could have driven the length of the field and taken a 7-6 lead, and the game would have been very different from there on.  Instead the Seahawks literally imposed their will through the running game, and figuratively kept their foot on the Rams' neck and didn't let them get up.  Will-kill.